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Student asks how production nickel plating is done

Hello,

I am a student in my last year of John F Kennedy School. As part of my product design A level I have to complete a product study. I have chosen as the subject of my study my clarinet. I have researched how my clarinet is manufactured and have found out that the levers on the clarinet are nickel plated. I have read on your web site how the plating process works but want to know how it would work specifically with nickel and how it would be used on a large scale in a factory. I am sure you have many questions to answer as I have read a lot of them in my search for information but any time or useful hint that you could spare me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Katie L.
student - Herfordshire, Hemel Hempstead, England
2004

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I assume the keys are made of brass? If so, the process steps would be (approximately, since it can vary) clean the parts in an alkaline cleaner, rinse them, activate the brass for plating by dipping in sulfuric (or possibly hydrochloric acid), rinse, semi-bright nickel plate, bright nickel plate, rinse.

Each of these process solutions would be contained in open topped rectangular tanks, and an operator could string the parts together with copper wire before carrying them from one tank to the next. If it were truly high production he could use engineered plating racks to hold the components instead of hand wiring them.

If you do a search for "images" of 'plating line' on google or yahoo you'll quickly get a feel for this which is difficult to convey without photographs.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2004