Summary for electroplating onto titanium Discussion
Electroplating onto titanium is the central question here: the requester asks whether titanium or beta titanium can be plated so it looks like stainless steel. The excerpt does not include a full technical answer, but it frames a common finishing challenge—getting a durable, stainless-like appearance on a difficult-to-plate base metal. No specific process steps, cautions, or confirmed yes/no response are shown in the provided thread text, so the safest takeaway is that the page is about whether titanium can be plated for a stainless-steel look and what that would require in practice. Because the visible excerpt contains only the question and site header, there are no named answerers or detailed recommendations to attribute.
RFQ: Hello,
I need to know if Titanium or Beta Titanium can be plated to look like stainless steel (like the Rolex
[affil link] matte finish watches) or white gold. I basically need it to look bright.
I have been searching for a while and I don’t know if such plating exists. Can titanium be plated with Rhodium or Palladium to achieve the Rolex look or is there another coating that exists?
Anyone might know a company name or how this process works?
thank you,
Gary
Gary Oganian
product designer – Los Angeles, California
April 18, 2008
Ed. note: This RFQ is outdated, but technical replies are welcome, and readers are encouraged to post their own RFQs. But no public commercial suggestions please ( huh? why?).
A. Hi, Gary. Effective, adherent plating must be done onto clean, bare, raw metal … not onto metal oxides. Consequently, it is much more difficult to plate onto a very active metal like titanium (which quickly forms a tenacious oxide film) than steel or brass.
But it can be done; ASM Metals Handbook, Vol. 5
⇦[this on
on Amazon
or
AbeBooks affil links] has good coverage of the required pretreatment processes — one of which is nickel plating followed by a high temperature diffusion bake. I think you need to locate a shop with experience in plating onto titanium. Once you have something/anything plated on the titanium, you may be free to add additional plating layers like Rhodium or Palladium.
Hopefully one of our supporting advertisers who have that capability will contact you in private. But matte is pretty much the opposite of shiny, so I’m a bit confused about exactly what you’re looking for — maybe a glass bead-blast ‘frosted’ look? Good luck!
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
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