Brass plating on aluminum

A. There are at least four alternatives. The least expensive is anodizing the aluminum and using a brass colored dye. This will be highly corrosion resistant, but is not real brass and won't look like real brass to a knowledgable person. The steps are brite dip, desmut, anodize, dye, seal.

The second alternative is actual brass plating. This requires prep steps including etching or brite dipping, then desmutting, followed by zincating, followed by nickel plating, followed by brass plating, followed by lacquering or clear coating (without which, the brass will tarnish immediately).

The third alternative is to follow the steps described up through nickel plating, then apply a brass tinted electrophoretic lacquer instead of the brass plating (this will look like brass even to an expert).

The fourth idea is to simply apply a brass tinted lacquer or electrophoretic lacquer to the polished aluminum; but I don't have any experience on that, and can't say whether it is durable or would fool anybody. But you might speak to lacquer suppliers about it.

A. Hi Imthiyas. I think you are actually asking whether aluminum will be a good substrate for brass plating, rather than whether the pretreatment steps for aluminum substrates are the same as for stainless steel substrates. They're not, and we have lots of threads devoted to both topics. Aluminum must be zincated and nickel plated before the brass plating ... but yes, it can be brass plated.

Please recognize that brass plating will quickly tarnish unless protected with a lacquer or clearcoat. So, while the brass plating itself won't care about the sunlight, the lacquer or clearcoat probably must be UV resistant. And moist/wet areas are invariably more corrosive than drier areas.

With a good clearcoat/lacquer I think brass plated aluminum will be okay for bathroom stuff like towel racks and light fixtures.

Regards,