When using nickel plating additives, the roughness of the metal surface has an effect on the plating in the following ways:
1. Adhesion: Smooth substrate surfaces provide better plating adhesion. If the surface of the substrate is too rough, the interface between the plating and the substrate may not be strong enough, making the plating easy to peel off.
2. Plating uniformity: Rough surfaces may cause uneven current distribution during nickel plating, resulting in inconsistent plating thickness. Thinner or thicker plating may be produced on grooved or raised portions of the surface.
3. Finish: Surface roughness has a direct effect on the surface finish after plating. If the surface of the substrate is very rough, even though the plated surface may be slightly improved, the overall surface will still be rough.
4. Corrosion resistance: Unevennesses on rough surfaces may form small "defects" or "traps" where more corrosive media may accumulate, leading to a reduction in the corrosion resistance of the coating.
5. Mechanical properties: The roughness of the substrate surface may also affect the mechanical properties of the coating, including hardness, tensile strength and fatigue strength. Tiny cracks or depressions on rough surfaces can be the starting point for stress concentrations, reducing the mechanical toughness of the coating.
6. Process difficulty: Rough surfaces require more surface pre-treatment before plating, such as grinding, polishing, etc., which increases the difficulty and cost of the production process.
Therefore, proper surface treatment, such as mechanical grinding, polishing, chemical cleaning or electrolytic polishing, is usually carried out before plating to reduce the roughness of the surface of the substrate and thus improve the quality of the plated layer. Of course, to improve the quality of the plating layer, it is also necessary to use Bigely nickel plating additive Ni-301, which provides a clean white mirror-bright plating layer with good softness.
If you are interested in nickel plating additives, please feel free to contact us.
