Electroless Nickel Plating

Nickel Electroless Plating for Various Applications

Electroless nickel plating is a process that deposits an alloy of 90% nickel and 10% phosphorus on a wide range of metals. The deposition process does not use electricity to drive the plating; Instead, this type of electroless plating uses chemical reduction to drive the metal plating process. This results in a uniform coating thickness throughout the entire geometry of the plating part.

Electroless nickel plating also has a high hardness of 48 Rockwell C, and can be baked at 400°C for 1 hour to increase the hardness to 70 Rockwell C. Due to the uniformity of the plated deposit and the amorphous structure of the electroless nickel, these coatings are also used to provide outstanding corrosion protection.

Our electroless nickel plating meets the following specifications.

  • MIL-C-26074E
  • ASTM B733
  • ASM 2404

Arlington Plating’s APC-100 electroless nickel plating technology can be used on a wide range of applications including:

  • Automotive brake caliper pins
  • Pinion shafts
  • Gears
  • Heat sinks
  • Fuel system components
  • Bleeder screws
  • Industrial cylinder valves
  • Battery casings
  • Motorcycle clevis pins
  • Motor housing starter inserts on brass and steel

These parts are typically processed in a barrel with our APC-100 high phosphorus content electroless nickel. What makes Arlington Plating unique is our ability to process the electroless nickel plating in bulk while still achieving high quality coating performance characteristics.

For chemical process equipment applications, we can electroless nickel plate parts weighing up to 500 lbs that are able to fit in a 4’x4’x5’ process tank. These applications include ball valves, gate valves, butterfly valves, heat exchangers, mixer shafts, pumps, and impellers.

In many cases the electroless nickel plating will protect the substrate from corrosion and stress cracking. Our tank set-up and hoist control system makes our production capabilities ideally suited for these applications.

We also plate magnesium and aluminum computer frames, tablet housings, paddle shifters, and other electronic components. We use the APC-100 process with rack tooling to prevent part-to-part damage.

We can process parts as big as 1’x2’x6” weighing as much as 10 pounds. The process for plating on magnesium requires a copper cyanide strike prior to the electroless nickel plate. The process for plating on aluminum requires a zinc immersion deposit before the electroless nickel layer.

Contact our metal finishers now for more information or request a FREE quote for electroless nickel plating!