The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----

Does surface finish improve or deteriorate if chrome plated?

August 24, 2009

Dear sir/Gentelmen,

We manufacture bearing products in EN31 material and the same is hardened and mass finished through tumbling process and we achieve a finish of Ra 0.08 to 0.10 microns.

Then the same is hard chrome plated.

My Question:

Will the surface finish will improve (Ra 0.05 to 0.08 microns)after hard chrome plating or will increase(Ra 0.10 to 0.13microns)

My clarification:

Is the improvement of surface finish related to before plating or the surface finish has to be improved my maintaining the chrome bath concentrations.

Kindly clarify the above which will be very useful for me.

Arunachalam M
engineer - Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India