When you work with Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc., we’ll not only make your parts from start to finish but also coordinate any required plating services with our vetted and verified third-party vendors.

Throughout our 48 years in business, our Pennsylvania precision machine shop has worked with numerous plating providers. We know which coatings perform best and which don't—plus, we know how to help you get the results you need quickly and cost-effectively. 

Today, our preferred vendor list includes only the very best platers—and many of them are located right here in our community. 

Why We Prioritize Local Plating Solutions 

We have many plating partners from Boston to California. But some of the ones we trust most are as close as our own backyard. 

Our own Crawford County didn’t set out to become the Mecca of manufacturing, yet that’s precisely what it is today. From CNC machine shops like Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc. to specialists like our plating partners, an impressive selection of service providers is packed into the county’s 1,038 square miles.

Prioritizing local plating solutions benefits our precision machine shop customers in two big ways: 

1. Ultra-fast turnaround times. When we work with local plating vendors, we eliminate shipping times entirely. There are times when we take parts down the street to a vendor and have them back and ready to ship to customers the very next day.  

2. Elevated quality. Keeping parts within our community promotes a high level of accountability because each party is committed to maintaining a great working relationship. If there is ever an issue with an order of parts, we can collaborate with local vendors quickly and easily to ensure the highest-quality results. 

Meet Area Tool’s Preferred Plating Partners

Here’s a brief introduction to our precision machine shop’s preferred plating partners—those in Pennsylvania and a couple we love who are outside our community. 

ARMTEC at Meadville Plating Co.

In 1974, the fine folks at nearby Meadville Plating Co. revolutionized chrome plating when they developed ARMTEC, a thin, dense, nodular chromium layer that provides superior wear reduction, lubricity, and corrosion protection. Suitable for both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, the sleek satin finish enhances a part’s longevity with minimal surface buildup, so you know your tight-tolerance parts will fit perfectly and function flawlessly. 

ARMTEC’s electrolytic application ensures unmatched adhesion, preventing any form of cracking, peeling, or detachment. It’s ideal for applications requiring minimal surface contact and high durability.

Passivation, electroless nickel, and anodizing at Progress for Industry (PFI)

Our friends at Progress for Industry provide these commonly required surface solutions from just down the road in Saegertown:

• Passivation is a crucial cleaning process that removes the microscopic, dust-like metal debris created by hard milling operations. Because it prevents rust on stainless steel, passivation is frequently used to ensure the integrity of medical parts.

• Electroless nickel plating ensures a uniform, non-conductive coating that withstands up to 1600 degrees F. Plating thicknesses range from 0.000025” to 0.020”. PFI’s RoHS-compliant baths are available in high, medium, and low phosphorus for varied corrosion protection, hardness, and plating rates. 

• Anodized coatings improve a part’s appearance, durability, and resistance. Type II anodizing, performed in a sulfuric acid bath, is a non-conductive coating that enhances aluminum's corrosion and abrasion resistance. It offers decorative and protective finishes in various colors, including black, blue, and red. Type III hard coat anodizing provides a thicker non-conductive layer, increasing aluminum's hardness to about 65 RC, ideal for heavy-duty applications.

Black oxide at Peters’ Heat Treating 

Only a short, seven-minute drive from our precision machine shop, Peters’ Heat Treating provides countless heat treatment capabilities for Area Tool customers, including hardening, annealing, stress relieving, tempering, and cryogenics.  

Peters’ specialized black oxide service enhances ferrous metals, tool steels, and powdered metals. This alkaline process produces a non-reflective, durable black surface in your choice of a shiny or matte finish. Ideal for applications like firearms, gears, and molds, black oxide is corrosion-resistant, won’t chip or peel, and complies with CQI-12 and MIL-DTL-13924 quality standards.

Dicronite® at Dicronite Dry Lube Northeast

Located nearly 500 miles due east in Westfield, Massachusetts, Dicronite Dry Lube Northeast isn’t technically “local,” but we rely on them every bit as much as a local partner, and our medical customers love them!

Dicronite is a precision thin film lubricant that reduces friction and wear, prevents seizing and galling, and enhances mold release and co-lubrication. Effective in temperatures ranging from -188 degrees C to +538 degrees C and in high-vacuum environments, Dicronite is vital within industries including aviation, space, automotive, medical, and pharmaceutical.

Certess™ at TS Northeast Coatings Technology (TS NCT)

Another non-local yet totally trusted partner is TS NCT, whose Kennebunk, Maine, facility provides titanium nitride coatings using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process that won’t affect your part’s dimensions. 

Certess™ Nitro PVD Coatings and Certess™ Life PVD Coatings are applied using a cathodic arc PVD coating process. This method applies a monolayer, multilayer, graded, or alloy film on your part with superior adhesion results. 

Certess™ coatings enhance performance and durability in applications including packaging knives, razor blades, form tooling, cutting tools, machine components, injection mold tooling, and extrusion tooling. Find Certess™ Life Coatings throughout the medical sector on instruments, devices, implants, and trauma surgery applications.

Cerakote® in-house at Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc.

Back in Meadville, Pennsylvania, you can obtain Cerakote-coated parts directly from Area Tool & Manufacturing, Inc.

The Cerakote coating combines polymer-derived ceramic with epoxy to form an ultra-hard surface on nearly any material. Our in-house Certified Cerakote Applicators expertly layer the thin coating to provide exceptional corrosion, abrasion, and chemical resistance. 

Cerakote finishes are available in numerous colors (including custom shades), all more durable than powder coatings. Find Cerakote on aerospace, automotive, and firearms applications, as well as our very own CD Archery barebow risers!

Your Machined Parts Aren’t Finished until They’re Plated 

We maintain strong relationships with all our vendor partners, and we’re always happy to help you identify the best coating for your wire/sinker EDM or precision machined parts. Simply tell us about your material and application, and we’ll guide you toward the right plating solution. Then, we’ll manage the entire process for you, so you only need to submit one PO with our shop.

Don’t see the coating you need on this list? Let us know, and we’ll vet a vendor that can do the job.

Start with a quote!