What is the difference in the plating process of ABS plastic?

Plastic plating overview:

Plastic electroplated articles have the characteristics of both plastic and metal. It has a small specific gravity, good corrosion resistance, easy molding, metallic luster and metallic texture, as well as electrical conductivity, magnetic permeability and welding. It can save complicated mechanical processing, save metal materials, and is beautiful and decorative. At the same time, it also improves the mechanical strength of plastics. Since the metal plating layer has high stability to external factors such as light and atmosphere, the plastic plating metal can prevent the plastic from aging and prolong the service life of the plastic parts. With the rapid development of industry and the increasing application of plastic plating, it has become one of the important means of surface decoration in plastic products. At present, it has been widely plated on ABS, polypropylene, polysulfone, polycarbonate, nylon, phenolic glass fiber reinforced plastic, polystyrene and other plastic surfaces. Among them, ABS plastic plating is the most widely used and the plating effect is best. .

ABS plating principle:

Since ABS plastic is not electrically conductive, it is impossible to directly plate metal/alloy on its surface. Therefore, electroless plating is required before plating. After the process of roughening, sensitizing, reducing, degumming and accelerating, ABS plastic will form a precious metal film on the surface of the product. This noble metal film can act as an active catalyst, also called a catalytic film; it can accelerate the reduction reaction of electroless plating. Practice has proved that precious metals such as silver and palladium have such catalytic ability, which makes the electroless plating process smoother.