Recommended plater

Wondering if any of you guys have any suggestions for platers in California. Our top customers require Nadcap approved vendors and so we are forced to go to Southern California (we are in the Bay Area). These vendors we use in so cal take forever and when we do get our parts back, they come back damaged more often than not. A lot of times so damaged , they have to be thrown away. We have tried to work with them via phone conversations, drawings highlighting critical areas of the part, where to rack, sending gages along with parts etc...We often visit them and go over critical jobs and how to process them only to get the same results. It really stinks because we deal with a couple of non certified players that are outstanding for other customers. Great service and quality but we cannot use them for most jobs because they do not have the certification (yet).

We’d just like to know from you guys if you’ve had good experiences with any nadcap platers. Even the Pacific Northwest is an option since we ship the parts anyways. Anyone have similar issues?

No clue what Nadcap is, but you can try Santa Clara Plating if you haven't already. We've had great service from them.

I just spoke with our local anodizer (Chico Metal Finishing) and they are saying they are getting a huge amount of work from SoCal and even a bunch of places in Nevada due to really stupid lead times those places are quoting. I highly doubt they are Nadcap whatever certified though. Funny how a piece of paper can rule out excellent vendors...

It would help to know what kind of processing you're looking for.

I've used a place in Chatsworth called Plateronics. It's a relatively small place but they do excellent work. They are also AS9100 and Nadcap.

Thanks Larry for the recommendation. I’ll look them up. We do a lot of stainless with critical thin weld lips that seem to have a hard time getting back to us without damage. Most of the stainless just gets passivate. The other parts we send out are a combination of alodine, type 2 and type 3 anodize. We also have a lot of jobs that require masking (alodine part then mask certain areas and anodize over it).

Matt- we have been using Santa Clara for many years and they do good work but their lead times have been getting longer and longer and we would like to have another source. Thanks for the input.
I agree a piece of paper doesn’t make you good. If you don’t have talent to begin with, the piece of paper just makes it so you continue to do the same substandard work.

Try Arnold’s in Santa Clara.

tel: (408) 588-0079

When I was in Southern California I used Danco and Prime Plating, don't know how either of them are with shipping as Prime Plating had their own pick-up & delivery service and the Danco was close by in Ontario so I did the drop off and pick up there myself.

Thanks guys. I’ll be getting in touch with these places.