Electroless Nickel Finish

Hale Performance Coatings offers an in-house metal finishing laboratory. Our lab’s state-of-the-art technology enables higher-quality services and faster turnaround times. Because we don’t outsource necessary analytical work, we can complete everything under our roof.

In addition to offering our traditional nickel processes, we now offer electroless nickel plating and Teflon electroless nickel finishing. Those methods are suitable for treating ferrous and non-ferrous metals and meeting exact specifications. Both processes are used in the electronics, automotive, aerospace, petrochemical, and manufacturing industries.

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What is Electroless Nickel Finish?

It’s a finishing process that involves reducing nickel ions to metallic nickel in an aqueous solution. Electroless nickel coating doesn’t require an electric current, instead using catalysts and stabilizers in the chemical solution to produce a consistent coating. It’s an autocatalytic process that simplifies deposition on the substrate and enhances corrosion resistance and hardness. The substrate surface must be cleaned to remove contaminants and promote proper adhesion.

You can use a variety of nickel salts in electroless nickel finishing, including nickel sulfate, nickel chloride and nickel acetate. Balancing and reducing agents are applied to improve the deposition process.

Benefits of Electroless Nickel Finish

Conductivity: Metallic nickel coating creates a low-resistance path for electrical currents, even on non-conductive substrates. You can adjust the nickel content to produce higher conductivity based on your application requirements.

Lubricity: Nickel plating reduces friction in moving parts and increases hardness, which improves component wear resistance.

Magnetic response: You can create magnetic properties in components with low-phosphorous electroless nickel coating. Higher-content plating produces non-magnetic finishes to prevent interference.

Bondability: An electroless nickel finish is easy to bond to other materials. You can use it as a base layer for soldering and adhesive bonding, and to prevent diffusion between the substrate and additional layers.

Uniformity: Because of the lack of electrical current, this process can produce even plating on complex and uneven shapes. You don’t have to worry about high-density areas that could require further machining.

Adhesion enhancement: An electroless nickel finish bonds well with other materials, including polymers, metal and rubber.

Electroless Nickel Finish with Teflon

This process incorporates electroless nickel and polytetrafluoroethylene, or Teflon, into a single application. You can enjoy the corrosion resistance and durability of nickel plating with the low-friction properties of Teflon. Teflon particles are suspended in an electroless nickel matrix. Teflon’s naturally poor wear resistance is improved when combined with the polymers in electroless nickel. The result: A hard, wear-resistant, ductile finish that has excellent friction characteristics.

The Teflon particles have a nominal diameter of 0.4 microns and are uniformly distributed. As the Teflon electroless nickel becomes worn, a new supply of particles is exposed, maintaining low friction. Teflon-nickel can also be heat-treated to either harden the electroless nickel to further improve its durability or sinter the Teflon and produce a glazed, anti-stick surface.

Benefits of Electroless Nickel Finish with Teflon Coating

Low friction: Teflon has an inherently low friction coefficient. Teflon-nickel plating also produces a glazed, anti-stick surface that’s ideal for injection molding and food-processing machinery.

Wear resistance: The nickel components in the plating mixture enhance substrate hardness, increasing abrasion resistance and metal fatigue.

Corrosion protection: Electroless nickel finishes offer a dense barrier that protects your equipment from moisture and chemical damage.

Uniform thickness: The autocatalytic application process produces an even layer of Teflon-nickel coating across uneven surfaces, threads and internal passages.

Reduced maintenance: The self-lubricating properties of electroless nickel coating with Teflon reduce wear, extending part life and decreasing maintenance and repairs.

Our Electroless Nickel Finish Process

Cleaning

Each component must be thoroughly degreased and cleaned to prevent contamination that could negatively affect adhesion during coating.

Surface Preparation

We prepare the substrate surface for plating using acid etching to remove oxides and optimize the material for bonding.

Bath Immersion

Parts are submerged in a heated solution that contains nickel salts, reducing agents and pH buffers. The chemical reaction converts nickel ions into metal, which is deposited on the substrate and continues the catalytic process.

Rinsing

Once the desired coating thickness is achieved, we rinse components to remove residual chemical agents.

Electroless Nickel Boron Nitride

Hale Performance Coatings also offers electroless nickel boron nitride. That’s a composite electroless nickel coating in which the nickel matrix is applied chemically, with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) particles deposited into it. While electroless nickel-boron (EN-B) is a nickel alloy coating known for high hardness and wear resistance, adding boron nitride changes it into a composite coating to reduce friction, prevent galling and enhance dry-running performance.

Because hBN is a solid lubricant, plating can decrease the rate of wear compared to plain electroless nickel in many applications. It features good corrosion resistance, and heat treatment can increase plating hardness in some systems.

Typical applications include complex parts that require uniform coating, such as:

Sliding components
Molds
Valves
Shafts
Precision mechanical parts

The electroless process coats parts without line-of-sight limitations like many electrolytic or spray processes. The exact performance depends heavily on bath chemistry, particle dispersion, surfactants, agitation, heat treatment and particle loading.

Suitable Materials for Electroless Nickel Finishing

You can use this type of plating on:

Carbon and stainless steel
Aluminum
Copper and copper alloys
Titanium

Applicable Industries

Automotive: Electroless nickel plating is suitable for engine, braking and fuel system components.

Oil and gas: You can plate rigs and pipelines with electroless nickel to protect them from harsh operating conditions.

Aerospace: Electroless nickel finishes can be applied to landing gear, fasteners and more to protect aerospace equipment from extreme temperatures and corrosion.

Electronics: You’ll find nickel-plated components in the connectors and terminals of circuit boards.

Industrial machinery: Gears and crankshafts are exposed to regular wear and tear, making them ideal components for nickel plating.

Comparing Electroless Nickel Finishing and Other Coatings

Hard chrome: While hard chrome offers excellent surface hardness, it can vary in thickness and produce edge buildup. Electroless nickel produces a similar degree of wear resistance with a dense, pore-free coating.

Electrolytic nickel: This type of nickel-plating finish is suitable for decorative finishes. It uses electrical current and requires precision process control for a uniform application.

Our Work in Electroless Nickel Plating

Dale Stoner’s 1907 Curtiss V8 motorcycle was featured on Jay Leno’s Garage, which features our electroless nickel plating on the cylinders, cylinder heads and plumbing. Watch and learn about the unique challenges presented by this passion project.

Request a Quote for Electroless Nickel Plating

Hale Performance Coatings offers a highly stable electroless nickel solution that is 3% to 10% phosphorus. This ultra-bright, low-medium phosphorus solution coats a variety of substrates and combines high hardness and wear resistance with moderate corrosion resistance. Our in-house operations give you direct access to our technicians who are ready to assist and answer questions. Contact our team for a quote or to schedule a consultation.

FAQs

How thick is a typical electroless nickel finish?

The process can produce a 0.0001 to 0.002 thickness.

Can electroless nickel finish be heat-treated?

We can bake components after nickel plating. During the plating process, hydrogen gets absorbed into the base metal, making it brittle and more prone to cracking. Baking it at 300° to 400° F eliminates the hydrogen and creates a higher tensile strength and better wear resistance.

Is electroless nickel finishing the same as electroless nickel plating?

Yes, those terms are used interchangeably.

Does electroless nickel finish change part dimensions?

No. The process is designed to prevent buildup and uneven edges.

What hardness can an electroless nickel finish achieve?

Low 2% to 5% low phosphorous electroless nickel finish will achieve the greatest surface hardness of roughly 600–700 HV (≈55–60 HRC).

How long does an electroless nickel finish last?

Electroless nickel coatings can last several years depending on the thickness, operating environment and maintenance.