Fishing for Parts

Q. We operate an automated plating line and have a fair number of parts falling into the tanks. Because our tanks now contain various “bits and pieces” of heat exchangers, pumps and plumbing, retrieving these parts can be difficult. Poor visibility in the tanks is also a problem. Do you have any suggestions as to what we might do? –G.D.

A. The best solution to your problem is to use netting to retrieve “drops” like the parts you describe. I first saw this approach to solving the problem many years ago at a facility that plated hardware for furniture. Many of the pieces were small, such as hinges and drawer pulls. The netting was placed in the tanks in such a way that the heat exchangers and other components inside the tanks were covered by the netting. At the end of a shift, the netting was carefully lifted and the parts collected in the netting were put either back into the plating line or scrapped, depending on their condition. This particular facility was quite religious about doing this on a daily basis.

I don't have a good handle on what the best netting material would be. You will have to experiment to determine what holds up best in your various plating and rinsing tanks. In addition, you should drain your tanks on a regular basis to remove any parts that managed to slip through the netting.

Related Content

NASF/AESF Foundation Research Project #121: Development of a Sustainability Metrics System and a Technical Solution Method for Sustainable Metal Finishing - 15th Quarterly Report

This NASF-AESF Foundation research project report covers the twelfth quarter of project work (October-December 2023) at Wayne State University in Detroit. In this period, our main effort focused on the development of a set of Digital Twins (DTs) using the Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) technology with application on parts rinsing simulation.
NASF/AESF Foundation Research Project #122: Electrochemical Approaches to Treatment of PFAS in Plating Wastewater - 12th Quarterly Report

This NASF-AESF Foundation research project report covers the 12th quarter of project work (October – December 2023) at the University of Georgia. In our previous report, we described our work on performance and effect of surface fluorinated Ti4O7 anodes on PFAS degradation in reactive electrochemical membrane (REM) mode. This quarter, our experiments involved utilizing porous Ti4O7 plates serving both as anodes and membranes. Tests compared pristine and F-18.6 Ti4O7 anodes at current densities of 10 mA/cm2 and 40 mA/cm2. This 12th quarterly report discusses the mechanisms of the effects on EO performance by anode surface fluorination.
Novel Wastewater Treatment Targets Micropollutants

Swiss wastewater treatment technology provider Oxyle specializes in advanced wastewater treatment for removal of highly persistent micropollutants such as PFAS.