Aluminum food cans are galvanized.
Anyone who has bought cheap jewelry with a thin layer of precious metal has seen the end result of electroplating. It is an electrochemical reaction used to place a thin metallic layer on an object. In addition to jewelry making, this process has important uses in the automotive industry for chrome plating and in the electronics industry for optics and sensors.
Many car parts, including rims, are galvanized.
The electroplating process (also known as electroplating) is quite simple. To begin with, a negative charge is placed on the object to be coated. The object is then immersed in a salt solution of the metal that will be used to plate the object. From there, it’s simply a matter of attraction; the metal ions in the salt are positively charged and are attracted to the negatively charged object. Once connected, the positively charged ions return to their metallic form, resulting in a new electrodeposited object.
Electroplating can be used to create inexpensive jewelry.
Control of coating thickness is usually achieved by altering the time the object spends in the salt solution. The longer it sits in the vat, the thicker the shell becomes. Of course, there must also be an adequate amount of metal ions in the bath to continue coating the object. The shape of the object will also affect the thickness, with sharp corners being thicker than recessed areas. This is due to the electrical current in the bathroom and how it flows thicker in the corners.
Electroplating uses positive and negative electrical charges.
Before an object is galvanized, all stains and scratches must be thoroughly cleaned and polished. As mentioned, recessed areas will be less flattened than sharp corners, so a scratch will become more prominent instead of being smoothed out by the siding material.
The process was developed in the early 20th century and continues to evolve today. Many common items, like cans, are actually galvanized steel with a protective coating of tin. Medical science has also experimented with the technique of creating synthetic gaskets with chrome coatings, and new advances in electronics have been made with electroplated materials.