{"id":7528,"date":"2024-11-22T13:15:10","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T19:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/?page_id=7528"},"modified":"2026-01-12T13:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T19:28:57","slug":"ducta-bright-7a-nickel-services","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/ammunition-and-firearm-finishes\/ducta-bright-7a-nickel-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducta-Bright 7A Nickel\u00ae Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"GB3_2670\"<\/a>Advanced Plating Technologies is a leading provider of nickel plating of shell casings within the ammunition and defense industries offering a proprietary ductile nickel system called Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae\u00a0Nickel.\u00a0 Nickel plating of shell casings with Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae provides several key benefits including improved feeding in all actions of firearms, enhanced corrosion resistance over traditional brass and improved cosmetics and ease of cleanup during reloading.\u00a0 Nickel plated casings will not tarnish like brass during storage or when in contact with materials such as leather holsters or belt pouches.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Until the development of the Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae process, nickel plating of shell casings often limited the number of reloads as compared to raw brass.\u00a0 It was claimed that nickel plating of brass shell casings \u201cembrittled\u201d the brass thereby making it less preferable for reloaders despite the ease of cleanup that nickel plating affords.\u00a0 In addition, ammunition engineers raised concern of using nickel plating in very hot +P or magnum loads \u2013 especially in deep-drawn casings – where it was thought that nickel plating of such loads could result in once-fired casing cracking or failures.<\/p>\n

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Download our Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae Technical Data Sheet<\/p><\/div>\n

Such preexisting industry concerns conflict with the metallurgy involved in nickel plating of brass casings.\u00a0 Classic C260 cartridge brass (70% copper, 30% zinc) is not susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement nor is there any chemistry employed in traditional nickel plating processes that is known to embrittle brass such as ammonia.\u00a0 Due to repeated inquiries regarding these design concerns by engineers within the ammunition industry, Advanced Plating Technologies set forth to investigate nickel plating of brass casings further.\u00a0 The aim was to try and determine if these deleterious effects actually occurred and if they did, establish root cause and develop a system that would mitigate these deposit flaws.<\/p>\n

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Nickel Plating of Shell Casings \u2013 Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae Nickel Development<\/h2>\n

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\"Bright<\/a>The Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae nickel system was developed over a one year focused engineering study by APT\u2019s engineering group to either prove or disprove the theory of brass embrittlement by nickel plating.\u00a0 Over 40 unique combinations of pretreatment, nickel plating and process variables were analyzed.\u00a0 The nickel plated lots were tested for function in a proprietary dynamic impact loading test developed by APT mechanical engineers \u2013 the JLB impact tester.\u00a0 During initial testing the data began to indicate that certain process variables could be adjusted to improve the durability and function of a nickel deposit on a brass shell casing.<\/p>\n

Of the 40 trials lots analyzed, four finalist lots emerged from the JLB impact testing.\u00a0 These lots were field tested in live firing trials where the casings were loaded, fired and reloaded until the casings cracked during reloading.\u00a0 The result of this exhaustive study was that the 7th<\/sup>\u00a0lot, method A was found to be functionally superior above all other lots.\u00a0 The process parameters from this lot became the Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae process.\u00a0 Today APT deposits this nickel system on millions of casings weekly within critical commercial and defense applications.<\/p>\n

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Nickel Plating of Shell Casings \u2013 Why the Ducta-bright 7a\u00ae Nickel Process?<\/h2>\n

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Nickel plating of shell casings offers many functional improvements over raw brass including:<\/p>\n