Youngstown Hard Chrome Plating and Grinding, Inc.

Youngstown Hard Chrome can provide chrome plating and polishing services on exceptionally large industrial parts by employing innovative solutions that have been accrued by our team for the past 50 years. We’re able to reconfigure our tooling, add additional equipment, and develop new ways to approach unique projects.

Problem:
A steel mill customer in Pennsylvania hired us to provide chrome plating and polishing services on a long bell rod with overall part dimensions of 8” O.D. x 543” in length. We had to engineer a production strategy that not only involved accommodating the part size but also involved it’s transportation between production phases. Our customer required a tight deadline to get the job done in order to prevent a potential production outage at their facility.

Solution:
The magnitude of the bell rod’s size and length required additional equipment to be installed in our facility. This included two 15 ton hoists for lifting, eight new rectifiers for the chrome plating process, and two 35’ tanks for the final polishing operation. Leveraging our deep experience in surface engineering, we carefully chrome plated the bell rod using a controlled process; employing verification checks along the way. We plated an oversized workpiece with hardness, toughness, low friction, and corrosion resistant characteristics that exceeded our customer’s specifications. The bell rod was then hoisted and maneuvered to our oversized tanks. Our state-of-the-art polishing process was able to smooth the workpiece to tolerances as tight as +.002”. We also ensured that the coverage was consistent over the bell rod’s entire surface geometry. We employed an intensive quality control process using visual inspections, micrometers, thickness testing, profilometer analysis, and dye penetrant.

Results:
This project involved extensive coordination between our polisher, grinder, inspection personnel, and engineer. Thanks to our experience in surface finishing for oversized industrial parts, we were able to complete the job 2 ½ weeks ahead of the scheduled delivery. The customer was extremely pleased with the quality of our services, and we continue to work with them on additional projects.

To learn more about the benefits of our chrome plating and polishing services for the steel industry, please contact us today for a quotation.