Hard Chrome Plating: How to Extend The Life of Your Equipment
You must have heard about chrome plating at least once in your life. And it will not be wrong for you to regard it as the best defence against corrosion and wear.
What is Hard Chrome Plating?
Before we proceed to unfold the comprehensive details about hard chrome plating, it will help if we walk through its definition.
Hard chrome plating is a form of electroplating, which acts as a surface coating. It is known for its hardness, ability to minimize sliding wear, corrosion protection and extending the life of metal parts.
Due to these attributes, you can see hard chrome plating in many applications, such as hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders, pump shafts and rotors, swivel posts and bodies, and downhole tools.
An essential property of hard chrome plating is the low coefficient of friction, due to which it finds uses on components where there is metal-to-metal contact between moving parts.
You can apply hard chrome from 0.012 – 0.635 mm in thickness for many applications. Moreover, hard chrome is a cold process because the operating temperature varies within 50 to 65 degrees C, which causes no damage to the base material.
The hard chrome plating procedure involves electroplating a thin layer of chromium onto a metal.
In simple terms, you can regard hard chrome plating as a thin mirror-like layer that is plated on the outer or inner surface of a metal.
History of Chrome Plating
If the spontaneous question–when was chrome plating invented? — is playing in your mind, then the answer is the early 19th century. Luigi Brugnatelli, an Italian chemist, discovered that if a metallic object is submerged into a solution of dissolved gold and a charge with a voltaic pile is applied, gold covers the object’s surface. A Voltaic pile was the first electrical battery that can provide continuous electricity to a circuit.
But, the actual chromium plating developed in the early 20th century. The prominent pioneer of chromium plating was George J Sargent, who wrote a thesis on chromium deposition to earn his doctorate in 1012. His thesis led Colin Fink and Charles Eldridge to develop a commercial process for chromium plating in the subsequent decade. There were remarkable changes in chrome plating before and after their commercial initiatives.
Two companies–The Chemical Treatment Company in New York and the Chromium Products Corporation in New Jersey–advertised their chromium plating services in the mid-1920s. The companies merged, becoming the Chromium Corporation of America, which merged with General Chromium Corporation due to some patent issues to form United Chromium in 1927.
The Different Types of Chrome Plating
There are predominantly two types of chromium plating, primarily prevalent in industrial applications. They are:
Industrial Plating
There are two types in the industrial hard plating categories: hexavalent chromium baths and trivalent chromium baths. Out of them, the former is most popular, and its main ingredient is chromium sulfate. The latter is not widespread due to some limitations related to colour, fragility and width.
Decorative Plating
The hard chromium plating process for decorative purposes involves chromium and nickel, which offers the best resistance against corrosion. Decorative chromium plating entails a mirror-like finishing touch of chrome on the surface that is eye-catching.
Materials for Hard Chrome Plating
You can apply hard chrome plating to any ferrous and most non-ferrous metals. However, magnesium and titanium are exceptions because they require an underlay of zinc, copper or nickel. When it comes to aluminium, you can apply hard chrome plating, but some aluminium alloys require an undercoat of copper or nickel. The common materials for hard chrome plating are steel, cast iron, stainless steel, bronze, brass and copper.
Benefits of Hard Chrome Plating
The popularity of hard chrome plating is due to its slew of advantages and unique characteristics. Therefore, it will help if you acquaint yourself with the critical benefits of chrome plating, which are as follows:
Increases Hardness
Hard chromium plating increases the hardness of the plated material. Chrome plating materials are rigid. Therefore, they increase the surface hardness of the coated material without changing its properties.
Lowers Friction
A low coefficient of friction is one of the unique chrome plating properties. It allows the plated material to operate at lower temperatures, extending its life.
Imparts Resistance
Hard chrome plating imparts excellent resistance to abrasion and mechanical contact with stiff hardness and low frictional properties.
Corrosion Resistance
Hard chrome plating materials have a very high resistance to atmospheric oxidation and excellent resistance to most oxidizing and reducing agents. However, chlorides and other halides are exceptions.
Allows Re-plating
You can remove deposits on hard chrome plating with chemical strippers. Therefore, it will not cause any destruction to the base material. You can strip and re-plate the affected part.
Retents Lubricant
With hard chrome plating, the material retains oil to improve lubricity.
Other Benefits
- Applicable for materials with complex and irregular shapes, including holes and bores
- Poses minor risks of delamination
A Bit About the Electroplating Process
Not all readers are familiar with the electroplating process. As such, a brief roundup about what it is will be helpful.
It is a process of applying a metal coating on another piece of metal through the electro-deposition process.
During the electroplating process, both the anode and cathode are submerged in an electrolytic solution with salts, including the metal to be plated.
A direct current is passed through the solution, resulting in the transfer of metal ions onto the cathodic surface, where the plating occurs.
Why Choose Sabtech for Hard Chrome Plating Services?
If you are looking for a service provider of the best chrome plating in Saudi Arabia, do not look beyond Sabtech, a premier provider of hard chrome engineering services.
The company provides best-in-class hard chrome plating services, including hydraulic rod chrome repairs, helping you to restrict from replacing the damaged rod, saving money and time. In addition, Sabtech also provides cylinder plating services and an excellent honing facility for tubes with repairable damages. In this way, the company’s hard chroming services prevent you from incurring monetary expenditure in replacing the damaged tubes.
With Sabtech’s excellent hard chrome plating services, you will get the best value for your money.
Watch this video to see how our hard chrome plating services work:
Conclusion
Hard chrome plating entails a slew of benefits to derive values to many industries. With the plating, you can prolong your equipment’s life and reduce unnecessary downtime. But, do not fail to choose a reputed service provider to get the value of your money.
