Electrolytic chrome plating

harddecorativesteel

Pearl-brightness chromium plating The term is misleading because to be technically correct this process involves nickel plating with pearl-brightness (satin finish) and subsequent chromium plating. Items treated in this way acquire a very attractive appearance, whereby to a large extent small surface defects in the material become "invisible”. Applications for this process are found e.g. in the furniture industry and a lot of technical areas where this is needed for design reasons or a non-dazzling effect is required. Depending on requirements, a typical layer structure consists of approx. 10-30 µm pearl-brightness nickel and approx. 0.3-0.5 µm chromium. Nowadays, the copper undercoating which used to be customary (with subsequent mechanical polishing to acquire brightness) is dispensed with by and large because modern high-power baths are able to produce a sufficient degree of levelling and brightness, and copper with the same overall thickness does not increase resistance to corrosion.