Plating Automation Turns Controls Up a Notch

When a business witnesses growth in certain industry segments that it services, it behooves the company to respond quickly and to the best of its ability to satisfy customer needs. Varland Plating, a family-owned barrel plating job shop based in Cincinnati, Ohio, has made it its mission to do that and more: the business goes above and beyond for its customers. It recently expanded its offerings to react to an increase in demand for its electroless nickel plating services — its automotive customers were experiencing an immediate increased demand for EN, and the company’s management predicted near-term demand from its firearms and electrical customers as well. With only one manual EN line, it was time to add another line. 

As of late 2023, the company has been running production work on the new line from Corrotec Inc. (Springfield, Ohio), which runs mid-phosphorous EN and electrolytic flash for activating plating on copper and brass. The line was also designed for the ability to add aluminum and boron nitride over EN in the future, if the need presents itself.

“With the addition of our new EN line and our existing automated electrolytic line, Varland has significantly boosted our overall nickel capacity and efficiency to better meet our customers needs,” says Andrea Varland Wilson, marketing manager/administrative specialist and a third-generation employee.

Although the new equipment is already bearing fruit for the business, the line is still in the process of being tweaked and adjusted to meet Varland’s specifications.

A focus on continuous improvement

Since its opening in 1946, Varland Plating has been committed to continuous improvement and exceeding customer needs, according to President Brian Mangold. The 2023 Products Finishing Top Shop has six plating lines, four of which are automated. Besides EN plating, it also offers zinc, zinc-nickel, tin-zinc, bright and matte tin, nickel, copper, brass and cadmium plating. Its two manual lines are used for small-volume applications in addition to R&D testing of new processes for possible expansion. 

Varland also provides antiquing, baking, bead blasting and oil dipping services.

As a job shop, the company plates thousands of different parts, with sizes ranging from less than an inch to as long as 12 inches, for hundreds of customers across many industries.

Varland, which has several second-, third- and fourth-generation employees, has developed value-added services over time, including detailed quotations, plating thickness testing, salt spray corrosion testing, hardness testing, Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) documentation and others.

Digging deep into automation

When determining specifications for the new EN line, there was no question the system would involve automation. Automated systems are recognized as being more efficient, accurate, repeatable and lower cost than manual lines. Although the automated line meant a higher expense on the front end and a more complicated installation, Varland was committed to investing in an adaptable line that could handle a multitude of controls.

Even before customer parts make it to a plating line, automation at the shop begins when an order is received. These orders are immediately entered into a proprietary production control system and assigned an order number. The order number tracks the part throughout the entire process and includes a detailed plating procedure/recipe. This custom recipe is then downloaded to a programmable logic controller (PLC) that controls and monitors every aspect of the automated line.

The PLC in the new EN line automates functionality which controls barrel movement, bath level control, drainage, chemistry feed systems, variable frequency drives (VFDs) for exhaust, and controls for heat and circulation pumps. Here is a brief description of what the automation entails:

• Flextime wet process line control from GPR: Controls barrel movement through a built-in recipe. This regulates order of operations along with time in stations, the current/voltage on rectified stations and barrel rpm in each station.
• Level control: The soak cleaner, electrolytic nickel and EN plating baths have auto level control. This saves labor and helps keep the plating baths at the right chemical concentrations.
• Recipes that control barrel drainage when moving from one station to the next: The drain time can be adjusted as well as how the barrel turns, the speed at which it turns, how long it turns and how long it drains after turning stops to reduce chemical loss and drag out.
• Specially designed single-station rinse tanks: These function like normal two-station rinses but in half the footprint. These rinses reduce the number of rinse tanks required, while also maximizing rinsing effectiveness and minimizing the amount of water used.
• Automatic feed systems for liquid nickel sulfate, the hypophosphite component and ammonia (if using a non-pH regulating chemistry): The chemical additions are accurate to within 25 cc.
• VFDs: As with all the company’s other lines, the exhaust systems use VFDs that enable the slowdown of exhaust and consume less energy when tanks are cool and not being used. Not only does this reduce the electrical usage of the exhaust but it also translates into less cold being pulled into the plant in the winter which would then need to be heated.
• Scheduling system: The line has a scheduling system for startup that controls heat and circulation pumps. The circulation pumps start and stop when heat is turned on/off, which also helps reduce energy consumption.

Installation process and challenges

Like anything worth implementing, installing the automated line was challenging and time consuming. Installation began during the COVID-19 pandemic and was completed two years later. Varland partnered with  Plating Specialists (Fort Thomas, Ky.), a supplier of plating lines, to create a design requirement. Corrotec handled the engineering and installation of the line.

“We have been doing business with (Plating Specialists President) Bob Greene for a very long time,” Mangold says. “He has been an amazing business partner over the years, and the value in having his experience can’t be overstated.”

Greene recommended the Corrotec line because he had worked with that company on many installations and was confident the plating system provider had the appropriate staff on hand to complete the installation.

Mangold explains that the Varland team was set on customizing the system as much as possible. Therefore, with all the adaptations made, he explains it is still too early in the life of the plating line to finalize the system. He believes it will take years to settle on all the right equipment and accessories.

“We’re still reengineering some replacement aspects of the lower control system that was installed that didn’t work right,” Mangold says. “We’re in the process of updating that to something else.”

The team is particular about the controls on the automatic EN line and prefers the ability to tweak them, which made installation even more challenging than a system that did not demand such customization.

“Everything does not run on the same cycle through our automatics,” Mangold says. “For example, at one time we had 64 different cleaning cycles for different amounts of time, acids and cleaners. The parts we run have different cleaner voltages, amperage and rinse cycles.”

Integrating new software for the line was another challenge. Varland was accustomed to designing everything internally via Opto 22. But when the new line came in, the IT department was forced to learn how to implement the new programming software. Ultimately, after working with Allen Bradley ladder logic, the company realized the advantages it offered and decided to migrate to a similar architecture called CODESYS in future system upgrades.

Now that months have gone by since integrating the new line, the biggest challenge for management is training EN operators across all shifts to keep the line up and running as long as possible for efficiency.

Joel Perrine, V.P. of operations at Varland, who was heavily involved in designing the new EN line, says its EN line operators are highly trained and skilled at what they do. “We start them out on learning how to run the manual barrel line, which gives them a good basis for understanding the plating process. Then, they graduate to training on the automatic EN line for quite some time, where they learn the ins and outs of the software and controls.”

Benefits realized

Varland has experienced a 33% improvement in its EN plating process since implementing the automated line. Besides enjoying the expected advantages that come with automation, such as higher repeatability and accuracy as well as the need for less manpower, the plater also has the newfound ability to increase its load sizes of larger parts, according to Perrine.

Because of the tightly programmed system that controls the process down to the minute without operator intervention, the automatic system saves the company time and material cost, he says.

Mangold adds, “We can have really long programmed barrel drain times on our automatics to reduce solution dragout and costs. Whereas handline operators feel pressure to get work through, and the demands on them are higher because they have different things to focus on.”

Preparing for the future

Varland has received multiple requests for silver plating from existing customers. Therefore, the shop is in the process of setting up a small prototype line that it hopes to have up and running later this year or early 2025.