Diffference between Nickel Strike plate and Typical Nickel plating

A. Hi there:

Nickel strike: Higher content of chloride, is going to be used for direct plating of steel if cyanide copper is not requested. Content usually: Nickel chloride, HCl

Watt's Nickel: Is going to be used for decorative reasons. Content: Nickel sulphate (metal delivering), Nickel chloride (anode dissolving agent), Boric acid (ph-buffer agent), wetting agents and primary/secondary brightener systems depends on application.

regards,

A. Thickness and adhesion.

A. A "strike" is a low efficiency solution that makes more hydrogen gas than it deposits metal. The purpose is to "activate" (I hate that word) or remove the oxide from the substrate and lay down a thin film of very active ready-to-plate nickel. The hydrogen ion helps reduce the tenacious oxides of stainless steel or old nickel electroplate from the surface. Secondly, the strike acts as a "sewer". The strike covers the substrate iron, copper,. brass, zinc, zincate, etc so that when you get to the "efficient" plating solution you do not leave contaminants of those (now covered up) other metals.

A. Hi Willy. Sorry, I don't personally know. Yes, more hydrogen is evolved, but the coating is thinner and less impervious to the hydrogen escaping as well. I suppose the situation actually is that you need to bake hard parts to relieve the embrittlement in either case.

Can you please give us your actual situation rather than asking the readers to speculate about what you might be doing and whether heavy nickel plating might reduce whatever problem you are experiencing or are concerned about potentially experiencing please :-)

Regards,

A. Hi Willy. You cannot bake in between the nickel strike and the zinc plating. You can still bake both before plating and after the zinc plating.

Regards,