The process of adding an electroless nickel plating to a metal surface is an autocatalytic chemical reduction. This means that instead of using an outside source of electricity like in the similar electroplating process, the electroless nickel plating process uses a chemical bath to deposit a nickel / phosphorous layer onto the metallic surface. A surface coated in electroless nickel can even be used on non-conductive surfaces which allows for plating of a wider variety of base materials. This electroless process greatly improves the objects resistance to galling and leaves a predictable, uniform nickel coating for high-precision parts, which can be applied to both ferrous and non-ferrous surfaces of any geometry or intricate shape.

Industry Standards of Electroless Nickel Plating

ASTM B733-97 | ASM 2404E | ASM 2404B| Mil-C-26074E

Why Choose Electroless Nickel Plating (ENP)?

Components used in industrial applications often encounter punishing conditions. Engineers looking to protect parts from wear, friction and corrosion have discovered that electroless nickel plating offers a range of advantages:

Electroless nickel coating is often less porous than electroplated nickel and hard chrome, providing barrier corrosion protection to steel, and can also be applied with zero or little compressive stress making it gentle in application.

With no electricity required, electroless nickel plating can be completed in a more controlled environment with less equipment than traditional electroplating and the process requires fewer coats to produce a strong, high-quality coating. This reduction of equipment and time consumption results in an efficient, cost-effective process

Electroless Nickel (EN) plating can be applied to a multitude of base materials including aluminum, titanium, mild steels, stainless steel, hardened steel, copper, brass and zinc die-cast.

The electroless plating process provides a large flexibility of thickness and volume of the plating on metal surfaces, and can easily fill recesses or pits in the metal surface resulting in a uniform surface finish. This also allows for a wider variety of industrial parts to be plated such as: oil field valves, pumps, drive shafts, electrical/mechanical tools & engineering equipment to name a few.