About

Here at Otomec we are specialists into Engineering and Manufacturing of equipment for the cleaning and plating of metallic wire, strip, coil, bar and tube.

Customers are our partners: we satisfy their request with all-round supply of machines, galvanic components, electronic control of the process and environment protection.

High quality product is the result of: perfect cleaning – adherent, uniform, concentric deposition – high galvanic efficiency – low volumes of chemical – low operating costs – safe environmental impact.

Before delivery, all the plants are installed and tested at our facility. Performances are achieved under production condition. Customer's technicians assisted into a complete training stage.

Our experience into surface treatment is confirmed by the number of plants and technology supplied worldwide to the industry manufacturing: special power and high frequency cable, superconductors, automotive parts, fine pipes, aerospace conductors, welding and staple wires, fasteners and forming parts.

Since more than hundred years in business the Rusconi Family and their OTO Trade Mark represent a reference in the field.



XIX – XX CENTURY

Metallurgica Rusconi was set up at the end of the XIX Century in the Gerenzone Valley near Lecco (Italy), to produce any derivatives of wire rod, more specifically: wire, nails and fences. The end of the XIX century saw the introduction of new techniques that increased the productivity: the spread of the ovens and souder puddle and the diffusion of mechanized processes in many stages of production are just some of the most significant innovations that were made.



Energy power was provided by ancient wooden wheels that, using water power from the Gerenzone river, actuated a series of gears which, by means of leather belts, moved the flywheel of the drawing machine.

At the time the rod wire was put in a wooden tub for a first bath. Then it was drawn in the drawing machine several times in order to narrow the diameter down to the desired size. After this process the wire was put again in wooden tubs filled with a copper solution so to coat it uniformly. At this point a metalworker had to take the wire and organize it in small coils, ready to be used for subsequent derivatives.

This system could hardly reach a speed of 10-20 meters per minute, however it was kept in use for almost all the first half of the XX century.


XX – XXI CENTURY

Otomec is now a leading company that designs, produces and sets up cleaning and plating plant for different products: wire, metal strips and sheets, bars, tubes, chains, etc. of steel and also for non-ferrous metals such as copper, brass, aluminum, plated by zinc, tin, copper, nickel, silver and other special alloys.



The whole process is completely controlled by electronic devices and the new machines can work both "off-line" and "in-line" with the wire drawers at speeds up to 1000 meters per minute.

Otomec plants are also used for pickling, degreasing and polishing:

    Wire diameters: from 0,10 mm. up to 18,00 mm.
    Strips and sheets up to 500 mm. width
    Bars up to 10 x 300 mm.

Otomec plants are sold all over the world for any kind of production which needs a special galvanic coating; most of them are customized by the client in every detail.

In the new millennium the main strengths of the industrial Lecco can be detected in the presence of a widespread culture of entrepreneurship, technical skills, high quality of the product and ability to communicate with the markets and Otomec can be identified as a main actor of this local and global system.

Tecnology





Electroplating is a process that uses electrical current to reduce dissolved metal cations so that they form a coherent metal coating on an electrode. Electroplating is primarily used to change the surface properties of an object (e.g. abrasion and wear resistance, corrosion protection, lubricity, aesthetic qualities, conductivity, etc.)

Copper_electroplating

The part to be plated is the cathode of the an electrical circuit. A power supply supplies a direct current to the anode, oxidizing the metal atoms that comprise it and allowing them to dissolve in the solution. At the cathode, the dissolved metal ions in the electrolyte solution are reduced at the interface between the solution and the cathode, such that they "plate out" onto the cathode. The rate at which the anode is dissolved is equal to the rate at which the cathode is plated. In this manner, the ions in the electrolyte bath are continuously replenished by the anode.

Continuous electroplating is possible supplying current to the cathode while it travels through the solution. The plating speed is faster compared to static plating (rack or barrel) because of good mixing at cathode surface.

Most common metal plating are:

    Tin, to increase solderability or  as corrosion protection during vulcanization
    Zinc, to improve corrosion resistance on steel
    Nickel
    Copper to increase conductivity

Some special alloys can be obtained only through an electrolytic process. In example zinc-nickel alloy has higher corrosion resistance compared to pure zinc

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