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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Do Electroplating tanks need grounding (or) earth?
Q. Dear All
Kindly help me: do Electroplating tanks needs grounding (or) earth?
If needed, what is the system to design it?
Regards
Vinith Gandhi
- India
April 3, 2012
A. Hi Vinith
To the contrary, plating tanks are ideally ungrounded as that minimizes the possibility of troublesome stray currents. It is customary to lay PVC (Koroseal) strips on the support base before setting the tanks, to use dielectric unions on heating and cooling coils, and to insulate both the cathode and the anode from the tank.
All of these steps are not always essential, and I believe that few shops routinely check for isolation from ground, but no, do not ground the tanks. However, if you use electric heaters, make triple sure that they are properly grounded.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 4, 2012
Q. I am interested in finding a test method or procedure to check electrical grounding of process tanks. I would like to give our electrical contractors a procedure to follow to assess and document the grounding of our pretreatment tanks as well as proper electrical isolation of our plating and anodizing tanks.
Is anyone aware of a standardized methodology to do this? Or, are there suggestions as to how to measure for adequate grounding.
Process engineer - Portland, Oregon, USA
September 25, 2012
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