What is Hard Chrome Plating?

Hard Chrome Plating is an industrial process which can produce a thick coating with a high resistance to wear, heat friction and as its name suggests will enhance the hardness of your component. 

What is the Process?

Hard Chrome Plating is an electro-plating technique in which parts are placed into a vat containing an electrolytic solution and a current is run into the bath promoting the build-up of the Chromium onto the component. In order to obtain the best possible results, parts will first be subject to a number of pre-treatments depending on their material which are all carried out in house. The difference between Hard Chrome and Bright Chrome, is that a layer of Nickel will first be applied and then a very thin layer of Chromium in a Bright Chrome process whereas with Hard Chrome Plating a thick layer of Chromium can be built up over 200um.

What are the Advantages?

Hard Chrome Plating forms a thick, protective barrier for parts, it’s a versatile process that can be applied to a wide variety of metals including High Alloy and Stainless Steel, Nickel Based Alloys, Brasses and Bronzes as well as Aluminium alloys. Hard Chrome Plating increases hardness of the component inturn increasing wear resistance. A thick deposit can withstand high stress contact from materials such as sand, limestone, glass, cement and more. A typical hardness that can be achieved ranges from 850-100Hv (65-70Rc).

Hard Chrome Plating also offers a low coefficient of friction as well as improving resistance to both heat and corrosion. This makes it popular in a wide range of applications such as; Hydraulic Shafts, Motorcycle Forks, Valves, Pump Shafts and other parts associated with industrial processing.

Specifications Offered:

BS4641:1986, AMS-QQ-C-320

What We Offer

Silchrome Plating are able to provide Hard Chrome Electro-plating as well as associated pre and post plating processes including polishing. We are able to facilitate a wide range of production volumes and can accommodate parts up to 3m in length.

All of our processes are carried in house at our production facility in Leeds and Silchrome Plating are IS0 9001 AND ISO 14001 approved. You can find out more about our plating process by clicking HERE.