Effect of Barrel Design on Dragout Rate

New barrels for electroplating have been developed and manufacturers of some of these newer designs have claimed significant improvements in drag-out losses by their new barrels. Since water consumption and waste generation are directly tied to dragout rate from processing solutions, it is clear that there is a need to produce a method of evaluating such barrels, so that the user minimizes pollution. This study, funded by The Illinois Waste Management Research Center (WMRC) produced a benchmark test to compare drag-out rates of plating barrels. The study used this test to compare two size ranges of plating barrels, small and large. For small barrels (6" x 12"), testing showed that a reduction in dragout rate, as high as 48%, may be achieved. For large barrels (16" x 36"), testing showed that a reduction as high as 44% may be obtained. A survey was conducted to determine the relative durability of the barrels under study. The survey indicated that some of the barrels that produce lower levels of dragout (those using fine mesh) may unfortunately provide less service life, but other low dragout rate barrels offered service life that is similar to traditional barrels.