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Other plating processes to replace Hard chromium

July 28, 2009

Dear Sirs,
we've got some surgical tools, such as scalpels, scissors, carettes, vice grips..., made in martensitic stainless steel( 400 series stainless steels). In order to increase their corrosion resistance and to obtain excellent hardness( 700 Vickers minimum), these tools should be hard chromium plated. But Hexavalent Chromium CrVI, used in hard chroming process, is a known human Carcinogen and is listed as a hazardous air pollutant.

So, is there any Electro or Electroless-plating processes which can replace HARD CHROME for our application( martensitic steel surgical tools, excellent corrosion resistance and hardness).

THANKS A LOT

hichem bensaid
plating shop employee - Soliman/ TUNISIA

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Hi Hichem,

Look up the properties of high phos electroless nickel. Might be ok, but then again many people have an adverse reaction to nickel.

Trent Kaufman
electroplater - Galva, Illinois
August 14, 2009

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August 19, 2009

I think that you may need to look at designing in a different material to meet the properties you need rather than trying to coat a material that obviously doesn't offer the properties you want.

You have to be careful about human reactions to any coating you apply, which pretty much discounts any of the nickel based coatings.

The surgical field is no my area of expertise, but maybe you could consider one of the thermal coatings. These can be hard and have high wear resistance, but I do not know what the chemical compatibilities with human physiology is like. You will have to tread carefully when selecting your solution.

Brian Terry
Aerospace - Yeovil, Somerset, UK

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August 19, 2009

Titanium Nitride coating by PVD technique should be ideal. It is known to be biocompatible and has hardness of ~ 2500 HV

H.R. Prabhakara - Consultant
Bangalore Plasmatek - Bangalore Karnataka India
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