When you’re choosing a surface coating for engineering components, one of the most important things to think about is durability. Those components have to stand up to moisture, chemicals, friction and temperature changes, which can all degrade untreated metals and render them pretty much useless. Electroless nickel plating is a surface treatment that can certainly help protect your components, but just how durable is it? Let’s take a look.
Corrosion resistance and uniform coverage
One of the key strengths of electroless nickel plating is its corrosion resistance. This leaves a nickel-phosphorus coating through a chemical process, and not an electrical current, which basically means you get an even coating across sometimes really complex shapes. Everything receives a nice uniform thickness on its coating, which reduces weak points where corrosion might otherwise start to sneak in.
The higher phosphorus content that results from the process works to improve resistance to corrosive environments, like salt spray or your messy industrial atmospheres. This works well with an amorphous structure too, because it lacks the grain boundaries that often become initiation sites for corrosion. This company goes deeper into the electroless nickel plating process and its benefits //www.swmf.co.uk/surface-coatings/electroless-nickel-plating.
Hardness and wear performance
Durability isn’t just about corrosion as well – things like wear resistance and surface hardness are incredibly important in mechanical environments. The new coating provides good hardness, while a little bit of heat treatment afterwards can significantly increase surface strength.
So, electroless nickel plating is incredibly durable when it’s properly applied. This offers reliable corrosion protection and consistent performance across loads of applications.
