AI and automation in electroplating: Sapucaia on the EntreCamadas podcast

Sapucaia was on EntreCamadas — “the podcast that goes beyond the surface”, a Brazilian podcast on surface finishing. Episode #08, “AI and automation in electroplating: innovation in practice”, has Juan Victor, director of Sapucaia, as its guest, in a conversation about how artificial intelligence and automation enter the daily work of a metal-finishing shop. The episode is in Portuguese.

▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube

What the episode covers

About 26 minutes of conversation, in Portuguese. Click a timestamp to jump straight to that part.

Time	Topic
0:48	From an Information Systems degree to Sapucaia: joining the family business in 2010, as the third generation
2:40	Where the opportunity for innovation in Brazil lies, compared with what is seen on visits to China, and why the sector needs to modernise
5:27	Machine automation and monitoring in plating shops without million-dollar investments
7:20	How artificial intelligence is democratising technology and making the once out-of-reach accessible
9:24	The research and development of an in-house process-control platform, first designed almost a year before the recording
11:32	Process control, a data lake to centralise company data, and part traceability
15:04	Business purpose: scale or specialisation — looking for the “Blue Ocean”
16:14	Innovation in coatings: corrosion resistance and bath technology
19:05	Running a family business and the transition between generations, with different speeds of change
23:04	Stay curious: advice for those building a career in the sector — the information is there for whoever looks for it

Why this matters to whoever specifies

In electroplating, the finished part does not show how it was made: colour, brightness and appearance can look the same on a coating that meets the specification and on one that does not. What protects the buyer is a measured and recorded process — and that is where data, automation and artificial intelligence make the difference: less batch variation, traceability of every step, and decisions made on numbers rather than impressions.

Where this already shows in our routine

Step	How we control it
Bath load	The load equation and the constants per material are public
Coating	X-ray measurement in our own laboratory
Performance	Our own calibrated salt spray chamber
System	Quality management certified to ISO 9001:2015

It is the same control behind the most demanding coatings we apply, such as NanoGalv® nanostructured zinc-nickel, ASTM B841 zinc-nickel and ASTM B766 cadmium.

Listen, share and keep the conversation going

If the episode raised a question about your process or your part, send us the technical drawing of the part and the coating standard: our sales team returns system, class and coating thickness. Request a quotation.