Plater-fabricator partnership thrives on three key strategies

George Gatto Jr. and George Gatto Sr. discuss one of their key competencies; tubular components (foreground). Meanwhile, two employees prepare a rack of tubing for plating (background). The slight pitch ensures that the parts will drain quickly when lifted from each bath.

Gatto Industrial Platers Inc., Chicago, Ill., a provider of zinc and zinc-nickel plating and aluminum chromating for the automotive, agricultural, electrical, and railroad industries, has built a reputation for providing tough plating that stands up to demanding environments. One of its customers, Curtis Products Inc., South Bend, Ind., provides precisely bent and formed tubing for automotive, agricultural, construction, marine, defense, and trucking equipment, all of which is put to use in wchallenging environments.

These two companies have worked together for more than 25 years to produce top-quality plated hydraulic tubing. They have each evolved over the years, at the same time building a relationship based on mutual reliance and respect that has increased their productivity and success and benefited the customers they serve.

The Curtis Products Dilemma

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Curtis Products worked with a number of suppliers of plating for its tubing products and was almost universally disappointed with the results. Tubes often were returned not completely plated, with voids on inner and outer surfaces and with thicker plating near tube ends, close to the plating tank’s anodes, that were subject to blistering and flaking. Plating had to be rejected or re-done, resulting in lost time and money and creating delays in meeting customers’ schedules.

“We tried a wide range of plating suppliers and were continually disappointed by the results,” said Andy Heckaman, Curtis Products’ material manager.

“Tubes that were not completely plated were rusting and unusable,” he said. “Tubes that incorporated nuts or fittings that would normally cover and protect unplated areas had the nuts randomly placed rather than being consistent, causing voids. We were beginning to think that the reliable, consistent source of good plating we were looking for didn’t exist.”

Curtis produces lines for a variety of automotive, agricultural, and construction equipment, and the tubes it fabricates are from 1⁄8 to 3 inches in diameter and up to 137 in. in length. The tubes are fabricated from various steel alloys, depending on customer specifications, and many feature unique hardware such as brackets and connectors (see Figure 1). In addition to the challenges presented by this variety, plating tube always is more challenging than plating flat pieces because any air pockets cause them to float, preventing complete coverage, and they need additional handling to drain them completely.

“Most of our orders are custom applications involving tubes of all sizes, diameters, and configurations,” said Vice President of Manufacturing John Heckaman. “As a result, the tubes we were sending for plating tended to be low in unit volume but highly mixed in sizes and diameters. That seemed to be a challenge for many plating operations.”

Another challenge for plating companies was that Curtis preferred its tubes to be plated before forming, limiting its supplier base to only those that could handle long tubes. The downside is that bending a tube that has been poorly plated can frequently result in cracks or flaking in the plating, allowing the tube to rust. As a result, Curtis often had to bend, clean, and ship formed tubes to platers to get the results it needed.

“The hydraulic tubes that are the heart of our business often have to fit into very complex pieces of agricultural or construction equipment,” John Heckaman said. “That means their configurations can be unique to the machine and very complex. That makes it difficult to plate them after they have been formed. It can require a large tank, and it is also more expensive to ship formed tubes to and from the plating supplier rather than straight tubes. So, for all those reasons, we prefer to plate first and then bend.”

When Curtis was beginning to run out of plating options, it discovered Gatto Industrial Platers.

Figure 1
A typical Curtis Products item is a tubular component with hardware, which can be challenging for an electroplater. The tube can trap air and float, leaving some areas unplated. Likewise any flanges or nuts that come to rest on the tube’s surface prevent complete coverage.

The Gateway to the Gatto Way

Gatto was founded on the principle of providing quality results rather than automating its plating operations to roll out high volumes of commodity plating. During the years of experience the company had accumulated up to the time it connected with Curtis, Gatto had refined its operations based on that principle.

To produce high-quality plated results, Gatto had learned to use a cyanide-based plating bath, which the company still uses. The primary benefit of this process is that the chemical makeup of the bath can be adjusted to closely control the thickness of the plating, resulting in a uniform coating. Keeping the plating within controlled limits is critical, because varying coverage is more likely to result in cracking and peeling in those areas during forming.

To ensure the quality of its plating, Gatto employs a chemical engineer and maintains a fully staffed quality laboratory. Its laboratory equipment includes a video-microscope, an X-ray fluorescence alloy analyzer, eddy current thickness testing equipment, and an atomic absorption spectrometer. It also has a fully equipped wet lab and a salt-spray cabinet.

From the beginning, Gatto has had equipment large enough to plate Curtis’ straight tubes. This capability, the quality of Gatto’s processes, and its responsiveness convinced Curtis to make Gatto its primary plating supplier.

However, developing a successful plating process is one thing; maintaining successful customer relationships is another thing altogether. Gatto shines in both areas.

First, in support of the company’s focus on producing quality results, Gatto management insists on open and frequent communication about projects between the plating managers and its customers.

“If we had a question, we picked up the phone and cleared it up,” said George Gatto, Jr., Gatto’s business development manager. “That is still our practice, and it saves time and money while lowering our turnaround time.”

“We found that Gatto’s approach to its work was much like our own,” Andy Heckaman said. “Each project was treated as unique and got special attention. And because there was open communication between us, there were no surprises.”

Second, even the most successful partnership needs to evolve as business practices change. In the more than 25 years that Gatto and Curtis have worked together, both have adapted to critical changes in the customer demands they have to meet.

Over the years, the demand for clean tubes from Curtis Products’ customers has become much more stringent, partly as a result of the poor plating results that Curtis itself had experienced before it connected with Gatto. Its customers also have increased their focus on just-in-time (JIT) delivery of parts as they reduced on-site inventories to control costs. And model changes have increased dramatically from year to year.

In an effort to build an electroplating line with the largest capacity in North America, Gatto Industrial Platers used tanks that are more than large enough to plate an entire car.

Each of these changes has resulted in adjustments in how Curtis Products responds to customers. JIT delivery of parts has required the company to be more flexible in its production scheduling, and the increased frequency of model changes has required it to be more responsive with new tubing designs. The increased demand for cleaner tubing coupled with the other demands has led to Curtis working even more closely with Gatto to satisfy these changing business requirements.

Third, like any company that works with industrial chemicals on a large scale, Gatto has to stay focused on the regulatory environment. Gatto has proven adept at researching, planning, and investing to stay ahead of such changes. While regulatory demands for reduced air pollution were coming into effect, Gatto was already transitioning from hexavalent chromium plating to offering coatings that comply with the Restriction on Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), such as RoHS-compliant clear trivalent chromate or RoHS-compliant, high-corrosion clear trivalent chromate, depending on customer requirements. This change increased the consistency of plating coverage while also meeting regulatory demands. It also enabled plated products to be painted without pretreatment.

Another 25 Years

Quite a bit has changed during the time that Curtis and Gatto have done business together. The U.S. economy has nearly doubled in size, providing more opportunities for fabricators and platers, while JIT and the regulatory environment have changed business practices considerably. Meanwhile, the two companies have adapted to these changes and thrived together. While it’s rare that a business relationship lasts 25 years, this one has grown stronger over time, which bodes well for the future of both companies.

Curtis Products Inc., 401 N. Bendix Drive, South Bend, IN 46628, 574-289-4891, www.curtisproducts.com

Gatto Industrial Platers Inc., 4620 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60644, 800-290-1223, www.gattoplaters.com