Where the
world gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989


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Nickel Plating/Electroforming

adv.  

dear sir I want to learn on how to make a nickel plating can you send me a step by step procedure on how to make nickel plating and also the materials I will be needing in making nickel plating. Thank you very much.

Zandro Arcilla
hobbies - Naga City, Philippines
2003

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Hello, Zandro.

There are several different types of nickel plating such as a chloride based Wood's nickel for activating stainless steel, a low-stress sulfamate nickel for electroforms and other special applications, a semi-bright and bright Watts' nickel formulation, and several types of electroless nickel. There are different application methods including reel-to-reel, rack, and barrel. And the pretreatment will be radically different depending on whether the substrate is steel, zinc, aluminum, or stainless steel.

I guess I'm saying that to cover ALL of nickel plating would require a very large book if not a library shelf, but if you can tell us what you want to plate and why, perhaps it can be narrowed down enough that we can help you a bit. Otherwise, you might look at our "must-have" booklist to see reviews of the various plating books and decide which will be most helpful to you. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003

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Ted,

We are in electroplating business for last 40 years. We want to try something different now. We have financiers available to invest in Electroplating Manufacturing business. I have been assigned the task to get the technical information on this project. I have been lucky enough to accumulate a great amount of information on Metal Forming. But the formula on how to create nickel plate is still a mystery. Can you help me on this? Thanks in advance.

Tahir Rizvi
- Dallas, Texas
2005

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2005

This is not my day, Tahir, because I'm not understanding what you are asking for. Your investors want to go into the manufacture of proprietary nickel plating processes, to compete with suppliers like Macdermid and Atotech? It is confusing to me because virtually no plating shop makes their own home-brew nickel plating baths, they almost always buy proprietary plating processes. You certainly can do so if you want, of course, but is that what you are asking? If so, the general formulation of the nickel salts is very standardized, but the addition agents (carriers, brighteners, wetters) are proprietary; and in some cases they require synthesis from precursors rather than simple mixing.

Please try again to explain what it is you want to offer: proprietary plating processes, or nickel plating jobshop services, or sheets of solid nickel. Do you have a plating library so we can refer to specific articles? Thanks!

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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2005

Ted,

Thanks for a quick post. We already have been in business of Nickel Plating. We want to shut this down and start making our own sheets of solid nickel. We want to be The supplier of plates of solid nickel. Our library consist of almost all of ASM Handbooks, I think we are missing one or two volumes, couple of Cannings, Metal Forming Handbook by Schuler GmbH, there are a lot of books which will be time consuming to post here. But if you must know I can post them here.

Thanks for your time.

Tahir Rizvi
- Dallas, Texas

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2005

Thanks, Tahir. I don't need to know every book in your library :-) I just wanted to understand what you are trying to do and generally what resources are available to you. It sounds like what you are trying to do is to electroform nickel sheets. Electroforming would usually be done from a nickel sulphamate plating bath because that bath is capable of depositing nickel at very low stress levels and because it is possible to dissolve nickel to a very high concentration in nickel sulphamate--and the higher the concentration the faster you can electroform.

Countless things are made of electroformed nickel, including stampers/molds for vinyl records, CDs, and DVDs; precision screening; bellows, radio telescopes, etc. If you search for "nickel electroforming" in the published literature (such as Plating & Surface Finishing and Metal Finishing) and on www.nidi.org you can accumulate case histories that will help you. INCO may also have some papers that they can share with you. And if you use nickel squares in your plating shop, I think that you will find that they are manufactured by the electroforming of nickel into sheets and then shearing them up.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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2005

Ted,

Thanks a lot for the valuable information. I am patient with the project as it is new for us and want to do it right. I am sure I will contact you again for more info. Unselfish people like yourself who spend their valuable time to assist others make this world worth living. I just want you to know that you are appreciated.

Thanks.

Tahir
- Dallas, Texas, USA

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Thanks for the very kind words, Tahir. But we're not really that kind--we're sharing metal finishing technology and earning a living doing it. This website was only a labor of love in the early days, but has become a business.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2005