Copper Nickle Chrome Plating advice

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Hello all,

Need some expert advice if possible.

I need to make a small aluminum plate, approximately 35 x 35 x 1mm thick

This then needs plating

Does this need to hang in the tank? and if so is it possible to bond / solder a wire or lug to the back?

Thanks for any help

Brian

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Tou will need to make secure electrical connection to the plate. (A tapping into the rear of the plate? )

The suspension wire needs to be thick enough to carry the current (Not unknown for such things to burn through and drop the work into the tank! )

The Copper plate needs to go on first (Interesting, normally Copper and Aluminiumkj in an electrolytic environment resu;ts in corrosive attack of the Aluminium )

Having plated the Copper, the Nickel is then applied.

(This is the ususal procedure prior to Chromium plating, the Nickel being a a barrier to minimise corrosion, on steel, with the Copper being the "primer".

However, it may be that the Nickel is intended as a barrier beteween the Copper and the Aluminium?

Howard

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

I think there is a book in the workshop practice series, Ah yes No 11, for the sake of £8 it might save a lot of wasted effort or money. Noel.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

There used to be an electroless plate called Niculoy for aluminium.  As the name implies it adds a layer of copper and nickel.

Aha! It still exists

It also works on non-metallic surfaces. One place I worked, we made RF enclosures by slicing an aluminium extrusion into short lengths, plating after ultrasonic and vapour-phase cleaning, then screen printed solder paste onto the appropriate surfaces in a jig, applied pressed plated lids, and vapour-phase soldered the lids on using a standard electronics solder. As I recall we bought the plating fluid from RS.

Edited By John Haine on 27/04/2023 10:57:13

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

To answer your initial questions…

Yes, the work must hang in the tank and with a good electrical connection. If there are through-holes in it you can hang it on wire from a copper-tube bus-bar- as in a small plating-works where I once worked.

The solution may need warming (the manufacturers' instructions should advise).

Perhaps more importantly, it will need agitating for more even plating. One way is to blow air through it, rather like an aquarium aerator (one might work in a small tank). I forget if our plant used that of a circulating-pump, the delivery being through perforated pipes along the tank floor, but the important point is keeping the solution stirred. A mechanical stirrer based on a propellor-type paint-stirrer could be effective.

The work does need be absolutely clean, including down screw-holes and the like, usually achieved by a detergent though with care as alkalis will etch aluminium. It is also better to have no sharp edges, though it didn't seem to matter on the hundreds of thousands of brass mascara-brush ferules we nickel – gold plated! The smaller ones were threaded onto copper wire like necklaces; the larger clipped to special jigs.

To protect a threaded hole, I would suggest inserting a plastic – not metal – screw long enough for the tapping but leaving plenty of room below its head.

[Brian AbbottParticipant @brianabbott67793]

Thanks for taking the time to reply and for the advice given.

Spoke to a local plating company and i’m sorted now

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