The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----

Higher fusion point with Electroless Ni or electroplated Ni?

2007

Hi everyone,

I'm a development manager in a zinc plating industry.
One of my costumers has requested us to plate a part for him in nickel, and he needs this nickel deposit to have the highest fusion point possible.
We have done a few things in electroless nickel, but our core business is zinc not nickel.
Can anyone tell me which of electroless or electroplated nickel can form deposits with higher fusion point? And what are the main parameters that influence the fusion point of the deposit?

Thanks in advance,
Paulo

Paulo Vieira
Development Manager - Portugal

---

First of two simultaneous responses --

Assuming you're speaking of the "melting point" of the deposit, nickel indeed has such a POINT, however, nickel phosphorus has a melting RANGE which forms initial liquid phase at temperature much lower than 1000F whereas the melting point of pure nickel is well over 1000F (more like 1400F or thereabouts). Bottom line - higher fusion point is electrodeposited nickel!

Milt Stevenson, Jr.
Syracuse, New York
2007

---

Second of two simultaneous responses -- 2007

Paulo!

In the phase diagram of Ni/P you can see that pure nickel has the highest melting point (appr. 1452°C) in the system Ni/P. The lowest m.p. (appr. 880°C) has an alloy with appr. 11% (wt/wt) ("high phos electroless nickel"). Between 0% and 11% of P there is a nearly linear dependency between the m.p. and the P-content.

hope this could help

Franz Gassner
- Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany