Interesting facts about the Tin Plating Process

 

We’ve all heard about silver and gold plated cutlery and jewellery, but how many people are aware of Tin Plating and its uses in industry? Tinning, or Tin Plating offers many advantages to numerous components and products manufactured from metal and other materials, through a process which coats the surface of the metal with a substrate. Saras Process creates this Tin plating process technique through electroplating using an electric current with specialist equipment.

The primary users of Tin Plating include the following industries: food equipment, solar energy, hardware, mechatronics, avionics, marine hardware and many applications in the construction of buildings. The main use for tin offered by Saras is to prevent gaulling to allow easier dismantling of parts and to prevent fretting corrosion due to vibration and traction of various types of machines.  Also tin is widely used for electrical conductivity of electrical bus bars and contacts. 

Key Facts about Tin

  • It is a soft, flexible, silver-white metal
  • The extraction of Tin dates back to the Bronze Age, circa 3000 B.C.
  • Early bronze objects from this era contained a small element of tin
  • Tin is not found in its natural state but requires extraction from ores, the most common being Cassisterite
  • Tin is known as the 49th most plentiful element in the Earth’s coating
  • Many ferrous metals are capable of being Tin Plated

 

Benefits of using Tin to electroplate metals

In addition to being a particularly cost-effective process, there are certainly other advantages to using Tin in the electroplating process. Being readily available, Tin is considerably cheaper to use than more expensive metals such as palladium, platinum or gold. It also offers exceptional defence against corrosion and offers outstanding solder applications. Tin is also generally considered to be non-carcinogenic and non-toxic and as a result of this, it is permitted for use with food contact uses. Tin plating results in either a matte, dull finish or bright tin plating to produce a more aesthetically pleasing shine.

Learn more about the benefits of onsite Tin Plating and the Electroplating Tin process from Saras Process.  Contact us for further information, or for a no obligation quotation.