Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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Plating Zinc Die-Cast without Copper

Hello all,

A die casting shop is begging us to take over their work. Their current plater has scraped 60,000 pieces in the past few months. Their excuse was a bad copper bath. We do all their anodizing with quality so now they want us to take over their zinc and nickel. We are not set up with a copper bath nor do we want to set one up. Is there any way to plate barrel nickel over Zinc Die-cast without copper?

Jamie Olson
project manager - Portland, Or, USA
June 6, 2008

June 6, 2008

Hi, Jamie. I have heard of specialty nickel strikes for die castings but I am not aware of anyone actually doing it. Such specialty approaches are rarely robust enough to deal with real-world day-to-day needs. Don't let another shop's excuse about a bad copper bath put you into a problem. I think the right way to do die-castings is to start with copper plating. You can do a cyanide-free type.

Regards,

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

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