Editor's Note: Few individuals have influenced the exchange of technical knowledge within the metal finishing industry as profoundly as Ted Mooney, P.E. Engineer, consultant, educator, author, and co-founder of Finishing.com, Mooney has spent nearly six decades helping platers and surface finishers solve problems and advance the industry. In this first-person reflection, he shares highlights from a remarkable career that began in 1967 and continues to inspire finishing professionals worldwide.
Few industries offer the blend of engineering, chemistry, manufacturing, sustainability, and problem-solving that metal finishing does. Looking back on nearly six decades in the field, I realize how fortunate I was to enter the industry at a moment of tremendous change and opportunity.
I graduated from engineering college in 1967 and joined Hanson VanWinkle Munning, one of the industry's pioneering manufacturers of plating equipment and systems. The company produced rectifiers, buffing equipment, and plating laboratory equipment, but it was the large automated plating installations that captured my imagination and became the focus of my early career. It was an exciting time to be a young engineer in surface finishing.
Witnessing a Golden Era
Almost immediately after entering the industry, I attended the 1967 plating show at Detroit's Cobo Hall. Those who weren't there can scarcely imagine it today. Entire operational plating and anodizing lines were installed on the exhibition floor. Attendees watched parts being processed in real time, and exhibitors handed out freshly plated souvenirs produced right before our eyes.
The industry was on the cusp of enormous transformation. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring had been published only five years earlier, and environmental awareness was beginning to reshape manufacturing practices. Looking back, the contrast between what was common in plating shops then and what would soon become expected under modern environmental stewardship is remarkable.
One of the greatest advantages of entering the industry at that time was access to practical education. Through the Newark Branch of the American Electroplaters Society (AES), I attended a plating school built around a comprehensive 350-page electroplating manual written by instructors who were actively working in the field.
Today, that may sound routine, but at the time, it was groundbreaking. I was fortunate to arrive at the intersection of manufacturing and computing just as both were evolving rapidly.
The program included visits to numerous plating facilities, providing exposure to virtually every type of operation. Those experiences taught me lessons that stayed with me throughout my career. For example, I watched chromium plating being performed in a barrel on pocket clips for Paper Mate pens—something many people would insist couldn't be done. It wasn't easy, and it required extensive inspection and acceptance of a high rate of rejects. Still, it demonstrated an important truth: manufacturing often advances when someone is willing to challenge conventional wisdom.
Automation and the Dawn of Computing
The late 1960s were also a period of rapid technological advancement. Large automotive plating lines were expanding, and programmed hoists were beginning to replace the return-type machines that had dominated production for years.
At the same time, computers were transitioning from exclusive institutional tools into something the industry could begin to access. Time-sharing systems had just emerged. I purchased a teletype terminal for my employer and connected it via telephone lines to remote computing services. This allowed me to develop programs for cost estimating, plating machine simulation, tank design, and engineering calculations.
Today, that may sound routine, but at the time, it was groundbreaking. I was fortunate to arrive at the intersection of manufacturing and computing just as both were evolving rapidly.
What made the concept valuable wasn't the technology itself—it was the community. Real professionals, using their real names, shared their experiences and expertise. That collaborative model would eventually become the foundation for something much larger.
In 1972, I joined Lancy Laboratories and had the privilege of learning wastewater treatment from Dr. Leslie Lancy, one of the true pioneers in the field. Environmental regulation was still in its infancy in the United States, but Dr. Lancy had decades of experience treating plating wastes in Europe.
Those years provided a front-row seat to the industry's response to environmental challenges. Rather than viewing compliance as an obstacle, many of us saw it as another engineering problem to solve. The resulting innovations helped transform metal finishing into a cleaner and more sustainable industry.
Engineering Leadership and Independence
Two years later, I joined Harshaw Chemical Company and became its chief engineer. The role expanded my exposure to production operations, customer challenges, and large-scale project execution. By 1979, I felt prepared to strike out on my own as a consulting engineer specializing in plating and metal finishing.
Consulting allowed me to work on an extraordinary range of projects. Over the years, I designed plating facilities from floor pits to rooftop exhaust systems, investigated plating failures, testified as an expert witness, analyzed plating-shop fires for insurance companies, and arbitrated disputes involving equipment suppliers and manufacturers. Every project presented a new puzzle to solve.
Building a Community Before the Internet
One of the most rewarding chapters of my career began in 1989. Drawing upon my interest in telecommunications and computing, I created an electronic bulletin board system (BBS) that allowed finishing professionals to exchange technical questions and answers electronically.
Long before social media and online forums existed, platers from around the world could dial in, describe a production challenge, and receive suggestions from peers. Those discussions evolved into the "Heard on the Hotline" column that appeared in Metal Finishing magazine for a decade.
What made the concept valuable wasn't the technology itself—it was the community. Real professionals, using their real names, shared their experiences and expertise. That collaborative model would eventually become the foundation for something much larger.
The Birth of Finishing.com
When the Internet became commercially accessible in the mid-1990s, we migrated the accumulated Hotline content online and launched Finishing.com.
Because we already had a substantial collection of real-world shop problems and practical solutions, the site quickly attracted an audience. Over time, it grew into one of the industry's most extensive technical resources, with tens of thousands of discussions and contributions from hundreds of recognized experts worldwide.
The success of Finishing.com reinforced a lesson I'd learned repeatedly throughout my career: knowledge grows when it is shared. No single consultant, supplier, or engineer possesses all the answers. Progress comes from a community willing to exchange ideas and learn from one another.
The Importance of Mentors
No career develops in isolation. I was fortunate to learn from many remarkable individuals, including Herb Tilton, Herm Hammer, Cy LaManna, Donald Wood, Joseph Mazia, and my longtime friend and business partner Tom Pullizzi.
Each contributed something unique—technical expertise, professional guidance, encouragement, or friendship. Their influence shaped both my career and my understanding of what it means to contribute to an industry.
If I were offering advice to young professionals entering metal finishing today, I would emphasize two principles.
The public may not always recognize it, but surface finishing is one of manufacturing's most powerful tools for conserving resources and extending product life. That contribution deserves greater recognition.
First, focus on solving difficult technical challenges. Commodity work is important, but innovation and specialization create the greatest opportunities for professional growth.
Second, never make cost reduction your primary goal. During a period when I worked on manufacturing improvement projects for major corporations, I observed that programs built solely around reducing costs rarely succeed. Quality, innovation, and customer value must come first. When those improve, costs often decline as a natural consequence. When cost-cutting becomes the objective, quality and progress suffer.
Finishing as Sustainability
Perhaps the most important message I would leave for the future is that metal finishing is fundamentally a sustainability industry.
Our work prevents corrosion, extends product life, improves energy efficiency, and reduces waste. Modern automotive engines last far longer because of advanced surface technologies. Vehicle bodies resist corrosion for decades because of sophisticated coating systems. Countless products remain useful and serviceable because someone applied the right finish.
The public may not always recognize it, but surface finishing is one of manufacturing's most powerful tools for conserving resources and extending product life. That contribution deserves greater recognition.
A Career Worth Celebrating
As I reflect on nearly sixty years in the industry, I am grateful for the opportunities, friendships, and challenges that metal finishing has provided. I've visited hundreds of plating shops, written technical articles and textbook chapters, chaired professional organizations, investigated failures, designed facilities, and helped build a global technical community.
Yet there is one irony that always makes me smile. Despite spending an entire career in plating and finishing, I often tell people the truth is that I never actually plated a part myself. Instead, I spent a lifetime learning from and supporting the people who do.
