Hard Chrome Plating brings a wide variety of desirable properties and characteristics; properties that many engineers require of their components and products.

Hard Chrome plating is an electrolytic process utilizing a chromic acid-based electrolyte. The part is made the cathode and, with the passage of a DC current via lead anodes, chromium metal builds on the component surface.

A wide variety of parts can be coated, from textile guide pins to large steel mill rolls; it requires only the appropriate jigging, a large enough bath, sufficient lifting capacity, and adequate power sources. For the engineer, some of the attractive properties of hard chrome plating include:

It is ultra hard; 850-1000Hv (65-70Rc), harder than most industrial abrasives and steel counterfaces. Unusually, it combines this hardness with a degree of toughness, so the deposit can stand up to high stress contact.

It gives superb substrate adhesion; greater than 10,000 psi. Before plating, substrates are subjected to rigorous cleaning, so that the surface to be coated is completely free from contaminants. But the ultimate adhesion is achieved in the plating bath itself, with an initial reverse voltage surface etch which removes any last vestiges of surface contamination.

It can be applied to a wide range of geometry's. With careful attention to anode design and jigging, chrome plating can be applied evenly to flat surfaces, to fine bores, even with large aspect ratios, to cylindrical surfaces like shafts or rollers, and to holes and close tolerance assembly areas.

It has a bright, attractive finish; it responds well to grinding and polishing, providing ideal surfaces for dealing with delicate products (like textiles and paper), for giving low friction, and for high precision parts like lathe beds.

With abrasion being the most common and destructive wear process found in industry, hard chrome has the potential to solve many problems in pumps , valves, bearings, etc. throughout a wide range of industries; including pharmaceutical, chemical, oil and gas, textiles, printing, food, mining, and countless others.