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Information on Woods Bath for Nickel Plating on Stainless Steel

I need to electroplate nickel onto stainless steel. I normally use sulfamate solution or the watts bath for my plating on mild steel and other materials. However I believe what is to be used is something called a "woods bath" for plating on stainless steel. Does anyone have any information on the woods bath, its properties, constituents and working etc?

Sumeet Mehta
- Bombay, Maharashtra, India
2002

The Wood's Nickel Strike is a mixture of nickel chloride and hydrochloric acid developed by Donald Wood to strike stainless steel and passive nickel. It may be used cathodically at moderate to high current density, and is sometimes preceded by reverse current activation in the same bath. The formulation and operating conditions are in the Metal Finishing Guidebook.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Ted is available for instant help
or longer-term assistance.
2002

Woods nickel is 100g/l nickel chloride with hydrochloric acid added to give a pH of 1-1.5. It operates at 4-8A/dm2 and room temperature. Normal plating time is 1-3 minutes. The process is quite inefficient, but gives a good adherent layer of nickel.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2002

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