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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Problems activating Electroless Nickel plated parts
Q. Hi all, I have some Aluminium parts that have been plated using Electroless Nickel.
The Nickel has been buffed to a very high shine so that it resembles a mirror but I cannot get the nickel to activate.
I have tried nickel activator and SS activator but nothing.
Has anyone any ideas what I can do to activate my part?
hobbyist, product designer - Ayr, Scotland
July 27, 2008
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A. Firstly, make sure your surfaces are absolutely clean and have no surface contamination on them. It is important that you are exposing the nickel metal and have removed all other coatings. Next, connect the workpiece to the negative power supply and the positive side to a piece of metal. Ideally use nickel, but if you haven't any, use a piece of copper wire or something. Put the workpiece and piece of metal in the electroless nickel solution and quickly turn on the power - you only need a low current density (say 1 ASF) for less than a minute. You will start to see gas bubbles coming off the workpiece - then your electroless nickel will start to work. As soon as it does start, remove your metal wire and turn off the power  Trevor Crichton R&D practical scientist Chesham, Bucks, UK July 31, 2008 A. First, you have to get all of the polish off. That can be a trick because you do not know what was used, so how do you take it off. - Navarre, Florida July 30, 2008 |
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OOPS, My post should have been 30% nitric acid and 1.5% hydrofluoric acid. The HF is extremely dangerous so think twice about using it. James Watts- Navarre, Florida July 31, 2008 Hi, an easy way I have found to re-activate electroless nickel is to tungsten etch it for about 1 minute , then back in the nickel solution ... - UK July 31, 2008 Q. Jay, I have never heard of a tungsten etch on this side of the puddle. Please, what is it? James Watts- Navarre, Florida August 1, 2008 |
Q. I have a similar but more complex problem. I have some nickel-iron parts which have electroless nickel plating (15-20 microns). I need to strip the plating off but normal strippers, as you would expect, eat the base material too. Just to add to the difficulty, these parts have been furnaced but thankfully are clean. Is there a way the electroless can be reactivated without affecting the base material?
James Mayle- United Kingdom
April 2, 2015
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