Suggestions on Shutting Down Plating Lines for the Short-Term

With more factories redirecting their production capacity to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, you may find yourself needing to idle one or more of your plating lines for a few days or weeks. While shutting down a plating line is rarely desirable, today’s business environment may demand it.

On behalf of the Asterion Team, here are some suggestions on shutting down your lines for the short-term. Each suggestion should be further customized to best suit you plating operation and business requirements.

  1. Keep heated plating baths at minimum temperatures
  2. Top off cleaner tanks and shut off heat sources
  3. Reduce air handling equipment to a minimum
  4. Cover tanks to prevent contamination
  5. Close main water supplies
  6. If possible clean and empty filters and plumbing lines.
  7. Consider cycling return type automatics for 15-30 minutes every 2-3 days

Virtually eliminating downtime on a plating line is always a primary goal for all finishers. However, given the pandemic, accepting some span of downtime is the reality for some. But downtime today provides an important opportunity to optimize your plating lines for when business conditions rebound.. Take the opportunity to perform:

  • Tank and solution maintenance
  • Preventative maintenance, including replacement of worn parts on plating and auxiliary equipment
  • Before starting back up, get the baths heated and filtered. If possible , complete analysis of all process tanks.

As always, Asterion technical service stands ready to address any questions to optimize your plating lines. Contact us today.