Electroless Nickel Plating|S4J Manufacturing Services Inc

Electroless Nickel Plating

Why Electroless Nickel Plating?
Electroless Nickel Plating (ENP) vs. Hard Chrome Plating

Our Plating History

In 1971, when S4J began manufacturing Luer fittings, Electroless Nickel Plating (ENP) was selected as our coating of choice, with many fine platers available to perform the relatively new process.

While we experienced reasonable success, as our batch sizes grew, the occasional reject batch became increasingly more costly and of course, affected lead times. Since high quality and on time delivery is a priority at S4J, this was clearly the area in most need of improvement.

Troubleshooting the problem with our platers usually ended with the result being an inherent problem with commercial chemical processing. A commercial plating line is designed to accommodate many different base metals, contaminated with a large assortment of soils. As a result, our previous platers would typically blame poor plating runs on their previous job, and the effect it has on the process. We were frequently told the only way to avoid those problems would be a dedicated line for our product. So we chose the most reliable company we knew, S4J Manufacturing Services, to run a dedicated electroless nickel plating line.

plating line

We contracted with a leading manufacturer of plating systems to design, build and install a turn-key, fully controlled, state of the art Electroless Nickel plating line, complete with wastewater evaporation, that would stand up to the strictest environmental regulations. Opting for an in-house plating line was a major factor in the need for a new facility that eventually resulted in our relocation to Florida. The new plant is designed from the ground up as a dedicated facility for the manufacture of fittings from bar stock to completed, ready to ship components.

Why Electroless Nickel Plating?

Autocatalytic nickel plating, commonly referred to as electroless nickel plating, is based on the deposition of coating applied by chemical reduction (unlike electroplating) which results in a uniform thickness over the entire surface of base material. Since all surfaces wetted by the electroless nickel solution are plated, the deposit thickness is highly uniform. This unique property of electroless nickel makes it possible to plate the internal bore and complex geometries found on Luer components. Such uniformity of deposit thickness is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve by any other method.

The major benefits of the High Phosphorous ENP are:

Highly uniform coating thickness
Superior corrosive protection
Extended component service due to uniformity
Good lubricating, wear, and abrasion resistance
Non-magnetic
Highly chip resistant

Electroless Nickel Plating (ENP) vs. Hard Chrome Plating

While ENP is uniform in thickness, hard chrome, like all electro-plating, results in inconsistent coating with heavy plating on outside corners to little or no coverage on internal features.
ENP generally outperforms hard chrome for corrosion resistance.
The service life of an electroless nickel plated component is typically longer due to the lack of "high spots" as a result of uniformity.
While wear performance of both ENP and hard chrome are very good, the uniformity of the ENP yields better results-this would be particularly important when two plated components are mated together.
A component that is hard chrome plated is more likely to chip, which could result in peeling.