Chrome Plating on Fiberglass

A. Hello, Sushil. We have a FAQ on Plating Non-metallic Materials. Three common metallization approaches are:
1. - silver paint (or copper, graphite, or other conductive paint) paint;
2. - two-part silvering process which uses a soluble silver salt plus a reducing solution as in mirror making; and
3. - catalyzing with a palladium chloride salt (the most complicated and robust, and used for automotive exterior parts).

Your first job is to decide which approach is most appropriate for your product. One thing not to be dismissed is that it may be necessary to lacquer or otherwise seal the fiberglass if the resin system isn't suitable for immersion in electroplating solutions. Good luck.Regards,

A. Hi Derek.

It is obviously possible to chrome plate fiberglass (please see our FAQs on Understanding Chrome Plating in addition to the Plating Non-metallic Materials previously mentioned). But it can prove impractical to affordably electroplate tightly adherent nickel-chrome plating on a onesy-twosy basis when the plater has no control over the selection of the type of resin or the manufacturing process. Letter 1020 explains the production steps involved in OEM-quality chrome plating of plastics.

All things considered, I think "chrome look paint" is a more promising approach for these replica cars. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Dear sir,

Plating of fiberglass is not difficult like you said. Here in Egypt we made a collection of king TUOT ANK AMUNE from reinforced [polyester and fiberglass]. We plated it gold over nickel and copper.

A. Hi. I deeply admire Raafat's outstanding knowledge of metal finishing, and greatly appreciate his yeoman work in answering questions here. But I would remind him and Tom and the readers that a big problem with plating on automotive plastic can be securing adequate adhesion. It is one thing to plate a piece of statuary, but it is something else entirely to plate a bumper and expect it to survive the contraction of arctic cold, the expansion of blazing desert sun, the abrasion of carwash brushes, the impact of gravel strikes, etc. for a decade or more ...

For this reason, no car manufacturer in the world starts with copper paint or any other paint, but with electroless nickel plating precipitated by palladium seeds imbedded in spongey etched plastic. If Tom's car will only appear at car shows in exhibition centers, that's one thing; if he wants it to survive something approaching real automobile use, that's another :-)

Regards,

A. Hi, Ed -- graphite may not necessarily be the best route to plating fiberglass --but our FAQ on metallizing non conductive articles is a start.

A. You can use graphite based spray (Maver is just one of brands; a can cost 'round six USD)! Good luck!

A. That's what Mr. Budija claimed, Davie, and I have a reasonable amount of confidence in that based on the generally high quality of his postings. Good luck.

A. That's a brand name that isn't familiar to me, and graphite probably wouldn't be my first choice for metallizing (conductive paint from Acheson, or a two-part silvering solution might be better choices). But brush plating equipment suppliers like Gold Touch [a finishing.com supporting advertiser] can probably answer your question. Good luck.

A. Hi Etienne. Considering that you are only going for the look of metal, I think you will find today's "chrome look paint" entirely satisfactory and much much easier and much less hazardous than real electroplating. Good luck.

Regards,

A. I've got two pieces of advice to throw in to this discussion.

1. Materials selection.
If you're going for a metallic look, use mylar or some other metal looking plastic or foil for your final coat on the finished piece. There are a great many types of plastics that can be used in lieu of plating for similar visual results.

2. Conductive coating of non-metallic objects.
I've had good results from using zinc paint for my initial coatings over non-metallic objects. A word of advice though, there is a reason such is not industry standard, it's not going to hold up as well as a professional plating job.

A. Hi cousin Amir. If you can present the details of situation, I am sure we can help you! But I must apologize that little progress will probably be made here without you providing quite careful details ... because plating on plastic fills many books, and "chrome-look paint" has nothing to do with electroplating, and the techniques used by sculptors have nothing in common with those used by car makers -- but I'll try :-)

Palladium sensitizing may be vital to your needs or completely irrelevant, as there are many different ways to metallize plastic -- but it is almost universally used for automotive quality nickel-chrome plating of exterior plastics such as grills because the adhesion is spectacular, and the adhesion of other methods is usually questionable.

Palladium is a precious metal, element no. 46. But in this context we're talking about palladium chloride, a liquid. Usually it's bought from a metal finishing process supplier as part of the whole pre-plate cycle, rather than made up from raw chemicals by a plating shop because there are many steps in the preplate cycle, and the supplier will not take any responsibility for your palladium chloride to work after their etch step, or for their electroless nickel process to work on your palladium chloride.

After the plastic is suitably etched, so that it is spongy, it is immersed in tin chloride followed by this palladium chloride solution (or in some cases, mixed into it). The absorbed tin salt causes the palladium to precipitate as metallic "seeds". In the simplest theory, the plastic is then immersed in an autocatalytic electroless nickel solution, such that the palladium "seeds" initiate the catalytic deposition of the electroless nickel layer. But the various proprietary solution providers often suggest additional steps such as immersion in ammonium bifluoride accelerator. After electroless nickel, the item will be copper electroplated, semi-bright nickel plated, bright nickel plated, and chrome plated.

If I am correctly guessing at your situation, though, palladium has nothing to do with it, as it plays no part in "chrome-look" paint, which your other sentence seems to be talking about.

Chrome-look paint is also highly proprietary and involves the three general steps of
1). application of a smoothing organic base coat,
2). either a two-part silvering step or the deposition of a layer of tiny properly aligned aluminum flakes,
3). a hard UV-resistant top coat.

The general order and intention of the steps is widely known, but the details of how to best formulate and apply each layer naturally includes trade secrets. Each supplier will have their own tricks developed through years of research and trial & error. Nothing prevents you from trying to formulate the layers yourself, but when you ask for "best", you are asking people to give you the product of their years of research efforts for free; and, sorry, but that's probably not going to happen :-)

But best of luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Gary. Hopefully someone knowledgable on the best base coat and conductive paint will answer you here. The only thing I can add is that fiberglass isn't ABS, and copper paint isn't OEM-quality metalizing. As an accomplished chrome plater with a good reputation you'll want to be careful about managing your customer's expectations for the long term durability of chrome plating onto copper paint on fiberglass.

Regards,