{"id":1863,"date":"2014-08-29T09:44:41","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T14:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/?page_id=1863"},"modified":"2022-04-04T10:23:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T15:23:17","slug":"prevent-darkening-nickel-deposit-steel-baking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/technical-library\/plating-topics\/prevent-darkening-nickel-deposit-steel-baking\/","title":{"rendered":"How do I prevent darkening of a nickel deposit over steel when baking?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Contact-Us-12.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6099\" src=\"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Contact-Us-12.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Contact-Us-12.png 1920w, https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Contact-Us-12-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Contact-Us-12-1024x256.png 1024w, https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Contact-Us-12-768x192.png 768w, https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Contact-Us-12-1536x384.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a>Baking of hardened steel products is a common step to relieve hydrogen embrittlement (see\u00a0What is Hydrogen Embrittlement and How is it Prevented?\u00a0).\u00a0 A common product requirement for bright nickel plated products to retain their luster after baking.\u00a0 It is a common misconception that the nickel deposit darkens during baking at common hydrogen embrittlement temperatures of 375-400F.\u00a0 Bright nickel deposit can maintain their luster at these temperatures as they generally form a relatively passive oxide with good spectral properties.<\/p>\n<p>However, any nickel deposit that is plated to a common (thin) commercial thickness of 0.0001-0.0003 inches is generally a porous deposit that can be thought of metalugically as a screen on the surface of the steel.\u00a0 During baking the steel itself is susceptible to oxidizing or slightly scaling with a darker oxide film.\u00a0 The ferrous scale has a tendency to propagate through the pores in the nickel deposit resulting in a loss of luster to the overall deposit.\u00a0 In order to mitigate this phenomena it is recommended that the nickel deposit be increased to a minimum thickness of 0.0004 inches in order to reduce the porosity of the deposit.\u00a0 It has been shown that this higher nickel thickness generally works to better \u201cseal\u201d the substrate steel and thus prevent darkening of the deposit during the baking process.\u00a0 Slight variations from this rule of thumb may be needed but as a generally design guideline this increase thickness provide acceptable results.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:quotes@advancedplatingtech.com?subject=Bright%20Finishes\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-5591 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Submit-RFQ-5-e1646066165902.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"342\" height=\"45\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baking of hardened steel products is a common step to relieve hydrogen embrittlement (see\u00a0What is Hydrogen Embrittlement and How is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":122,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1863","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7G6ce-u3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1863\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}