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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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Reduce cycle time for nickel plating
Q. Dear sir
We have 500 lit capacity tank (02 Nos) for Nickel plating and satin nickel plating.
Our Existing rectifier gives only 150 A current (Per bath cycle time 30 min)
We need to reduce the cycle time per bath down to 20 min.
Plating thickness is 10 microns
Please guide (Whether we should increase rectifier size).
Pune - India
March 11, 2017
A. Hi Suresh. Although nickel plating is a science, some of the parameters we work with, like maximum current density achievable without burning, are still determined empirically rather than from first principles. Semi-bright and bright nickel plating generally can use about 40 ASF (4 A/sq. dm). If your parts and solutions are "typical" you should be able to plate 15 microns average thickness (.0006") in about 20 minutes. Hopefully that can accomplish your 10 micron (.0004") minimum thickness.
Please put 2/3 of your normal work load onto a rack, plate it at 150 A current for 20 minutes, and tell us what happened. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March 2017
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