Nickel plating over aluminum

Letter 8041

Nickel plating over aluminum

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I am an architect working on a residential renovation in New York City, and the project will include the fabrication of a number of metal door frames and some doors with metal and glass (this is not a large project, but there will be about 10 frames and maybe 12 doors). I have done a lot of work with 6063 aluminum sections, hot rolled steel, and 314 stainless steel, but for this project I need the finished pieces to be nickel, white bronze, or some other similar metal in keeping with some of the decor of a 30's deco building.

I am considering plating over aluminum, but I am not familiar with the process and would appreciate any advice, suggestions, or recommendations of companies that I might work with for the plating process. I am thinking of working with aluminum because of the availability of extruded sections, but I would welcome any suggestions.

(Architect from Brooklyn)
New York

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Hi,

How about this way? At first, You have to anodize Aluminium which you would like to use. And then do Electroless Ni Plating. I'm not sure How Adhesion Power of Ni layer plated on Anodized surface is

Good Luck

Y.G. Seo
- Korea

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How about just anodizing to look like nickel? Anodizing hardens the surface of aluminum and prevents oxide look. also you can anodize any color you want.

Ronald Higgins
- Sumter, South Carolina

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Aluminum can be electroplated, and in fact the overwhelming majority of chrome plated auto wheels today are aluminum, and a cast alloy that is difficult to work with at that. Aluminum must be zincated first, then either cyanide copper plated or electroless nickel plated before going on to the final decorative finish. Although not every jobshop is set up to plate aluminum, or experienced in it, it is not a rarity either.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

August 7, 2008

Hi Ted,
I have heard that you must use cyanide copper or EN over the zincated Al before you plate NI, but, I can't figure out why. Why not just use a Ni sulfamate electroplating bath right over the zincated Aluminum?

Thanks,
Andy

Andy Catalano
- Hempstead, NY USA

August , 2008

Hi, Andy. The zincate film is very very thin (it's only an immersion deposit) and very subject to dissolution. An acidic plating bath will dissolve it.

This is not meant to discourage experimentation or to imply that progress is impossible, it's just an explanation of the difficulty. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

September 28, 2009

To plate over Aluminum is much different from others material , especially at the cleaning step of whole process , need to take care what kind of cleaner , how long the Aluminum should be cleaned ,etc .

We sucessful on this section and now our plated Aluminum is on the commercial run , it can save much material cost than Zinc , and strenth is stronger than it at some parts .

Lian Sun
- Xiamen Fujian, China

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