Advantages of Zinc Nickel Plating

             

Zinc nickel plating was introduced in the industrial domain in the 1980s, and have gained consistent popularity ever since. Unfortunately, though, zinc-nickel plating is not widely used in conventional industrial applications as the practice and its benefits have been misconstrued quite often. But the truth is, zinc-nickel coatings are very versatile and provide manufacturers and engineers with myriad options to keep up with the ever-evolving regulatory, performance, and warranty stipulations that influence their items and products. In the following article, we will talk about some of the main benefits of zinc-nickel plating, talk briefly about the zinc-nickel plating process as well as underline its industrial applications.

Listed below are four main advantages of zinc-nickel plating:

· Low Cost: For companies that looking for cost-effective plating solutions for the protection of metal components, zinc-nickel plating is an affordable option. Because the combination of zinc and nickel is equipped with many protective properties therefore it is often the first choice and trumps other precious metals such as silver, gold, etc.

   · High Durability: Zinc nickel plating has tremendous strength despite being a lightweight solution. Zinc nickel coatings are known to improve the life expectancy of metals by producing a physical shield that provides the metal with resistant traits against external elements such as moisture and rust. Compared to other coatings, zinc-nickel plating is best-suited for metals because it slows down the corrosion process 100 times more, and prevents tarnishing, versus other metals.

  · Eco-Friendly: Zinc nickel plating is advantageous also because zinc is recyclable and reusable. These qualities make it very environment-friendly. Companies that are keen on preserving the environment whilst practicing metal plating processes should certainly consider zinc-nickel plating as a replacement option versus other metal plating practices.

  · Aesthetical Value: Zinc nickel significantly plating improves the looks of base metal. The clean shine that zinc adds is the reason why zinc-nickel plating is often applied to automotive parts and mechanical components. Furthermore, an array of different chemical substances can be introduced in the mixture to produce different color shades.

 

Zinc and nickel plating are two very distinct and very useful themselves for industrial plating purposes. But as an alloy composed with the two metals the benefits become more pronounced. Specifically, the zinc-nickel combination is good news because of its increased anti-corrosive abilities as opposed to using just zinc for the same. The addition of nickel in the mix slows down zinc from experiencing corrosion. Topcoats and passivation procedures are routinely implemented to enhance the performance of the coating in the long term. The zinc-nickel plating typically consists of a small percentage of nickel (6 percent to 20 percent) and zinc is the dominant ingredient (80 percent to 94 percent).

Zinc nickel plating is typically more preferable in situations where there is a risk of high-grade corrosive activities taking place. The presence of zinc-nickel plating will ensure that the corrosion process slows down considerably; this possibility is absent when only zinc plating is involved. Interestingly, the combination of zinc and nickel together is far more capable of holding up against higher temperatures released by engines of automobiles than compared to other zinc alloys such as zinc-iron or zinc cobalt. As far as industrial applications are concerned, zinc-nickel plating is widely used in the automobile sector because the plating safeguards automotive parts against corrosion. The USP of zinc-nickel plating in cars and other automobiles is that it becomes the sacrificial coating that corrodes before the underlying base material can suffer. The use of zinc-nickel is understandably prominent. Here’s an example, in the salt spray testing process, automotive parts coated with zinc-nickel plating can resist white rust formations for nearly 500 hours, and withstand red rust for up to 1,000 hours.

Zinc nickel plating has tremendous usage in the electrical transmission sector. The industry uses the zinc-nickel coating in the construction of cleat bolts, anchors, and coaxial cables. Aerospace, hardware, and defense industries have also developed an affinity for zinc-nickel plating because it is more environment-friendly as opposed to cadmium plating. Also, zinc-nickel shares higher compatibility with most light metals – aluminum and magnesium – that are commonly used in aircraft designing. Elsewhere zinc-nickel plating is utilized is in the making of fuel and hydraulic components and parts. Additionally, zinc-nickel plating is practiced in the manufacturing of railway equipment, and firefighting machines and tools. In the transport sector, zinc-nickel coatings are applied to commercial automobiles such as trucks, buses, and tractor-trailers.