Riley helps Canadian musical accessories manufacturer with its expansion into product finishing.

Riley Surface World has recently enabled the sale and shipment of a complete Delta Industrietechnik copper/acid electroplating line for Billdidit, a specialist manufacturing organisation based in Nova Scotia, Canada.

‘Billdidit’ is a reference to the company’s founder, Bill Coady, who has designed and developed a number of useful accessories for drum kits that are used by famous drummers all over the world.

The company is now part of the Sabian group, one of the world’s leading producers of cymbals.

Billdidit has another division, BDI Advanced Manufacturing, which is engaged in contract manufacturing for the aerospace, defence, intelligence and marine industries, producing a large selection of proprietary components, from metal and plastic parts to final product finishing. The company is currently undergoing ISO 9000 accreditation.

 The redundant Delta electroplating line was acquired, with the help of Riley’s, from the site of a former costume jewellery manufacturer in Ireland. It will be used for chrome and zinc plating by volume and for silver and gold plating in smaller quantities.

The system comprises three sizes of tanks: 600, 1200 and 2400 litres. The 600 litre tanks are predominantly used for the non-electrolytic processes, dragout and rinse stations. The larger tanks are used for the electrolytic stations, with either 3 or 6 flight bars in operation at any one time. 

The automatic transporter system carries three flight bars at a time. It uses a horizontal positioning system to close the centre line distance of the flight bars to 150 mm for the tanks without anodic and cathodic connections. This brings the bars outwards to 380 mm whilst in the electrolytic stages, giving a maximum envelope size of 1300 x 300 x 800 mm per flight bar.

A technical support team from Riley Surface World is set to install and re-commission the plant at the company’s Nova Scotia headquarters during summer 2014.

Commenting on the project, John Aylward, Billdidit Vice President of Operations said:

‘Whilst price was obviously an important factor in the purchase of the electroplating plant, we also made our decision based on the professionalism, technical expertise and flexibility that we experienced from Michael Riley and his support team. Not only have we made a very worthwhile investment in plant and machinery, we also believe we have found a partner who will help us to realise our expansion plans in the metal finishing sector, both in North America and worldwide.'