News Release

Hard Chrome provides 30 year protection for Bridgeport

January 2002

 
For over thirty years Poeton Industries has been applying a surface coating to reduce wear and lubrication on the Bridgeport Series I Standard Turret , Series I Interact and Series II Interact 4 milling machines - all-purpose mills used for milling, drilling and boring in metalworking shops throughout the world.

Poeton supplies a hard chrome coating for the main faces and 'v' faces of the mill's knees and saddles and for the sliding surfaces of the 3.375" diameter, Series l Standard foot-long quill. Since 1970, Poeton has plated many thousands of the mills, applying a 20-30 micron precision coating to the knees and saddles, and a heavy deposit of chrome to the quills. After plating the knees and saddles require no post machining.

A spokesman for Bridgeport Machines says that not only does the hard chrome coating improve lubrication and reduce friction, it also significantly reduces wear on the slideways. The use of Apticote 100 precision hard chrome on cast iron has eliminated the need for costly, hardened steel slideways so common on other mills. The precision chrome technique was fundamental to Bridgeport's proven design concept, which made the Series 1 such a worldwide success. To date over one third of a million Series 1 Standard machines have been manufactured worldwide.

The parts coated at Poeton with between 20 and 30 microns of precision hard chrome are built straight onto the milling machines without any post plate machining - true precision plating!

The plating's excellent wear properties are confirmed by Ken Smith, general manager of Bridlington Remanufacturing Services one of the UK's largest rebuilders of Bridgeport machines and the only one approved by Bridgeport themselves.

"We rebuild machines up to 20 years old and there is a noticeable difference between the plated and unplated Series I Standard machines that come into the workshops." He says, adding that the hard chrome certainly prolongs the life of the slideways and quills.

Recent Tests initiated by Poeton show that the plated machines being rebuilt after 12 to 20 years' operation still have an average 18 microns of precision hard chrome remaining.

To discuss hard chrome plating, sample part processing or technical advice call Poeton Industries now on 01452 300500.

Photo caption: Machine Bed No 1001, Interact 4, Series II saddle (See P1 Photo) was plated 12 years ago with 26 microns of Apticote 100 hard chrome. When examined earlier this year it showed an area worn down to 18 microns.

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