Category Archives: Plating
What are the Advantages of Electroless Nickel Plating?
The revolutionary approach of electroless nickel plating has come up as a far superior alternative of traditional electro-nickel plating to users with its great metallurgical properties. When it comes to electroless plating, instead of depending on electric charge based coating procedure, a plating company undergo an auto-catalytic layer depositing method with nickel-phosphorous alloy. The uniformity of coating that electroless nickel plating (EN) can produce is experienced far smoother and dependable by major industrial users all over the world. Remarkably, in the auto-catalytic plating procedure, phosphorous performs in the major role of a superior catalyst and helps in addressing any kind of surface with irregularity like gaps, cubs, holes, groupings which appears tricky in traditional nickel plating. By altering the percentage of the prosperous mix, the alloy can render customized coating advantage with exclusive metallurgical benefits.
In the plating process, usually, a solution of nickel salt and hypophosphite is used for bathing the base material while various other chemical compounds might be used in the solution to control pH levels and for stabilizing the session. Significantly, electroless nickel plating can be successfully applied on both conductive as well as non-conductive materials, like plastics, fibers and other synthetic material where electroplating nickel plating often fails.
Electroless Nickel Plating and its Benefits
Flawless Smooth Coating
One of the great benefits of electroless nickel finishing that has made it increasingly popular to industrial users is that it offers consistently smooth and steady coating on metal substrates, irrespective of its surface complexity or geometrical design. Electroless nickel plating can effectively reach the buried surfaces including holes, sections, and cuttings, like a ball bearing pieces. Thanks to the newest concept that doesn’t need extra surface finishing steps to make up the exposed areas, which has been a common pain in electroplating procedure. In consideration of accuracy level of metal finishing those industries like medical devices, automobile, or aviation need today, it’s none, but electroless plating can only deliver the desired level of coating finishing.
Superior Corrosion Resistance
The auto-catalytic process of electroless nickel plating has been established to be an exceptionally stable barrier to protect metal substrates from all possible oxidation, rusting, and wear. It’s the PH concentration used in the plating plays the major role of being an extremely defending layer to environmental deterioration that worries major industries that aviation, defense services, off-shore, engineering, and others. Moreover, by changing the percentage of phosphorous in the alloy, industrial users can get a custom defensive coat of nickel finishing as per application need. Even with 100% nickel used in the plating solution, electroplating cannot produce the class of anti-corrosion property that electroless can do.
Customized Coating Density
One unique attribute of electroless nickel plating is that, depending on the nature of the industrial application, users can get custom-made plating density available in low, medium, and high standards. Just by changing the amount of phosphorous mix in the plating solution, a specialized plating company can not only change the endurance of the coating but its innate property too.
o Low phosphorous- With minimal ph mix, you can get even thickness all over the metal body well protected against rusting, tarnishing and deterioration;
o Medium phosphorous- medium phosphorus mixed electroless plating generates high-class coating endurance, anti-corrode strength, and smoothness. Aside from the unique protective layer, the alloy is often demanded for brightening the substrate that adds to product visual.
o High phosphorous – for applications that specially used in mining projects, or sits in high salty, alkaline environments, never forget to ask for high phosphorous auto-catalytic nickel plating.
Brilliant Exterior Solidity
In no way, you can overlook the great significance of coating solidity that typically protects the underlying object from potential peeling, abrasion and wear; common in exterior environments. No surprise that electroless nickel plating has emerged as a never before a solution to fetch you highly intense, long-lasting, strapping exterior coating of your products.
The scope of Composite Coating
Composite coating signifies using an alloy of two or more materials. The plating concept has been in high demand to major corporate sectors due to its high-class chemical properties of hardness, corrosion, and abrasion resistance. Notably, the high potential of auto-catalytic plating has been proved to meet extremely rigid coating standard demanded by offshore, mining, shipping and aviation nowadays. Phosphate mixed composite costing is ideally great to bear extreme climatic condition, intense UV rays, heat, and thus providing a shield of safety, security, and endurance.
Cadmium Plating Process – The Various Kinds of Substances Used in Metal Plating
Cadmium is a byproduct of zinc, and in 1920 it got recognition as an outstanding plating solution to produce a highly protective metal surface that can work even in extreme weather conditions including salty environments. The uniqueness of cadmium is that even being extremely malleable that makes them versatile for metallic coating, once electroplated they boast extremely robust as a protective layer.
Also, called as Cad, it can be plated successfully on metals like steel, malleable, iron, cast iron, copper, and powdered metal and playing the role of a ‘sacrificial coating’ before the base metal. Industries like aerospace, defense, automotive, mining, engineering, electrical, and off-shore are the major users of cadmium plating for various applications.
