The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Want procedures for chrome plating of plastics

We want to chrome plate on plastic, and are looking for procedures, and for companies which sell the products for chrome plating on plastic.

mustafa demirci
chrome plating, Istanbul/turkey
1998

Someone once told me that "silver" look of a chrome plated auto bumper is really the nickel plating; and that the chrome plating is almost clear and provides the sheen and hard durable top coat. Is this true?

Terry Keating
- Westerville, Ohio
2002

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Yes, the idea is true although the wording may be imprecise. Chrome is not clear, but it is extremely thin (measured in the millionths of an inch, while the nickel is measured in thousandths or ten-thousandths). And it takes a good eye to tell a nickel plated finish from a nickel-chrome finish (the nickel is slightly yellow and will get more so as it tarnishes). Until the 1940s bumpers had no chrome on them, only nickel.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2002

I need to know the chemicals used in Chrome-plating in steel and Aluminum and the sequence of the full operation Thanks for help.

Abdelbaset Amer
Mechanical institute - Tripoli
2003

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2003

Hard chrome plating or decorative nickel-chrome plating, Amer? The chemicals required and the sequence of operation fill whole books, so the best we can do may be to refer you to them:

Chromium Plating by Weiner and Walmsley
Handbook of Hard Chromium Plating by Robert Guffie.

But if you post your own actual situation rather than an abstract request for information, maybe someone can help at less than book length. Good luck!

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey