What Parts Suit Electroless Nickel Plating

Some components are better suited for Electroless Nickel Plating than others. This list will give you a quick run down as to whether your component will be suitable.

Parts With Complex Internal Geometry

Because the coating is deposited through a chemical process rather than an electric current, it is ideal for components with complex internal geometry. For example, electroless nickel can deposit on every internal surface of components such as hydraulic valve bodies and pneumatic housings. All surfaces are coated evenly, including surfaces which are far from the anode in a conventional plating bath.

Difficult Substrate Materials

Aluminium, Copper Alloys & Some Plastics: Parts of these difficult substrate materials can be coated using Electroless Nickel. Pump Impellers & other parts such as heat exchanger components are typical examples of parts made from these types of materials that are processed using Electroless Nickel. These parts can be difficult to plate using traditional rack-and-barrel electroplating techniques and achieve consistent results.

Parts Held to Close Dimensional Tolerances

Parts That Go to Very Close Dimensional Tolerances. For example: wear plates, which can be anodised to finish. Mould tools, and very precise bores and holes all get plated to finished size, as it is easy to calculate the amount of increase of dimension that the plating will add, and so the part can be dimensioned before plating, to the finished size.

Components Needing Wear and Corrosion Resistance Together

Nickel-phosphorus coatings can be heat-treated to provide wear resistance of a similar level to hard chrome, and also provide corrosion resistance. Such parts include threaded fasteners and valve stems and drive shafts for use in oil and gas or marine environments.

More on Electroless Nickel Plating can be found at https://www.poeton.co.uk/surface-treatments/plating/electroless-nickel-plating/.

High-Value or Hard-to-Replace Parts

This is particularly important for high-value parts and for parts that take a long time to manufacture. For such parts, the consistency of the nickel plate process is critical, as is the control of the process to ensure that nickel compounds are handled within workplace exposure limits. This is an area covered by the HSE.

So, if your part has some internal geometry, has close dimensional tolerances or even requires a wear resistant coating that is also corrosion resistant then electroless nickel plating is well worth a look.