Electroless nickel plating

Electrolytic nickel plating is sometimes not recommended. This is the case, for example, when the nickel coating needs to be deposited uniformly over the component, such as for products with extremely precise fits, cavities or inner sides. Electroless nickel plating offers a perfect solution as the plating has the same thickness all over the product, and the deposit thickness can also be accurately controlled. Galvamé has extensive experience in carrying out this complex process. Electroless nickel plating is also recommended if your product has to be food grade approved.

In electroless (also called autocatalytic or chemical) nickel plating, we apply a nickel-phosphorus alloy coating by immersion. We have a medium phosphorus process (with about 7–10% phosphorus) as well as a high phosphorus process (about 10–13%). Using a higher phosphorus content makes the surface more resistant to certain aggressive media such as acids and chlorides.

Electroless nickel plating is also excellent for making a surface harder and more abrasion resistant. We do this by heat treatment following nickel plating, after which we increase the hardness of the nickel coating to as much as 1000 HV, comparable to the hardness of hard chromium.