Though you may have heard of zinc-nickel plating before, there is a decent chance that you don’t truly know what it entails. It has a variety of uses, particularly in the manufacturing and industrial fields.
But the quality zinc-nickel plating process is one to know. Adhering to the zinc-nickel plating standard is one thing but knowing more about how the plating process unfolds is another. Here are a few things to know.
What Is Zinc Nickel Plating?
Zinc-nickel plating is a high-performance coating that is mostly known for providing great resistance to corrosion for parts that will be used in harsh environments. The unique composition allows the material to corrode at a much slower rate than zinc alone.
Roughly 10-15% is made of nickel with the rest being made of zinc that plating can provide as much as 10x the amount of protection that your average zinc plating will.
The Process of Zinc-Nickel Plating
So, we now get down to the zinc-nickel plating process. It’s a two-part process, the first of which uses an electrical current to apply the zinc-nickel to the surface of the parts. The second part sees a chromate conversion coating, which then protects the aforementioned layers of zinc-nickel.
There are also two types of conversion coatings: trivalent and hexavalent. The latter provides great corrosion protection at a lower cost while the former is compliant to certain standards. Trivalent is the preferred method because of its superior protection ability.
