332813: Electroplating, Plating, Polishing, Anodizing, and Coloring

What this code covers

Census assigns 332813 to shops that electroplate, plate, anodize, color, buff, polish, clean, or sandblast metal parts for the trade. Shops that also finish plastics alongside metal stay here. Painting, powder coating, and galvanizing belong in 332812.

For defense and aerospace this is the home of cadmium and zinc-nickel plating on fasteners and fittings, hard chrome on landing gear and hydraulic rods, electroless nickel on housings, anodize and conversion coating on aluminum, passivation of stainless, phosphate and black oxide on steel, and grit blasting before paint or bond. Most are special processes that a drawing calls out by specification.

What federal buyers typically ask for

Direct notices under this code are mostly depot and fleet readiness center plating services, shop equipment such as rectifiers and tanks, and occasional repair contracts where re-plating is the main task. The larger flow is indirect: machine shops, fastener makers, and fabricators win the part and subcontract your process. Award history in 332710 and 332722 shows who those shops are.

Every process comes with a specification and a class or type. Expect thickness measurement, adhesion tests, salt spray coupons, embrittlement relief bake records for high strength steel, solution analysis logs, and a process certification with each lot. Primes and some depots require a chemical processing accreditation and keep an approved processor list. Cadmium and chromium work also brings environmental limits. Parts often arrive with export controlled drawings, so a Joint Certification Program registration helps.

Depot service buys are often small business set-asides. Part buys follow the set-aside of the part.