What stainless steel can be used in chrome plating jigs?

adv.

Hi my name is Charlie Collins, Production Manager for a large plating Company. My question to the experts is what grade of stainless steel fasteners is compatible with plating in a hard chromium plating bath.Standard plating bath,130 degrees 90:1 ratio.We recently rec'd a new job,with some intricate tooling to be manufactured. As the job was plating I noticed a problem with our tooling.I noticed all the fasteners,nuts,bolts,washers holding the anode were totally eroded away.I used a 316 grade stainless. Bad mistake?
Thanks for the support in advance.

Charles Collins
Production Manager - Watervliet, New York, USA
2007

2007

Yes, Bad mistake. The entire rack needs to be coated with a stopoff or tape or preferably with plastisol, except for the contact "point".
SS is a terrible conductor of electricity, so only use it for a contact point.
Copper will carry the most current per unit of volume and aluminum is preferable as it is not attacked as much as copper.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida

adv.

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