One of the greatest wastes in the field of plating of zinc die castings has been the need of plating the entire part and then painting. In some cases better than 90% of the plated area has been painted after plating.
Selective plating is a technique for both conserving plating materials and reducing costs.
Several paints and techniques have been used to “stop-off” areas that did not have to be plated. These parts were then plated in a regular plating cycle for zinc die castings. Good parts were produced in this way.
This paper is a compilation of data from various sources.