Electroless Nickel Technology

Electroless nickel plating is an engineered finish that can provide many functional attributes to the surface of your parts. The properties of this finish include excellent wear, good corrosion resistance in many environments, good lubricity, improved hardness on many substrates and excellent uniformity.

Electroless nickel baths are either phosphorous or boron based with phosphorous being the most common. Depending on the desired properties, low, mid and high phosphorous content electroless nickel chemistries are available. There are also composite baths that co-deposit other materials such as Teflon®, silicon carbide, diamonds, etc. to achieve special properties such as lubricity or hardness.

A recent demand in the electroless nickel marketplace is for lead free / cadmium free baths. Although the level of lead and cadmium in existing chemistries is very low, the European initiative to totally eliminate these metals from their waste stream is driving many domestic suppliers - led by the automotive industry - to meet this requirement.

Nickel Boron baths, while much more expensive than nickel phosphorous chemistries, have certain properties that are superior to nickel phosphorous coatings. Hardness and wear resistance of nickel boron deposits are generally superior to nickel phosphorous. At the same time, corrosion resistance of nickel boron coatings tends to be inferior to nickel phosphorous deposits.