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Stainless steel electropolishing or nickel or chrome plating

Hi,

How can I get the mirror like finish using stainless steel 304 which I will use for furniture arm? I will use round stainless steel and have it bent based on the design.

our client showed us a sample that is polished SS and it was like mirror finish and they said it was polished. I was doubting that it was polished finish. I'm guessing it was nickel plated or chrome plated. Still I don't have any idea how to get their finish. I tried polishing the SS but I can't get that kind of mirror finish.

Please help.

Thanks.

Eric Urbiztondo
production manager - Vietnam
March 15, 2009

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March 20, 2009

Eric,
I've seen some SUS components that have been Electropolished ( EP )that looks close to Nickel / Chrome finish.

SK Cheah
- Penang, Malaysia

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Electropolished 304 looks very much like chrome plated; and even to experienced platers, it can be very difficult to tell what is electropolished and what is nickel/chrome plated.
A dip in 30 % nitric acid will show the difference...

Bo Konig
- Odense, Denmark
March 23, 2009

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March 26, 2009

There is a possibility that EP can give you a finishing that looks like Ni/Cr plating. Apart from using EP, there is always an alternative which is mechanical Polish using polishing compound like green rouge ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and etc. However, mechanical polishing cannot polish easily on complicated parts or hard to reach corner of the shape.

To check whether the parts is SS or Ni-Cr Plated, I normally use a very simple magnet to check, but the base of the Ni-Cr plated parts must be steel :).

Good luck.

Robin Chua Chun Yu
- Singapore

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We have stainless steel fittings (T304SS, tees, crosses and elbows)can be mirror polish ID as well as OD to a chrome like mirror finish. From experience... this can be done without electropolishing. Also, customers using True #8 mirror finish sheets can weld and polish out the welds (semiconductor equipments) to a seamless joint. It's an art that requires experience and know how.

Michael Liu Taylor
specialty stainless steel distributor - Dallas, Texas
March 29, 2009

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If you use #8 (mirror) finished stainless (other names are 600 polished, and lineal buffed tubing) to start out with it, all you will need to do is touch up the fab/weld marks after.
After fabbing you can have the parts electropolished which will increase the corrosion resistance, remove all weld/heat discoloration, polish and brighten in one step. And it will be cheaper than labour involved in mechanically polishing.

Cliff Kusch
electropolishing shop - North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
September 20, 2009