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Stripping copper and stainless steel from plastic parts

Hello,

We are a vacuum metallizing ("sputtering") company that speciallizes in EMI shielding and decorative finishes on plastics. We use mostly copper, stainless steel and aluminum.are in need of a method or equipment to strip off the thin metal layers (less than 2 micrometers thick)off the scrap plastic parts so that they can be metallized again.
We have tried hydrochloric acid and it works, however, when the parts cleaned with hydrochloric acid are metallized again, the parts fail the adhesion test.

Does anyone know of a better method?
We would also like to purchase a small tank for stripping the metal off the tooling (mostly metal masks). Hydrochloric acid works great and we'd like to keep using it but we need an enclosed tank with exhaust for the fumes.

Thank you in advance.

Jorge Orozco
- Fort Worth, Texas
2005

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Try ferric chloride ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] solution say 20-30 oBe

Geoffrey Whitelaw
- Port Melbourne, Australia
2005

You may or may not encounter adhesion problems if you use ferric chloride, but it will surely stain your plastic parts. Give it a try if stains are no problem. Besides, you did not say what type of plastics you process. Some are more resistant than others.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico
2005

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Why not to try etching after stripping.
good luck

Khair Shishani
aircraft maintenance - Al Ain, UAE
2005