Letter 34020

How do I measure nikasil plating thickness  

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I need to 'non-destructively' establish the plating thickness of nikasil coated cylinder bores, where it is believed they may be uneven after final honing.

Lee Spencer
motor sport - Northampton, Northants, England

Many people would do this with a preplate dimension and subtract the post hone dimention and divide by two. Because of a variable amount of carbide in the plate, it will make electronic measurement less than perfect. Assuming that you are on aluminum, and nickel being slightly magnetic, magnetic measurement will be impossible. Contact a couple of vendors of plating measurement equipment and see what they recommend. I do not remember if eddy current or beta backscatter will work.

True honing removes so little material that it does not seem logical that it would cause an uneveness. Seems to me that your concern should be with uniformnes of the final ID and not thickness of the plate.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

Check a company named Electro-physik and others too. They make instruments for that.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico

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Ed. note: Please also consult finishing.com's directory of Testing Equipment & Services. These are the firms who make the service you are using possible.

1-2 microns, if it measure different top to middle to bottom then be sure ur nikasil is more than polished LOL

David Petersen
- Newmarket, Brisbane, Australia

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