Summary for chrome plated towel warmers Discussion
Chrome plated towel warmers made from mild steel profile tubes were discussed in terms of how to test adhesion and whether failed parts can be stripped and replated. The thread excerpt does not give a detailed adhesion test method, but it does answer the rework question: Wmre Kaya asked if parts stripped with hydrochloric acid could be chrome replated and whether stripping posed a risk. Ted Mooney, P.E. replied that it is common practice to strip the chromium and replate the parts, usually only once. He cautioned that the nickel must be reliably activated for replating to succeed. He also advised serializing defective parts so a shop does not keep spending time and money trying to replate a part that simply will not plate properly. The practical takeaway is that replating is possible, but process control and part tracking are important.
Q. HOW TO TEST THE ADHESION OF CHROME PLATED TOWEL WARMERS MADE OF MILD STEEL (ST 14) PROFILE TUBES.
ÖMER EÐÝLMEZ
CHROM PLATED TOWEL WARMERS – ÝZMÝR, KEMALPAÞA, TURKEY
2003
A. There are many ways to test the adhesion of chrome plating. You apparently are the designer and supplier, so you get to decide for yourself which is most appropriate. The easiest–if you can convince yourself that the samples are fully representative–is to plate a sample strip along with the radiator, then bend the strip over a round mandrel of a decided-upon diameter and pass the radiator if the sample strip does not crack or peel.
Due to the relatively high cost of simply throwing away a poorly plated part, and the environmental difficulties of stripping nickel from the defective parts, it is common practice when parts don’t look good to just strip the chrome, activate the nickel, and re-nickel and re-chrome. I would suspect that adhesion troubles are much more of a problem on these replates than on new work; a routine practiced by bumper shops is to identify the replated parts and only give them one shot at replating — both in the belief that more than 2 layers of nickel would be too much, and that if you’ve tried unsuccessfully twice, there may be something wrong with that particular part which would cause the plating to fail a third time but isn’t worth investigating.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
2003
Q. Hello. We can plate chrome parts. Some parts become broke. So we strip them with hydrochloric acid. Can these parts be re-plated with chrome? Is there any risk from the stripping?
Wmre Kaya
towel radiator – Istanbul, Besiktas, Turkey
2003
A. It is common practice to strip the chromium and replate them (usually only once). But you need to reliably activate the nickel, and you need to serialize the defective parts so you don’t waste time and money repeatedly try to replate a particular part that just won’t plate right :-)
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
2003
Q. We are doing nickel (tri layer) – chrome plating and we have been having peel off issue for a long time; and we are deeply worried if there is any convenient way to check components for adhesion (if it’ll peel off or not)? For chrome adhesion and adhesion between nickel layers too? Kindly help me with this. Thanks.
Arockia Gibson
– Chennai, Tamil nadu, India
January 27, 2013
A. It is a decorative part so it is probably not a chrome plating but a nickel layer of 20-25 microns plus 0.25 microns of chromium.
In this case there is no adhesion problem between the chromium and the nickel but between the base metal (what is it, steel or brass?).
Sara Michaeli
Tel-Aviv-Yafo, Israel