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Cadmium plating on stainless steel -- problems and solutions

Q. Can you suggest plating process for cadmium plating over 304 stainless steel. it should withstand for 1 hr. with 150 degree after plating.

At present we are plating with following sequence.

DEGREASING/ANODIC CLEANING/RINSE/HCL DIP 10 MIN/NICKEL PLATING/RINSE/CADMIUM PLATING/0.5% HNO3/OLIVE GREEN PASSIVATION/DRY/OVEN TEST.

OBSERVATION: No consistency 20 to 30% blister before oven after oven 50% blister.

Any heat treatment required before plating?

Thanks,

Kamlesh Bhatt
plating manager - Pune, Maharastra, India
April 17, 2009

A. Hi, Kamlesh. You can't just plate any old nickel onto stainless steel -- it needs to be a Wood's Nickel Strike to activate the stainless steel. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 17, 2009

A. Also on Ted's answer, the part needs to be properly cleaned before the activation/strike. Then the rack needs to move with little delay thru the rinses into the cad tank, or the nickel will passivate -- yielding blisters, or worse, peeling plate.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
April 21, 2009

May 8, 2009

Q. Dear Ted Mooney,

Thanks for suggestion.

Our problem of plating cadmium on stainless steel is solved by introducing Wood's Nickel strike bath. We are using following cleaning cycle.

-Degreasing / Electroclean cathodic /Rinse
-Proprietary cleaning ( NITRIC + HF ) 8 MIN
-Woods bath 2 min 3-4 volt /rinse /cadmium
-Plating /rinse/0.5 % HNO3 /O.G.Passivation
-Dry/oven test 150 degree 1 hr.
-
-Result : 100 % o.k.

I want some cleaning information for stainless steel at present I am using above proprietary but it is costly. Can you please suggest me for the same.

Thanks

KAMLESH BHATT [returning]
- Pune, Maharastra, INDIA

A. Hi Kamlesh. Here in the USA proprietaries are even more expensive than in India, but virtually everyone uses them. Moving away from proprietaries is discarding decades of progress, and abandoning a great source of local help -- but you can pretty easily find some old technical journals, guidebooks, and conference proceedings from the 1950's. A copy of the Metal Finishing Guidebook from those days will probably include such formulations. Good luck.

Regards,

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

Cadmium plating on SS304

Q. Please help me to find out ways for having Type 2 cadmium plating on SS304 wire coils. Coil wire dia is just 2 mm.

Saurabh Kumar
Mechanical Engineer - Hyderabad, India
December 2, 2015

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