Dry ice blasting as a pre-treatment process for electroplating

In this paper the technological fundamentals of dry ice blasting as a pre-treatment process for the electroplating of plastics are presented. The advantages compared to conventional pretreatment are discussed. In a series of experiments the influence of the setting parameters of the surface area roughness and surface tension of the workpiece was investigated. Furthermore, the surface parameters, which influence the adhesion strength of the electro-coating process, were identified. Finally, a model to describe the correlation between the dry ice blasting setting parameters and the surface parameters was developed.