Brass plating on stainless steel

A. Hi Muhammad Allah. Please tell us why you want to plate them with brass because that is what will determine what you should do.

If you're doing it just for the color, brass plating is the wrong answer. A PVD coating, perhaps with zirconium nitride or titanium nitride will be far more durable and much more satisfactory overall. If you are applying it because some biomedical benefit of brass is desired, that will mean you can't lacquer or clearcoat it, and it won't last without discoloration at all. If it's just for display, you can treat it with benzotriazole ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and lacquer or clearcoat it; but not being in the medical industry it's hard for me to envision what lacquered brass surgical instruments would be usable for.

Luck & Regards,

A. Yes, certainly, Ken. But the body of your message says 'steel' and the title said 'stainless steel', and stainless steel requires a Wood's Nickel Strike before we speak of the rest of the plating process.

A. Dear sir,
If you want to do the brass plating on stainless steel first you have to do nickel strike plating then you go for the brass plating. Nickel strike bath contains nickel chloride and hydrochloric acid. generally nickel strike plating takes 2-5 min.

A. The nickel strike, commonly referred to as a Wood's Nickel Strike, is used as a base for subsequent plating. If you are trying to do a bright brass flash a Watts type nickel underplate is necessary. If you desire a "heavy brass" then you can plate that over the Woods Strike although I would personally prefer a short Watts Nickel plate.

A. Sir,
If you want good brass finishing, after strike nickel plating you have to bright nickel plate, then go for brass plating -- then it appears good. Try it, good luck

"Electrocoating: a Guidebook for Finishers"
by Electrocoat Association

on eBay or

AbeBooks

or Amazon

(affil links)

Hi Ashwini. Stainless steel can certainly be brass plated per above descriptions and lacquered. To reiterate, you need to start with Wood's nickel to get adhesion on stainless steel. Then you can either do just brass plating if you don't need shine, or you can do bright nickel plating followed by brass plating if you want a reflective shine. However, electrocoating the nickel plating with a lacquer with a brass tint might be easier and cheaper. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Jayanti. I'm not sure that I understand your question, but stainless steel can be nickel plated then brass plated or gold plated. Alternately, zirconium nitride, titanium nitride, and similar materials can be applied to stainless steel for brass or gold coloration by PVD processes.

Regards,

"A User's Guide to Vacuum Technology"
by John F. O'Hanlon

on AbeBooks

or eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi Mike it's possible that shops have different size vacuum chambers, so I don't know the exact limits; probably not very big for fabricated parts, although I've heard of titanium nitride plated stainless steel sheets up to about 4' x 10'.

But I would not do brass plating and follow it with a PVD clearcoat. I'd just go directly for a PVD coating of titanium nitride or other material which delivers the tone you are looking for. You might google "titanium nitride stainless sheet"

Regards,

A. Zirconium nitride is used in the faucet and door industries for the brass finish.

A. Hi Rodolfo. Unfortunately, I don't even know what you mean by "stainless steel rails on a hairline brass finish" and don't want to mislead you over the semantics of different geographical areas. Maybe you mean "... with a hairline brass finish", or maybe an auto-correct caught you and you meant "with a hairline brush finish"? If you can clarify exactly what finish you are seeking someone may be able to tell you how it's most commonly achieved. Thanks.

But as a starting point, stainless steel cannot be electrodeposited; brass can be electroplated onto stainless but, per earlier responses on this thread, most "brass-look" finishes on stainless steel are probably not actually brass but zirconium nitride deposited by PVD processes. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Rodolfo. Although it is possible to brass plate stainless steel, that is not how the color is usually achieved in architectural work. Rather, the stainless sheet or barstock is usually PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coated with titanium nitride or zirconium nitride in a vacuum chamber.

My understanding is that people don't generally buy the stainless and then seek a PVD coating service, but rather purchase the hairline finished colored stainless steel from a supplier. Although we don't recommend particular suppliers (why?), some typical pages that explain and illustrate the process that I am talking about are:

Regards,

A. Hi Wagas. Stainless steel is more expensive and more difficult to brass plate than carbon steel, but is more corrosion resistant and will result in a higher quality product. I can't suggest which to use in the abstract though. If you tell us exactly what you want to build, advice might be available.

Is there no one in your country who can offer this service to you, because it's a bit complicated. The process will probably involve mechanical finishing, then alkaline cleaning, then an acid dip, Wood's Nickel strike, bright Watts Nickel plating, then brass plating (probably using poisonous cyanide), very careful rinsing, then clearcoating or lacquering.

Do you presently do any electroplating yourself?

As alternatives, some brass colored products are not actually brass plated, but are PVD coated with zirconium nitride or similar hard coatings. And some are only nickel plated then electrocoated with a translucent lacquer in a brass color. But these alternatives are not usually practical at very low volume. Good luck!

Regards,

A. Hi Sami.
Brass tarnishes almost immediately, so if you are doing real brass plating on stainless steel, you will need to apply a good clear coat to maintain the same shade at all. So if the brass plating is good quality, the life will depend only on how well the clear coat you select functions.

Are you the buyer, or seller, or working in the plating shop? And what is being brass plated? There are so many different ways for this conversation to go :-(

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi again Sami. There is a lot involved in brass plating on stainless steel, and there are many different sorts of clear coats: there is brass lacquer, which is made for brass and easily removed and renewed; it can probably last 10 years indoors if well applied, but I doubt that it generally lasts more than 2 or 3 years outdoors. There are single-component clear coats which are very easy to apply, and are not removed, but re-applied, and probably offer similar life. For greater life at additional complexity there are two-component clearcoats, probably best known as the clear coats on automobile paint. There are also radiation-cured/UV-cured clear coats such as used on automotive headlights, and this is probably the most complex because you must cure it as well as apply it.

As for how many coats, thicknesses, etc., that is going to depend on the technology you select and you'll probably want to work with the vendor of the coating you select. Some if not all of these technologies would probably benefit from you dipping the brass in a proprietary solution of sodium benzotriazole first.

We do not post recommendations of brands or sources ( huh? why?), but if you'd like to investigate with the vendors whether 10-year life is practical for the simplest approaches of brass lacquer or single-component clearcoats, G.J. Nikolas [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] and/or Everbrite [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] can probably help. Best of luck!

Regards,