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Hard chrome plating thickness

August 24, 2009

Dear sir/Gentelmen,

We manufacture hard chrome plated product and our product mates with another steel part in friction generating heat while running at customer end.

Our product fails i.e it gives less performance of life when compared with our competitor.
Our product life: maximum 2.5 years
Competitors product: More than 4 Yrs

Both the products are found to be same during complete analysis in terms of the below:
Surface finish, Dimensions, Material composition & microscopic view(60X)
but expect the plating thickness.

Our plating thickness: 10 to 20 microns
Competitors plating thickness: 20 to 60 microns

My question:

Did the plating thickness plays the major role for the performance of the product.

My clarification:

Experts around us say that increase in plating thickness will peeled off during performance due to the heat generation.

Your advice will definitely help me in this regards

Arunachalam M
Engineer - Coimbatore,Tamilnadu, India

Hi, Arunachalam. The importance of thickness can vary according to the application, of course, but it certainly seems that the thinner parts wear out before the thicker parts -- and that certainly is not unexpected.

I don't understand the second part of your question at all. Your competitor's parts obviously do not peel, so how can anyone claim that they will peel when they obviously don't? You may need to machine the part slightly smaller before plating to allow for the extra build-up in plating.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
August 25, 2009

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August 26, 2009

That is not a thick coat for hard chrome.
The person telling you that it will peel is probably talking about the grinding step!
Chrome must be ground with the proper wheel at the proper speed and with very thin cuts OR it builds up heat under the wheel and it will peel.
Far too many machinists want to do a 1 hour job in 15 minutes and when it fails it is the plater's fault. They are machinists, so it could not possibly be their fault. WRONG.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida