Plating Process Formulas
All plating process costs are included in additional direct costs. Cycle time and labor time are 0.
Additional Direct Costs = (Surface Area Cost + Load Unload Fee) / finalYield
Additional direct costs depend on the following:
• Surface area cost (see formula below)
• Load/unload fee (see formula below)
Surface Area Cost = {
Plastic Surface Area Cost, for plastic material
Non-plastic Surface Area Cost, otherwise}
Surface area cost depends on the following:
• Plastic surface area cost (see formula below)
• Non-plastic surface area cost (see formula below)
• Material type. aPriori counts the current part’s material as plastic if either of the following hold:
o Primary process group is Plastic Molding or Sheet Plastic.
o Material’s cut code family is 41, 42, 51, or 52.
Plastic Surface Area Cost = Part Surface Area *
(Application Cost per Unit Area + Thickness Factor) * (1 + Plastic Plating Surcharge)
Plastic surface area cost depends on the following:
• Part surface area, obtained in mm2 from geometry extraction, converted to meters for use in this formula.
• Application cost per unit area (specified in m2 by the machine property Application Cost Per Area)
• Thickness factor (see formula below)
• Plastic plating surcharge (specified by the cost model variable plasticPlatingSurcharge; 0.1 in aPriori starting point VPEs)
Non-plastic Surface Area Cost = Part Surface Area * (Application Cost per Unit Area +Thickness Factor)
Non-plastic surface area cost depends on the following:
• Part surface area, obtained in mm2 from geometry extraction, converted to meters for use in this formula.
• Application cost per unit area (specified in m2 by the machine property Application Cost Per Area)
• Thickness factor (see formula below)
Thickness Factor = {
0, if User Requested Plating Thickness <= Standard Plating Thickness
(User Requested Plating Thickness – Standard Plating Thickness) *
Extra Thickness Cost Per Area, otherwise}
Thickness factor depends on the following:
• User requested plating thickness (specified by the PSO
Specify plating thickness)
• Standard plating thickness (specified by the machine property Standard Plate Thickness)
• Extra thickness cost per area (specified by the machine property Extra Thickness Cost Per Area)
Load Unload Fee = {
Plating Rack Charge for Small Parts, if part is small and racked
Weight Based Fee, otherwise}
Load/unload fee is used primarily to account for the high labor costs associated with small, racked parts. (By default, parts below a particular size threshold are racked, since barrel plating would likely deform or damage the part; users can explicitly specify rack or barrel plating with the PSO
How will this part be plated?). For small, racked parts, the fee is a flat cost per part; otherwise the cost is weight based. A cost model variable determines the size threshold for small parts. Load/unload fee depends on the following:
• Plating rack charge for small parts (specified by the cost model variable platingRackChargeSmallParts)
• Threshold for small parts. A part is considered small if its length, width, and height are all less than the cost model variable platingBarrelSizeLimit, 76.2mm in aPriori starting point VPEs.
• Whether the part is racked (small parts are racked by default, but see the PSO
How will this part be plated?)
• Weight based fee (looked up by part mass—part volume times material density—in the lookup table platingWeightBasedHandlingFees)