Electroless plating?

January 21, 2009

I recently encountered a customer that requested their products to be electroless Nickel platied. Firstly, what is the difference between electro-plating and electroless plating. Anyone that is experienced please help. Thank you.

Jeff Wong
manufacturer - Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

First of two simultaneous responses -- January 23, 2009

Electroless nickel is done without a power supply by using a high temperature and a strong reducing agent.
It is considerably more expensive to run, but has a large number of desired outcomes.
It requires good training to efficiently operate the tanks, or the solution dies prematurely. 6 - 10 tank turnovers is common. This is where you have replaced the nickel and other materials 100% ---6 to 10 times. some people get more and some people get less. Rapid heat up and rapid cool down are requirements, but high surface temp of the heater will cause the nickel to plate out on it.
Lots and lots of things to learn about it before jumping into getting rich quick (which you will not because competition will follow)

James Watts
- FL

Second of two simultaneous responses -- January 25, 2009

Since its invention some 50+ years ago, electroless nickel has been gaining commercial acceptance and success. It consists of a solution of a nickel salt, (mostly sulfate though there are specialized fomulations that use other salts), a reducing agent which acts as a donnor of electrons (frecuently sodium hypophosphite) and other constituents that act as stabilizers (to avoid spontaneous chain reaction and decomposition), buffers, brighteners, heat, etc. It does not require an external current to plate, so is not governed by electric laws. It is often called autocatalitic or chemical nickel. Its deposits are generally nickel alloys containing some of the elements used to reduce it. Deposits produced with hypophosphite contain from 4-12% P, are harder than electroplated nickel, heat hardenable and solderable. Their main advantage is the ability to uniformly plate complex geometries.

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico

January 26, 2009

Dear Jaff,
Kindly see diff, as below.

Electro Plating - Done in presence of electric current method, coating done by positive pole and negative pole.

Electroless plating - Coating done by chemical reaction without giving any kind of electricity power to the plating bath.

Kunal Goda
- Rajkot (Gujarat) - INDIA