Chrome plating process

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I think you will require a Hot Chromic Acid tank with lead electrodes. Chrome also requires a very high current density per square inch and you may also need a buffed under plating of Copper or Nickel to get a shine. I expect you will run into a lot of EPA restrictions, these chemicals require special handling and venting.

Chrome tanks require a lot of maintenance and must be constantly electrolyzed (current all the time) because of a tri-valence condition that will give a dull finish. Plating currents are in the hundreds of amperes for Chrome.

Chrome is also a very hard metal to buff.

Snakers

You're right on with all the crap you'll go through installing a plating line. Copper, then nickel then chrome. Once the chrome is on, no easy way to remove any imperfections. I would just fabricate the parts out of stainless steel and mirror polish them. I did this for 40 years. If the shapes were too complicated to polish after fabrication, we would pre-polish and protect the surfaces during the fabrication, grind and polish the welds and give the whole assembly a final going over.

i want to known the chrome plated parts critearea inspection.

so i want to make the chrome plated parts, like fender, muffler inspection critearea.

You cannot chrome plate in the USA without an EPA certificate. There aren't many major plating companies in the USA today because the cost of meeting the strict Federal requirements is beyond most companies. I dismantled an electropolishing plant. I think there are less than three of them in the USA now.

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Unless you have a palting bussiness that is Grandfathered in some where you do not want the EPA headaches of plating. Call a plating company and outsource the work.

Depending on the shapes of the things you will be fabing, you might consider thermal spraying. It would get you away from the big setup cost and all of the regulations. But as I said it will be dependent on the shape of the items.

2 kinds of chrome, Hard chrome- direct to substrate; (think Hydraulic cylinders for bulldozers etc.

regular chrome - usually over a flash- of copper plating. Probably best for cook ware, at least the bottom as copper will help even out the lousy conductivity of stainless.

Chromium will not bridge small voids pits or inclusions. So will leave a pit from which adjacent chromeplated film will peel.

Environmentally this is bad news as solutions are in hexavalent +6 state. That is Heavy metal bad for biological systems. If you have runoff, don't drink or eat foods from downstream. Hexavalent chromium treatments are banned in EU and by most Automotive companies. You could surely find better things to do than get into this business.

Not sure why you'd want to plate over stainless, but thats why you're the design guy and I'm the techie...

milo

Mechanical polish of your stainless steel, passify, then if you really need it bright, then electro polish it. Electropolishing is safe. http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1142

Chrome plating is just stupid unless you have beaucoup safeguards, and certified disposal methods.. Nickel looks better, and is safer to do in house if you want to prettify ordinary steel. But you can't tell the difference between a passified electropolished stainless steel and a chrome finish....except of course the chrome might peel off.

I can refer you to www.metal finishing.com - Some quick thoughts for you. The chromium plating process is very toxic and very tricky and should be left to those that have both the equipment and the experience to do the plating. The fundamentals of chrome plating are the same as conventional plating but because of the inherently poor throwing power you will need to make conforming anodes. If this is a decorative application- you will need a copper plating bath to put a polish-able base plating(.002 to .004thk) on the surface first, polish the material to a mirror finish, then a bright nickel plating bath (..00035 to .0005thk) then finally a chrome plating bath where you will need only about .0002 thick to achieve a durable finish.

Also the generation & treatment of waste water from this process is highly regulated by city and government agencies

good Luck