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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
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for Metal Finishing 1989-2025
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Protection for Copper weld elements
Q. I have to protect a copper element used for welding together two zinc parts.
Copper is warmed up with GPL torch and melts tin bar to join two zinc parts.
I need to identify a surface treatment to protect the copper.
We have tried to do nickel plating but the corrosion is increased.
Seems that nickel generates some chemical process which corrodes the copper element.
If you have any suggestions I'll thank you so much.
I'm a technical engineer, my name is Silvio
Could an iron plating solve my problem ?
Or a chrome galvanic treatment?
Many thanks for your interest.
Best regards,
Mechanical engineer - Legnago, Italy
March 20, 2025
A. Hi Silvio.
Yes, iron plating is essential! This is usually followed by nickel plating or chrome plating, preferably both in sequence. Here is an excellent paper on the subject ⇨
Most plating shops know how to do nickel plating, and many know how to do chrome plating, but iron plating is a specialty and quite tricky (thread 379/18 & thread 259/82) discuss iron plating, so we suggest that you find a shop which already does iron plating :-)
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
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