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Waviness problem in Nickel Chrome Plating on ABS Plastics

Q. We doing Nickel Chrome Plating on ABS plastic we found waviness problem after copper plating, Until acceleration the parts are good, after electroless and copper the problem is visible.

waviness in plating on ABS

SUGGESTED PLATING ON PLASTICS BOOKS

"Standards and Guidelines for Electroplated Plastics" by American Society for Electroplated Plastics (4 editions incl. 1984)
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"Plating of plastics: Recent Developments" by John McDermott (1979)
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"Plating of Plastics with Metals" by John McDermott (1974)
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"Plating on plastics" by Don Baudrand & Gurd Mueller (1970)
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"Metallic Coating of Plastics" by William Goldie (1968)
avail from AbeBooks, or Amazon (rarely)

"How to Electroplate Non-Metallics" by Warner Electric Co. (1967)
[more appropriate for hobbyists than for industrialists]
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"Practice of Plating on Plastics" by Ralph W. Furness (1968)
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Can anyone suggest a solution?

Suresh Kumar [fictitious]
Plating manager - Gujarat [India]
May 15, 2025

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A. Dear sir
many reasons may cause this
1- NO proper cleaning cycle,
2- etching is not strong enough or not sulphuric & chromic balanced,
3- as I can see from your photos acidic copper bath is not in good condition.
My advice is to make new small test Tanks to find the reason.

Raafat

Raafat Albendary
- RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

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