PROCESSES FOR TIN-PLATING

In these days of making everything look what it is not, perhaps the best and cheapest substitute for silver as a white coating for table ware, culinary vessels, and the many articles requiring such a coating, is pure tin. It does not compare favourably with silver in point of hardness or wearing qualities, but it costs very much less than silver, is readily applied, and can be easily kept clean and bright. In tinning hollow ware on the inside the metal article is first thoroughly cleansed by pickling it in dilute muriatic or sulphuric acid and then scouring it with fine sand. It is then heated over a fire to about the melting-point of tin, sprinkled with powdered resin, and partly filled with melted pure grain tin covered with resin to prevent its oxidation. The vessel is then quickly turned and rolled about in every direction, so as to bring every part of the surface to be covered in contact with the molten metal. The greater part of the tin is then thrown out and the surface rubbed over with a brush of tow to equalize the coating; and if not satisfactory the operation must be repeated. The vessels usually tinned in this manner are of copper and brass, but with a little care in cleaning and manipulating, iron can also be satisfactorily tinned by this means. The vessels to be tinned must always be sufficiently hot to keep the metal contained in them thoroughly fused. This is covering by contact with melted tin.

The amalgam process is not so much used as it was formerly. It consists in applying to the clean and dry metallic surface a film of a pasty amalgam of tin with mercury, and then exposing the surface to heat, which volatilizes the latter, leaving the tin adhering to the metal.

The immersion process is the best adapted to coating articles of brass or copper. When immersed in a hot solution of tin properly prepared the metal is precipitated upon their surfaces. One of the best solutions for this purpose is the following:—

The articles to be tinned must be first thoroughly cleansed, and then kept in the hot solution until properly whitened. A better result will be obtained by using the following bath, and placing the pieces in contact with a strip of clean zinc, also immersed:—

It should be boiled for a few minutes before using.

The following is one of the best solutions for plating with tin by the battery process:—

The anode or feeding-plate used in this bath consists of pure Banca tin. This plate is joined to the positive (copper or carbon) pole of the battery, while the work is suspended from a wire connected with the negative (zinc) pole. A moderately strong battery is required, and the work is finished by scratch-brushing.

In Weigler's process a bath is prepared by passing washed chlorine gas into a concentrated aqueous solution of stannous chloride to saturation, and expelling excess of gas by warming the solution, which is then diluted with about ten volumes of water, and filtered, if necessary. The articles to be plated are pickled in dilute sulphuric acid, and polished with fine sand and a scratch-brush, rinsed in water, loosely wound round with zinc wire or tape, and immersed in the bath for ten or fifteen minutes at ordinary temperatures. The coating is finished with the scratch-brush and whiting. By this process cast-or wrought-iron, steel, copper, brass, and lead can be tinned without a separate battery. The only disadvantage of the process is that the bath soon becomes clogged up with zinc chloride, and the tin salt must be frequently removed. In Hern's process a bath composed of—

is employed instead of the preceding. It requires a somewhat longer exposure to properly tin articles in this than in Weigler's bath. Either of these baths may be used with a separate battery.