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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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Electroless nickel plating process sequence
Q. Hi my name is yogesh. I am trying to set up new electroless nickel plating small plant for my own personal work. As it is mentioned over web that EN plating does not require electric connection. But when I was querying to sellers they are mentioning the use of rectifiers and anode. I do not know anything about these processes so can anyone help me to give me flowchart of the EN plant setup so that I will manage by my own, or post some stepwise pictures of setting the setup.
Yogesh Samant- Uttrakhand , India
October 19, 2019
A. Hi Yogesh. My personal opinion is that it is foolish for someone with no plating experience to try to design a plating line and establish a plating process on their own without a consultant ... or as a minimum hiring an experienced plater, taking a plating course, and reviewing a few books on the subject.
But if you're going to rely on internet advice, step 1 is to determine what health & safety and environmental guidelines you will need to comply with. Then you should have some sample parts plated by an independent shop and tested so you have some idea what sequence will be necessary for satisfactory parts.
As far as the process sequence itself, we need to start with what the parts are, what metal or plastic they are made of, and what environmental conditions they must withstand. Even the most basic question of a generalized pretreatment plating cycle and whether you need rectifiers & anodes will depend on what the substrate is made of -- if any metal other than aluminum, rectifiers and anodes are probably required for the electrocleaning step even if nowhere else. If the parts are copper or brass you also need a plating rectifier to jump start the electroless plating process. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
October 2019
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