Electroless Nickel Plating Services per MIL-C-26074 and ASTM B733
Artistic Plating Company has provided quality functional and decorative electroless nickel plating services to MIL-C-26074 and ASTM B733 for nearly twenty years. Our expertise in providing precision barrel, rack and vibratory electroless nickel plating services is currently employed in numerous industries including the medical, hand tool, marine, power distribution, aerospace and chemical-chemical industries.
Artistic offers a wide range of electroless nickel plating services including both Type IV medium phosphorous and Type V high phosphorous deposits. Artistic also has the ability to underplate with copper plating or electrolytic nickel plating in order to provide multi-layer duplex systems to enhance corrosion performance (reference What causes metals to oxidize or “rust” in our Plating Topics section).
Electroless Nickel Plating Services – Electroless Nickel Properties
Electroless nickel is a unique coating in that it is not applied electrolytically with an applied current in a traditional plating cell. Rather electroless nickel is an amorphous nickel-phosphorous alloy that is plated by a chemical reduction (reaction) without the application of external current on a substrate that is catalytic within the bath. Since an 
applied current is not used in applying electroless nickel, it is free to the common nonuniformity of traditional electrolytic deposits (reference What are the advantages of electroless nickel over traditional electrolytic nickel in our Plating Topics section).
The excellent deposit uniformity of electroless nickel allows plating of various coating thicknesses on any area of a part that is wetted by the solution including blind holes and the inner diameters of tubing or fittings. The phosphorous content in the coating affects the properties of the deposit. In addition, post-plate baking at high temperatures can transition the deposit from an amorphous to crystalline structure greatly increasing hardness. Reference the bullets below for typical medium and high phosphorus properties:
- High Phosphorous Electroless Nickel (> 10% P): Semi-bright to matte appearance, non-magnetic, excellent solderability, and highly corrosion resistant. Rc 48-55 (as plated), 66-70 (with heat treatment)
- Medium phosphorous Electroless Nickel (6-9% P): Satin appearance, magnetic, moderate solderability and moderate corrosion resistance. Rc 58-62 (as plated), 66-70 (with heat treatment)
Electroless Nickel Plating Services – Electroless Nickel Specifications
The two most common electroless nickel plating services certified by Artistic Plating are MIL-C-26074 and ASTM B733. Artistic Plating also can certify our electroless nickel plating services to ISO 4527, AMS 2404 and AMS 2405 well as most company-specific electroless nickel specifications. A summary of electroless nickel services per the MIL and ASTM specs is as follows:
Electroless Nickel Plating Services to MIL-C-26074
Class 1: As plated not subsequent heat treatment (a bake for hydrogen embrittlement relief is not considered heat treatment)
Class 2: Heat-treated to obtain required hardness. May be used on all metals not affected by heating to 500F and above.
Class 3: Aluminum alloys nonheat-treatable, and beryllium alloys processed to improve adhesion of the nickel deposit
Class 4: Aluminum alloys, heat-treatable, processed to improve adhesion of the nickel deposit
Grade A – 0.0010-inch minimum deposit thickness
Grade B – 0.0005-inch minimum deposit thickness
Grade C – 0.0015-inch minimum deposit thickness
Electroless Nickel Plating Services to ASTM B733-04
Note: ASTM B733-04 is markedly updated from ASTM B733-90 in that the coating Type specifies the phosphorous content of the coating. ASTM B733-90 does not make this distinction.
Type I: No requirement of phosphorous
Type II: 1-3% phosphorous (low phosphorous)
Type III: 2-4% phosphorous (low phosphorous)
Type IV: 5-9% phosphorous (medium phosphorous)
Type V: 10% or greater phosphorous (high phosphorous)
SC0: Minimum Thickness 0.000004 in
SC1: Light Service 0.0002 in
SC2: Mild Service 0.0005 in
SC3: Moderate Service 0.001 in
SC4: Severe Service 0.003 in
Class 1: As-deposited, no heat treatment
Class 2: Heat treatment at 260 to 400C to produce a minimum hardness of 850 HK100
Class 3: Heat treatment at 180 to 200C for 2 to 4h to improve coating adhesion on steel and to provide for hydrogen embrittlement relief
Class 4: Heat treatment at 120 to 130C for at least 1h to increase adhesion of heat-treatable (age-hardened) aluminum alloys (such as 7075) and carburized steel.
Electroless Nickel Plating Services – Why Artistic Plating?
Artistic Plating provides expertise in electroless nickel plating services to fulfill even the most demanding applications. From prototyping and PPAP qualification to full production processing – it is Artistic’s dedicated effort to exceed your expectations. The following points highlight why Artistic Plating is a leader in electroless nickel plating services:
- Heavy Build Capabilities: Artistic Plating has successfully employed electroless nickel plating services to coating thickness of over 0.005 inches. Many job shops are not even aware that electroless nickel can be physically plated to this degree. Our extensive research and development of heavy build thicknesses for the petrol-chemical industry provide a sound background for all heavy build deposit requirements.
- Diversity of Substrates: Artistic Plating provides electroless nickel plating services on nearly any metallic substrate including copper & copper alloys including beryllium and tellurium coppers, hardened and alloyed steels, stainless steels, Inconels, Hastalloys, Monels, ductile & cast iron and metalized plastics.
- Precision Medical-Grade Applications: Dedicated precision electroless plating line dedicated the specialized handling and controls needed to provide electroless nickel plating services in the medical industry. This line utilizes precision ultrasonic cleaners, dedicated activation chemistries and specialized virgin deionized water rinsing systems. Processing with specialized vibratory, oscillatory and compartmentalized barrels ensures proper processing of even the most demanding Swiss screw components.
- High Production Commercial Applications: Artistic plating utilizes a high capacity rack and barrel line to ensure competitive pricing and short lead times on even the largest high-volume requirements for electroless nickel plating services.
- RoHS and REACH Compliance: Artistic is at the forefront of environmental legislation and can certify our electroless nickel plating services as needed to the current RoHS, EVL and REACH regulations.
- Competitive Pricing: Artistic Plating has been providing quality nickel plating services for over sixty years. Competitive pricing in electroless nickel plating services is paramount to gaining and maintaining our customers in today’s competitive global marketplace.
- Lean Lead Times: With inventories leaner than ever, rapid turn around is a core competency that we highly value ensure the service our customers need.
- Value Added: Artistic prides itself on meeting the customer’s needs. Whether it’s custom engineering packaging, vacuum or nitrogen sealed packaging to enhance storage, Kanban inventory management, light subassembly or multiple finishing combinations – Artistic will work with you to ensure we meeting your needs in electroless nickel plating services.
Extensive in House Analytical and Quality Lab Services:
SPC is employed in all wet-lab work surrounding our nickel plating services to ensure baths are analyzed and adjusted at optimum frequencies to ensure operation between critical upper and lower control points. Our quality lab employs the latest in x-ray, coloumetric and spectrophotometer technologies to inspect your parts and will work to your requirements to provide testing as needed. Our quality lab can certify salt spray performance to ASTM B117, adhesion to ASTM B571 and solderability to ASTM B678. Mounted cross sections of parts are also available.
