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How to plate aluminum & white metal?

March 9, 2012

Q. I own a plating shop. We currently do chopper nickel chrome. The metals we specialize on are brass, copper, & steel. But I want to start plating aluminum & white metal. What process and chemicals does it take to do so?

Anthony Martinez
- Buffalo, New York

March 11, 2012

Hi, Anthony.

Plating aluminum requires pretreatment consisting of mild alkaline cleaning, de-smutting, and double zincating, followed by either copper cyanide plating or alkaline electroless nickel plating. Double zincating means zincating, stripping in nitric acid, and re-zincating. We have countless threads about plating aluminum if you wish to study it further here.

If white metal means zinc diecast, this usually requires cyanide copper plating or proprietary pyrophosphate copper plating. Good luck.

Regards,

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

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