Hard Chrome Plating: Extending the Life of your Equipment

Print 🖨

Hard Chrome Plating is popular among many industries for its use as a surface coating. Long prized for its hardness, ability to minimize sliding wear, corrosion protection and for extending the life of metal parts, it can be found in many applications such as hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders, pump shafts and rotors, swivel posts and bodies and downhole tools. In many cases, it is used on components where there is metal-to-metal contact between moving parts due to its low coefficient of friction.

Also known as “hard chrome”, “industrial chrome” or “engineered chrome”, it is generally thicker than decorative chrome plating and its applications are more engineered-oriented.

This electroplating process has the unique ability to restore dimensional sizing on worn parts reducing both equipment downtime and maintenance costs.

The Many Benefits of Hard Chrome Plating

The success of hard chrome plating can be attributed to the many benefits and unique characteristics of the process. An increased hardness alone would not be sufficient to secure widespread use, as a number of hard materials and hardening processes are available. It is the combination of the improved qualities below that give hard chrome plating such remarkable results.

Increased Hardness

Electro-deposited chrome is extremely hard, typically 66-70 HRC. Through hard chrome plating, the surface hardness of your component is increased without modifying its properties.

Low Friction

Hard chrome has a very low coefficient of friction when compared to steel. This allows a component to operate at a lower temperature during operation, extending the life of your equipment.

Wear Resistance

The high hardness and low frictional properties of hard chrome, provide excellent resistance to abrasion and mechanical contact.

Corrosion Resistance

Hard chrome has a very high resistance to atmospheric oxidation and a good resistance to most oxidizing and reducing agents (with the exception to Chlorides and other Halides).

Sacrificial Wear Layer

Since hard chrome deposits can be removed with chemical strippers, without destructive effect to base material, the part can be stripped and re-plated repeatedly when worn.

Lubricant Retention

Microcrack characteristics of hard chrome allows for oil retention which improves lubricity of plated parts.

Proven Expertise

Home to one of the largest chrome facilities in Western Canada, RHK Hydraulics is your first call for the toughest jobs. Not only do we chrome both repair and manufacturing jobs in-house, we offer chrome only service to companies all across the country.

Call our technical sales team at (780) 452-2876 to get started or visit our website at www.rhkhydraulics.com for more information.