Electroless Nickel Plating – A leading Precision Engineering Technique

Electroless nickel plating is a chemical reduction process which depends upon the catalytic reduction process of nickel ions in an aqueous solution and the subsequent deposition of nickel metal without the use of electrical energy. Due to its exceptional resistance towards corrosion and hardness, the process finds wide application on items in precision engineering industry such as valves, pump parts etc, to enhance the life of components exposed to severe conditions of service, particularly in the oil field and marine sector. With correct pretreatment sequence and accurate process control, good linkage and excellent service performance can be obtained from EN deposited on a massive amount of metallic and non-metallic substrates.

In electroless Nickel plating method, the driving force for the reduction of nickel metal ions and their deposition is supplied by a chemical reducing agent in solution. This driving potential is essentially constant at all points of the surface of the component, provided the agitation is sufficient to make sure a uniform concentration of metal ions and reducing agents. Electroless deposits are therefore very uniform in thickness all over the part’s shape and size. This process offers a number of distinct advantages when plating irregularly shaped objects, holes, recesses, internal surfaces, valves or threaded parts in the precision engineering company, some of them includes:

• Uniform behavior of the deposits, even on complex shapes.
• Deposits are often less absorbent and thus provide better barrier corrosion protection to steel substrates.
• The deposits cause about 1/5^th as much hydrogen absorption as electrolytic nickel and about 1/10^th as much hard chrome.
• Deposits can be plated with zero or compressive stress.
• Deposits have inherent lubricity and non-galling characteristics, unlike electrolytic nickel.
• Deposits contains good wetability for oils
• In general low phosphorus and especially electroless nickel Boron contains ability of soldering.
• Deposits are much harder and the hardness can be increased by using suitable heat-treatment.

The versatility of electroless nickel plating is demonstrated by the wide range of coatings possible. Lone Star LWD is providing precision engineering services using leading techniques like electroless Nickel plating that can increase the productivity and perfection with customer satisfaction.