There is a growing need in the industry for more sustainable, regulatory-compliant plating technologies. Over the past years, OCAS has been supporting industrial partners in their quest for suitable alternatives for conventional plating processes. OCAS focuses on the development of alternative technologies for these processes and their up-scaling from lab scale to semi-industrial level (up to volumes of about 1000 litres). With its broad range of competences and advanced R&D infrastructure OCAS is not only capable to investigate the process engineering level, but also the more scientific level if needed.
The flexible design of the plating pilot allows for different geometries: flat sheets, foil, bolts, wires and cylindrical samples. Diameters up to 400 mm are possible for lengths beetween 250 and 1000 mm.
Because of their major benefits, OCAS has built expertise in the field of electrodeposition of metallic coatings from ionic liquids as well as from aqueous solutions. Although a lot of electrodeposition research with ionic liquids is already performed on lab scale, almost none of them have reached an industrial stage yet. With its in-house pilot installation, OCAS is capable of exploring the high added value provided by deposition from ionic liquids or aqueous electrolyte, on semi-industrial scale in highly flexible manner for a wide variety of industrial sectors.