Anodizing, Metal Plating, and Wafer Reclaim - Industry Processes You Might Want To Be Familiar With

As I have mentioned in my bio, technologies and industries really fascinate me. This is the reason why I spend most of my leisure time reading materials related to these topics and then share them online through this blog. I just thought it would somehow help readers, especially those who are just new in the industry, familiarize some components that play a vital role for the industrial sectors continue to thrive.

This time, I wanted to post about some industry processes that I happened to read recently. These are anodizing, metal plating, and wafer reclaim.

Photo Credit: GMP Plating, Inc. - a metal plating company
based in Morgan Hill, CA.

Anodizing - this is an industry process that is very important to the metal industry; the main goal of this is to protect metal materials from rapid ruining caused by rusting. Another reason is to protect metal from wear and tear, which is necessary for industries that use metal materials as a main component for their business - e.g. manufacturing, construction projects. The anodizing process use various metallic elements such as aluminum, magnesium, and titanium. Aluminum anodizing is perhaps the most popular because this element is considered to be the most ideal. However, gold anodizing service is getting popular as well.

Plating - metal plating has the same objective - this process is aimed at protecting the metal from rapid deterioration brought by corrosion or rusting. Metal that has undergone plating become more corrosion-resistant, making its life longer. While the anodizing process is carried out by increasing the  the thickness of the naturally-occurring oxide coating on a metal material, metal plating involves the addition of a coating of a different metal to the surface plated.

Wafer reclaim - On the other side of the industrial world, another industry process that is also important -- this time, to the semiconductor industry -- is wafer reclaim. With wafer reclaim service, wafer / thin film's life is prolong and this is done by recycling or recovering so that a used wafer can be used again, which can really minimize the costs as there is no need to constantly buy new wafers.

Related: Wafer Reclaim and Recovery

Why IT Support Companies Can Be A Big Help For Your Business

Photo credit: Computer Experts Corporation, San Jose, CA

Every company department plays an important role for the whole system to perform its functions well. And, sometimes, establishing another component, in addition to the existing ones, might be necessary; however, this could also mean an addition to the operation costs. This is the reason why a company should weigh the benefits against the disadvantages before putting up another component to your business operation.

Facility management, particularly today with the advent of computers, networks, and installation, has become more challenging - more tasks that require additional manpower and management skills. Should a company hire additional in-house worker? Or should it just consider outsourcing some of its tasks?

Outsourcing to IT support companies

Outsourcing to IT support companies is becoming more and more popular in the industry today. Many companies now tap third party entities that offer IT services because, aside from cost reduction advantage, outsourcing also can lessen the workloads assigned to their in-house staff.
But what are the types of task you can avail to IT outsourcing companies? Below are some examples:

• Server and desktop management, including set-up and network installation.
• Help desk to provide clients or end users the needed information and support about your products or service.
• Email solutions, which include auto-responder set-up, email marketing, installation of email platform for better customer reach-out.
• Mobile device configuration, which is timely since more and more clients are going mobile.
• Server infrastructure, which helps connect different components of built environment.
• IT security, which is very important to keep a company's information intact and credible and free from outside threat such as hacking and viruses.
• Backup and disaster recovery, which is very necessary for every company; IT support companies are equipped with powerful tool to ensure the retrieval of data, should disaster occur.
• LAN/WAN and Wireless network installations, connecting various departments of your company.

Where can you outsource?

There are basically two ways to outsource to IT support companies - either locally or overseas.
Outsourcing IT support locally - this is advantageous when we talk about "logistic significance"; this works well most especially for tasks that might need sending of staff to your company; and, they can work on IT tasks that require physical presence in your facility.

IT outsourcing overseas - is more advantageous when it comes to costs; lots of companies are relying on IT support providers that are based overseas such as in the Philippines and India because of cheap labor costs while maintaining the accuracy standards for deliverable  However, the task you can outsource is limited as they can only manage those tasks that are transmitted or sent/received through the Internet. i.e. they cannot perform tasks that require actual work in your company such as system unit/desktop computer and network installation.