Inside Sidasa Engineering: How a 70-Year-Old Company Builds the World's Most Advanced Plating Lines

Barcelona, 1952

SIDASA Engineering was founded in Barcelona, Spain in 1952 — making them one of the oldest continuous manufacturers of electroplating line equipment in the world. In the seven decades since, they've designed and installed automated finishing lines across every continent, serving automotive, aerospace, general manufacturing, and specialty coating applications.

Level Up Plating Supply is SIDASA's North American partner for line design, specification, and project coordination. When a US finishing operation needs a new automated line or a major line upgrade, SIDASA provides the engineering, manufacturing, and commissioning — and we manage the customer relationship, specification process, and logistics from this side of the Atlantic.

What SIDASA Builds

Automated hoist plating lines. Programmable overhead hoist systems that move barrels or racks through a defined sequence of plating, rinsing, and post-treatment stations. Cycle times, immersion depths, transfer speeds, and drain times are all programmed and repeatable — eliminating the operator-dependent variance that degrades quality on manual lines. Every cycle runs identically regardless of who's monitoring the line.

Fully integrated robotic systems. For high-volume operations requiring maximum throughput consistency, SIDASA designs lines with robotic part handling integrated into the plating process. Loading, unloading, and inter-station transfers are managed by programmed robotics — enabling unmanned or lights-out operation for certain production configurations.

Planetary dip-spin coating systems. SIDASA pioneered the first planetary dip-spin system in 1990 — a technology that delivers uniform coating coverage on fasteners and bulk components by rotating parts through the coating solution on a planetary axis. This was an industry first, and SIDASA's dip-spin systems remain the benchmark for uniform mechanical plating and coating on complex small parts.

Turnkey project management. SIDASA doesn't just build equipment — they manage the complete project lifecycle. Specification, 3D facility layout, engineering design, manufacturing, shipping, installation, commissioning, and operator training are all handled as a single managed engagement. The customer gets a running line, not a collection of components to figure out.

The Engineering Approach

What distinguishes SIDASA from commodity line builders is the engineering depth. Every line is custom-designed to the customer's specific process requirements — part geometry, chemistry sequence, throughput targets, facility dimensions, and utility constraints. SIDASA's engineering team produces complete 3D facility models before manufacturing begins, allowing customers to visualize the installed line and identify any layout issues before steel is cut.

The process control architecture is integrated from the start — not bolted on after installation. Chemical feed, temperature control, rectifier management, and cycle programming are designed as a unified system, not separate subsystems from different vendors. This integration is what delivers the process consistency that drives reject reduction and quality traceability.

Who SIDASA Serves

SIDASA's installation base spans:

• Automotive: Barrel and rack zinc, zinc-nickel, and zinc-flake lines for fastener and component manufacturers meeting CQI-11 and IATF 16949 requirements
• Aerospace: Precision plating lines for cadmium, nickel, and specialty coatings with stringent process documentation requirements
• General manufacturing: Rack and barrel lines for decorative and functional plating across industrial, electronics, and consumer products
• Specialty coatings: Dip-spin, mechanical plating, and non-electrolytic coating systems for applications where conventional plating isn't suitable

Why We Partner with SIDASA

We chose SIDASA because the quality of their engineering, the durability of their equipment, and the professionalism of their project management are in a category of their own. In Jim's words: "The design of material, construction technique, and engineering are in a category of its own — and the folks at SIDASA are the greatest to work with."

When a finishing operation is ready to evaluate automation, we coordinate with SIDASA's engineering team to develop a preliminary line specification based on the customer's process requirements and facility constraints. That specification includes a 3D layout, equipment list, and project timeline — giving the customer a concrete proposal to evaluate, not a generic pitch.