Effects of electroplating on the mechanical properties of injection molded thermoplastics

Injection molding (IM) is the most generally used manufacturing process for the fabrication of plastic parts. A wide variety of products are manufactured using injection molding, which vary greatly in their size, intricacy, and application. One of the main limitations of Injection molded parts is the limited strength characteristic of Injection molded materials which in turn limits their scope of application in many areas of engineering. This paper focuses on enhancing the scope of application of IM parts through deposition of thin metallic foils. The ABS and Nylon6 are the materials on which plating is carried out. Through electroless and electrolytic deposition of copper, nickel and chromium layers over the ABS and Nylon6 samples, improvements with respect to strength are evaluated through experimental means. The process of deposition of thin metal foils on ABS substrates involves many steps such as surface activation, etching, catalyzing, electroless deposition, electro plating and surface cleaning, whereas, the electroless procedure is avoided on Nylon6 substrates. Characterization tests such as tensile and compression are conducted on samples in both un-coated and coated conditions.