When you are plating a mold that sometimes costs $300,000 or more, one had better know what they are doing.
Wendy SperryBut thankfully for the team at Nutmeg Chrome in West Hartford, Connecticut, they have been specializing in finishing molds for over 78 years and know all of the intricacies and nuances of plating the part and meeting all tolerances.
“It takes a very specific knowledge and trust working on these more expensive molds,” says Wendy Sperry, President and CEO of Nutmeg Chrome. “A shop takes a lot of risks when finishing something that costs that much, but it is all about knowing what you are doing when you take on these projects.”
Specializing in Coating And Polishing of Molds and Dies
Nutmeg Chrome has specialized in coating and polishing molds and dies that produce plastic and rubber parts in various manufacturing processes since 1944 when Arthur Logozzo founded the company. He originally worked as a supervisor at General Electric tool division, where they produced molds for forming plastic parts of all types.
Logozzo was one of the first to recognize the potential of applying hard chrome to these types of molds to both prolong the life of the mold and at the same time enhance the release characteristics of the molded parts.
The 14-member team at Nutmeg Chrome has kept that tradition going over the last eight decades, which included the company being run by Logozzo’s son, William, who served as president of the company for nearly 50 years until his retirement in 2021.
That is when Sperry took over in October, after having served as Vice President of the company for the last three years and as head of sales prior to that. In total, Sperry has been with Nutmeg Chrome for 19 years.
“I came here from a manufacturing background, but I knew when I started at Nutmeg that I wanted to someday lead this company,” she says. “I kind of had that feeling on my first day here, and I’m pretty excited about leading a great company like this.”
Automotive Electronics, Firearms, Consumer Packaged Food Containers
Nutmeg Chrome finds itself in a variety of industries with plating molds, including automotive electronics, firearms manufacturing, consumer packaged food containers, plastics molding industry, sporting equipment, and tools for medical procedures.
The company’s focus is on hard chrome with the molds, but it also applies boron nitride, electroless nickel and performs polishing. Nutmeg also has several proprietary products: Nutmeg Nichromold, Nutmeg Chrome Plus, and Slik Shot, a high-end patented release coating that evenly disperses Teflon throughout the entire finish, allowing for optimum performance.
The Slik Shot process is especially well suited for use with molding applications that utilize plastics, epoxies, and silicones as it enhances mold release characteristics and eliminates the need for mold release sprays. In addition, it reduces cycle times, thus increasing production. It is widely used in the firearms industry to lower friction, decrease wear, resist corrosion, and improve the ease of cleaning and maintenance.
With the heavy use of hard chrome, Sperry says she and her team take extra precautions to be environmentally cautious in the shop’s operation.
“When you lay your head on the pillow each night, you want to have that knowledge that you have done everything you need from an environmental standpoint,” Sperry says. “That is extremely important to all of us and to everyone I know in the plating industry. It is something we all think about every day.”
Striving to Meet Environmental Standards
Douglas HughesTo help ensure that its chemistry and operations are meeting environmental standards, Sperry says Nutmeg relies on its partnership with MacDermid Enthone to assist them in making sure they are using the latest technology and practices.
Douglas Hughes, MacDermid Enthone’s Product Manager for Wear Resistant Coatings in North America, says Nutmeg has been using their NiKlad ICE Ultra RC electroless nickel PTFE composite coating for stability and brightness, as well as a complimentary process for hard chrome.
“For the size of the shop that they are, Nutmeg does a very good job in a very niche sector in molds,” Hughes says. “There are not a lot of shops that can do what they do at the level of precision that is required for finishing those types of mold parts, especially when some of those molds are so expensive.”
Hughes says he learned from Sperry early on that Nutmeg Chrome wanted to be environmentally conscious in their operations, and that mirrored what MacDermid Enthone has been pursuing with their chemistry developments, too.
“Everyone from our CEO on down are committed to helping our customers become more sustainable,” he says. “The NiKlad ICE Ultra RC is a great example because it eliminates PFAS-based surfactants in electroless nickel PTFE and reinforces our commitment to providing innovative, sustainable solutions to our customers.”
Trying to be more environmentally aware while running a highly-sophisticated plating operation — with expensive parts to plate to boot — is not something that can be easily combined, but Hughes says Nutmeg Chrome does it very well.
“That is where the art of finishing comes in and Nutmeg Chrome excels at this ” he says.
Updating Equipment and Tooling
Sperry says that Nutmeg Chrome — which takes its name from Connecticut’s unofficial state nickname — is looking to update its equipment and tools over the next year, which includes installing updated chrome lines.
“We are pushing 78 years old,” she says. “Things get worn out over time, and so we are always looking to update what we can and refresh the lines we have in place.”
Sperry says what she learned from the previous president William Logozzo and the shop’s managers before was that one thing that Nutmeg stood for was being responsible for its work and also working collaboratively to solve customer problems.
That includes taking chances with plating a part that may cost a quarter-million dollars or more.
“We do everything humanly possible to give our customers exactly what they want, and then some,” Sperry says. “It’s not that hard to stand behind your work and your craftmanship if you believe in what you do, and we certainly are proud of what we do for our customers.”
Visit https://nutmegchrome.com
