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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing 1989-2024
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Nickel-Cobalt electroplating
adv.
Q. Hello. My company does reverse engineering of different types of components. We had a part analyzed and was told that it was a nickel/cobalt electroplating with the Cobalt being around 10%. We sent a second part out for analysis and was told it was also nickel/cobalt electroplating but the Cobalt was 24%.
My questions are -
1. Is Cobalt - Nickel electroplating a single process, or is it a layer of Nickel and a layer of Cobalt?
2. What is causing the difference in the Cobalt percentage? Could it be different processors?
3. Is there a spec that requires the cobalt to be a certain percentage?
4. The first sample was from a used part and the second sample was a new part. Could that affect the Cobalt percentage?
Thank you
- Alabama
October 22, 2024
A. Hello Dee,
1. It is, of course, possible to electroplate a layer or nickel and then a layer of cobalt on top of it, or vice-versa, but I'm very confident that we are talking about an alloy of nickel-cobalt.
2. It is not unusual for electrodeposited alloy deposits to have varying percentages of metals, but it may result in the samples exhibiting different properties. Yes, different processors may tweak their parameters for different compositions.
3. I'm not aware of any industry-wide spec which dictates the cobalt percentage in nickel-cobalt plating, but it is always possible that there is a spec for the specific component which dictates it.
4. Heat and age might cause a certain amount of separation at grain boundaries, but it could not affect the cobalt percentage.
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Thank you Ted. Very helpful as always.
- Alabama
October 23, 2024
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