Building a Repeatable, High-Quality Process for Rails, Real Time Tracking Project.

Overview
With growing interest from the European rail market, our customer needed to refine and define a consistent manufacturing process for their location-tracking antennas used in railway applications. CBE+ partnered closely with them to develop a repeatable, high-quality process that delivers optimal results and meets the demands of international supply.

The Challenge
The customer required copper plating to a specified thickness, which was initially identified at 12h plating time, but early production showed some variation in thickness, particularly in areas not detailed for testing in the customer’s original specification. Given the nature of electrolytic copper plating, which deposits unevenly compared to our electroless nickel plating (ENP), there were challenges in maintaining consistency across the full geometry of the component.

Our Approach
We took a deep dive into each stage of the processes carried out at CBE+, which includes:

• Shot blasting.
• Electrolytic copper plating– for conductivity.
• Assembly.
• Spray painting – to customer specification.
• Conductivity testing – to ensure the copper is delivering the properties needed.

We identified areas where plating thickness was insufficient and worked collaboratively with the customer to enhance the process.

Key Actions Taken:

• Extended Plating Time: Increased the copper plating cycle from 12 to 24 hours to ensure full coverage to the customer’s minimum thickness across the entire component.
• Design Modification: Recommended and implemented changes to the component’s design, including the addition of non-functional bosses for jigging. This allowed more efficient handling during plating and improved overall process control.

The Result

• Copper plating now consistently meets the minimum requirement across the entire component.
• Reduced touch marks due to improved jigging solutions.
• A robust, repeatable process is now in place, supporting the customer’s expansion into new international markets.
• Ongoing collaboration continues to further streamline and improve process efficiency.

Conclusion
This project demonstrates the value of close collaboration between CBE+ and its customers. By proactively addressing technical challenges and adapting both process and product design, we helped our customer establish a scalable, reliable method for manufacturing advanced rail tracking components.