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Usual Zinc Plating Thickness?

2004

Dear Sir,

We are planning to do Zn Yellow Passivation on one of our component (Wave Washer, Material is Spring Steel).

Could you please let me know what is the normally achievable Plating Thickness and what will be the tolerance for the same.

Regards

Sunil Koshy
Souriau Connection Technology - Cochin, Kerala, India

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2004

Hello Sunil. That is not the direction from which the problem is approached. First you need to decide what environment the component faces, and then decide on the plating thickness you want. For the purposes of tolerancing, though, if you're just looking for a sense of the thing, zinc plating thickness will usually be specified in the .0002" to .0006" range, resulting in min and max thicknesses in say the .0001" to .001" range.

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

You need to be very careful, if you are doing Zinc plating, yellow passivation. Hydrogen embrittlement can cause the spring steel material to crack. I suggest after plating, please keep washers in oven @ 100 degree for about 2-3 hrs,to complete hydrogen de-embrittlement process, after which you can proceed with passivation. Alternately, do only manganese phosphating. This is safe.

Prabhakar Kamath
- Mumbai, India
2004