Letter 42013

Hardness of black nickel plating  

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I am interested to understand the hardness of Black nickel plating.
Is it dependent on substrate hardness, i.e SUS301 extra hard??

NorAzmi Alias
finishing for electronics application - Penang, Malaysia

Hardness of black nickel deposit is around 550 Vickers and depend on alloy %(such as nickel-zinc alloy). If deposit thickness too thin (less than 5 microns) then hardness reading will be influenced by base metal by using indenter to measure.

David Shiu
- Singapore

Although indenters and loads used for plating measurment are very small compared to regular indenters, I differ from the thickness mention. The minimum necessary thickness to isolate the hardness reading of the plating from the hardness of the substrate depends on the instrument and, when tested perpendicularly, has been found to be at least four or five times the depth of the indentation left and even more. If a sample can be cut and indented across, then the minimum is reduced to three times the width of the indentation. These are not fixed values.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico

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