How a cove mitre is manufactured will depend on what material it is made of.
How are steel cove mitres manufactured?
Cove mitres made of steel have their basic outline formed from a sheet of steel in a process called blanking. This process is carried out in a single step by a punch and die.
The punch presses down on the sheet steel from above, while the die underneath the sheet metal has a cut-out in the shape of the tool’s outline. This creates a shearing action that cuts the cove mitre’s outline shape from the sheet of steel.
This outline cut-out shape then gets placed in a second machine, called a bending machine, which bends the flat piece of steel into the final shape of the cove mitre.
What are steel cove mitres coated with?
Once the shape has been formed, steel cove mitres are coated with a layer of zinc or nickel for corrosion prevention, using an electro-plating process.
The cove mitre is dipped in a solution called an electrolyte that contains metal ions. An anode made of the metal which the cove mitre is to be coated with is connected to a positive electrical terminal and also placed in the electrolyte, while the cove mitre is connected to a negative terminal to form what’s known as the cathode.
DC (direct current) is applied through the anode and cathode. This causes the metal of the anode to dissolve ions into the electrolyte, which are then deposited on the cathode (cove mitre).
How are plastic cove mitres manufactured?
Plastic cove mitres are made using a process called injection moulding. This involves raw plastic beads being fed from a hopper into a heated barrel chamber. This melts the plastic, which is then pushed though the barrel by a screw mechanism and into the cavity within the mould.
The molten plastic solidifies within the mould cavity. When the two halves of the mould are separated, the finished part is revealed. Injection moulding can be used to make a wide range of products such as plastic toys and mobile ‘phone covers as it’s a very quick and cost-effective way of manufacturing high volume products.