Key Advantages
• Extremely high corrosion resistance even in an aquatic environment
• Astonishing luster equivalent to silver plating or gold plating (with chromate conversion coatings)
• Commendable lubricity
• Highly malleable
• Solder-ability
• Aesthetic with color option
The Cadmium Plating Process
Among the most popular methods followed by plating companies for cadmium plating, two are barrel plating and electroplating. Another method called vacuum deposition process is also in demand.
Preprocess treatment
The essentiality of pre-processing treatment for cadmium plating is no different from all other metal plating procedures. In order to attain the best coating outcome, thorough cleaning of the substrates before plating is crucial. Without having treatment, the contaminants including dust particles, debris, and oily matters can hinder the integrity level of metal finishing which is unwanted. In general, in the cleaning phase for cad plating, a chemical solution treatment is provided at high boiling level whereas the heat works great on the cool surface of metal bodies to eliminate contaminants. Once well treated, the materials are ready to get plated.
Barrel Plating
Also called as mechanical plating, barrel coating involves submerging the metal items as well as cadmium powder, essential chemical and glass beads to spin gently within the barrel. The process is ideal and economical for small and volume plating of metal parts like fasteners, crews, nuts, and bolts irrespective of their shapes. This coats metal components with cadmium in a mechanical process.
Electroplating
Similar to all other electroplating procedures, cad plating typically needs acid bath and backup of electrical charge. The key substance required for cad plating include cadmium salts while substrates should be dipped within the salt solution before passing the electrical charge through it. Commonly large and delicate metal objects are chosen or cadmium electroplating.
Vacuum Deposition
The vacuum deposition method of cad cadmium plating is carried out through heating the object being plated by heating it in a vacuum. During the process, condensed atoms of cadmium get deposited on the surface of the metal producing a superfine, high-quality film of cadmium. The cad ions contribute a lot to enhance the properties of the coating. This kind of plating is mostly used for plating rotor parts used in helicopters, aircraft, and others.
Industrial Metal Plating – What Are Its Benefits
Over the centuries, almost all industries have been benefited with consistently evolving industrial metal plating procedures. While both conductive and non-conductive metal objects are the key components for various manufacturing processes, it is plating that provides a thin layer of metal like copper, zinc, nickel, gold, or silver as a barrier on the base metal substrates to protect them from varied atmospheric conditions like corrosion.
Contextually, metal plating offers plenty of benefits from hardening to improved conductivity, solderability, wear-ability, paint adhesive ability and so on. Plating can be accomplished through electroplating, whereas electric charge is essential and through electroless plating or autocatalytic process; that doesn’t require electrical support.
Industrial Metal Plating -Benefits
Improved corrosion resistance
Natural oxidation that speeds up rusting is the biggest opponent for steel, cast iron, and aluminum, the three largest consumed metals in industrial applications. Even though pure aluminum is quite anti-corrosive, but when alloyed, they equally become vulnerable to oxide, rust, and wear. Depending on the criticality of the setting, with various kinds of less reactive metal plating, the high impact of corrosion can be effectively lessened.
Decorative appeal
Not only jewelry but right from constructional industry to home appliances, lighting accessories, furnishing industry to assembly component manufacturers ( like nuts, screw, bolts, fasteners) these days look for aesthetically appealing product finishes attracting prospective customers. Based on the applications and product cost, a thin layer of precious metals like gold or silver to cost-effective zinc plating can increase the visual look those objects to a great extent.
Enhanced strength
Metal plating means is a consistent solution to make brittle metal substances like copper, gold makes more durable and robust to let them resist to possible damages. Plated surfaces with nickel, cadmium or chrome are less prone to damage when collided, dropped that typically increase their durability.
Increased conductivity
Even though the largest part of metals is conductive, however, an efficient way to enhance their conductive property is now possible with metal plating. For example, plating with gold or silver can amazingly improve the conductivity of a base material that becomes helpful for industries like electronics, automobile, communication or aeronautic and so on.
Higher lubricity
Friction among metal parts is a common scenario in workshops as well as in various industrial applications. With appropriate choice of metal plating like cadmium, various industries are benefited to successfully lessen friction that causes unwanted galling and thus, increase efficiently of mechanisms.
Enhanced adhesiveness
Various plating process comes handy to increase the adhesiveness of metal substrates enabling them to work as a great undercoat. That helps in adding paints and thus provides a uniform metal surface. In addition, increased adhesiveness of metal surface helps greatly by increasing the integrity of when it comes to critical applications.
Increased solderability
The need for solderability is immense in various industrial applications. Whether we talk about electronics, electrical, aviation, engineering or the decorative world, better solderability with plating is vastly demanding.
Heat resistance
Simply consider your home appliances that come with copper plating because that can stand high temperature without any hassle. Similarly, in various applications metal plating offers the easiest way to resist heat.