Removing/Stripping Electroless Nickel Plating from Steel

A. There are a number of commercial strippers for electroless nickel and copper. Both immersion strippers and electrolytic strippers will remove the coating without significantly etching the substrate. My favorite is ammonium nitrate based solutions which operate at a pH of about 6 and are quite fast, especially for EN.

A. Best way to remove plating is let the platers do it. We have to de-plate and re-plate more often then we wish to remember. We send it back to the platers. They in turn use proprietary mixes to selectively attack the plating while leaving the base metal alone. Reverse plating is also another option. Proprietary plating removers are mixtures of acids, highly buffered, with selective chemicals to focus the acids on the platings and leave the parent materials alone. More than that, I cannot help, except to point you to some references. I remember several that covered stripping, but it was not my focus and I took no notes:

1. The Canning Handbook [on eBay, Amazon, AbeBooks affil links]

2. Electroplating, 1978 ⇦[this on eBay , Amazon, AbeBooks affil links] ; American Society of Electroplaters McGraw-Hill Book Co, NY ISBN 0-07-038836-0

3. Electroplating Engineering Handbook [on AbeBooks or eBay or Amazon affil links] , 4th Edition 1984: L.D. Durney.

4. Electrodeposition of Alloys, Vol 1 (Principles and Practice) ⇦[this on Amazon, eBay, & AbeBooks affil links] 1963: A. Brenner Academic Press, NY CCN 62-13044

5. The modern electroplating laboratory manual ⇦[this on Amazon or AbeBooks affil links] 1965: I.C. Armet Robert Draper Ltd, Teddington, England No I.D.

University Libraries are godsends of good data. Good luck.

A. Dear Sir,
For Stripping electroless nickel from mild steel substrate you can try with mixture comprising 7 parts of nitric acid and 3 parts of acetic acid with /without additives. Care should be taken to check the basis metal often during the stripping process to avoid etching of basis metal.

With regards,

A. Several proprietary products exist [ed. note: already mentioned on this page] which are used according to the bulletins. Another very easy and quick way to strip nickel is using 100% nitric acid with 10% of acetic acid as inhibitor. The pieces should be baked to eliminate any trace of humidity; to submerge them in the solution without movement, neither to take it out it until it is stripped. Note, the pieces should be hung.

A. Hi, Sam. Metalx (Ronatec.us) [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] offers their B-9 series of strippers for this purpose. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Brian,
EN is a bear to remove chemically. You didn't say what the base metal is or what kind of EN (high phos is harder to strip) and an answer pretty much depends on that. If it is steel I would blast it.

A. S Nickel Rounds are an anode material, so that indicates that your vendor electroplated nickel rather than electroless nickel. One relatively safe chemical option for stripping would be MetalX B-9+ Metalx (Ronatec.us) [a finishing.com supporting advertiser]. Overplating is possible, but passive nickel is difficult to chemically activate and would require hazardous chemicals, so I'd hesitate to recommend that you proceed in that direction.

A. One of our standard operations was stripping and replating of worn down parts and tools.

Stripping can be a fairly simple and cost effect operation with the use of B9, tap water, a plastic tank big enough to completely submerge the parts, a titanium (for extended use) fish tank heater and low air or fish pump to agitate the solution.

Process: 1 to 7 days depending on thickness of nickel plating on parts. Mix B9 into water, bring up to 120 to 150f, agitate solution (very low movement of solution needed) and wait checking parts daily. Nickel will turn black and come right off.

Prep of parts recommended by sand blasting to remove any dirt or other material which may cover nickel. Also blasting all parts when removed from B9 bath.

Hope this helps. I personally have stripped thousands of parts this way. On a side note it says B9 is safe with copper this is true but eventually copper will start to pit and break if left uncovered in solution for long periods of time

A. Hola Emmanuel, We strip ENi from Steel (h13) with proprietary products from our suppliers. They are expensive products, but work fast. Best regards,

A. Hi Vikrant. It looks like that question has been addressed repeatedly on this page. Please try your best to frame your question in terms of one of the answers already provided so that we can appreciate what you are having difficulty understanding, or what we may be misunderstanding about your situation. Thanks!

Regards,

A. Hi Sakthivel. Please tell us what process you are using which is too slow, or why you feel that the previously proposed solutions are wrong. Thanks!

Your posting hasn't received any response -- readers may be reluctant to post suggestions, figuring you would say "that's what we're doing, and it's too slow" :-)

Regards,