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CASE STUDY

Plating Lines Using ROTOCON Rotary Electrical Ground Clamp Increase Output

High Current Rotary Ground

An American-based international corporation relied on the engineering strengths and high-performance ROTOCON rotary electrical ground clamp of Meridian Laboratory for their high-current rotary plating line.  By partnering with Meridian Laboratory they were able to plate at new levels, oftentimes with 100% duty cycles for many days straight.  Since initial install they have added two more lines to expand their output, performance, and consistency.

Challenge

An American-based international corporation relied on the engineering strengths and high-performance ROTOCON rotary electrical ground clamp of Meridian Laboratory for their high-current rotary plating line.  By partnering with Meridian Laboratory they were able to plate at new levels, oftentimes with 100% duty cycles for many days straight.  Since initial install they have added two more lines to expand their output, performance, and consistency.

Conventional plating relies on low voltage, high-current DC power to chemically coat metals with a thin layer of another, such as gold or silver.  An improvement over conventional electroplating is to rotate the work pieces while in process to more consistently cover the pieces.  Meridian Laboratory has had a long history of supplying standard single contact, rotary electrical ground clamps for rotational plating applications up to 3,000A.  An end user of electroplating equipment was in the process of developing a new production line with potential amperages up to 6,000A continuous.

Solution

From over 20 years of using Meridian Laboratory on other plating and welding lines, the user knew to trust the performance and longevity of their ROTOCON rotary electrical ground clamp.  Faced with this new challenge of 6,000A draw they worked with Meridian Laboratory’s engineers to design a new custom rotary electrical ground that met the current draw demands, and vigorous environmental temperatures faced during the plating process.  Meridian Laboratory was able to design and integrate a special water-cooling jacket to ensure maximum longevity of the rotary electrical ground.  To further ensure and monitor the continuous proper operation of the rotary ground, a closed loop thermal monitoring system was integrated to ensure line shut off, in the event the rotary ground was approaching over temperature.  Meridian Laboratory was able to assist in all forms of the project, starting from initial design to installation and usage.  The result was three new plating lines capable of 6,000A draw and greatly increased the output and quality of their plating operations.

“Our plating process has never been as consistent and accurate since we’ve converted to ROTOCON rotary grounds…we can’t believe how long we operated prior to using them.” – Satisfied Customer

Key Statistics

  • Rotary plating slip ring rated to 6,000A continuous
  • Included water-cooling and closed loop temperature monitoring system to ensure long life and safety stops
  • Extremely low contact resistance did not change over time, rotation, or duty cycle

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Google Rating

5.0 39 reviews

  • Avatar Alex Charters ★★★★★ 2 months ago
    I contacted Meridian Laboratory to obtain a slip ring for my Undergraduate Senior Capstone project. The project required … More a slip ring capable of highspeed data transfer with very little noise to drive an LED bar on a fan to generate images. Sven Krause was very knowledgeable and responsive and helped me figure out what product I needed. He even managed to get the slip ring donated to our team and had great advice on how to integrate it into our project. The project was a huge success thanks to Meridian Laboratory.
  • Avatar Max Thorne ★★★★★ 6 months ago
    I had a great experience working with Vance Nelson on a batch of custom polyurethane wheels. He provided fantastic design … More and material property advice related to my application and was able to deliver high quality wheels in a fast time frame at a reasonable price. I'd highly recommend working with Vance and Meridian Lab in the future
  • Avatar Andrew Diles ★★★★★ 9 months ago
    I've had the pleasure of working with Meridian Laboratory for the past couple of years, and they have revolutionized … More our product with the parts they created for us. Not only did they create the part, they also gave us advice on which type of material to use, and the combination of those two things has helped us be more efficient and productive.
    Vance has been helpful at every turn, and I look forward to working with him and the team at Meridian Laboratory more in the future. They do superb work.

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