Hardness and Wear Characteristics for a New Non-Fluoride High Efficiency Chromium Plating Chemistry

Historically, hard chromium plating has been limited to the conventional 12-16% efficient chemistry developed by Fink and Eldridge in 1926 and to the mixed catalyst 20-25% efficient chemistry developed in the early 1950's. Recent discoveries have now led to a new non-fluoride high efficiency chromium chemistry which gives deposits with surprisingly consistent physical properties over a wide range of bath operating conditions. In this paper the microhardness and Falex sliding wear characteristics of the new chromium deposits will be compared with those for the conventional chemistry over a wide range of bath operating parameters which include composition, current density and temperature.