THE EFFECT OF BRUSH-PLATING ON THE STRUCTURE AND WEAR PROPERTIES OF ELECTRODEPOSITS

In this work, the structure and wear properties of brush plated electr odeposits were investigated. An additive free sulphamate solution was used for plating with different methods of solution supply as well as conventional bath plating, and the structures were investigated by TEM and X-ray diffraction. The structure of the nickel sulphamate deposit obtained by brush plating with pumped solution supply was found to re semble that of bath plated deposits. When solution supply was realised by dipping of the anode, the coatings had a more fine grained structu re and higher hardness. Ball-on-ring tests were carried out on samples brush plated with different nickel and cobalt alloy coatings. A compa rison was made with specimens bath plated with hard chromium. The coba lt and chromium deposits gave similar results, while nickel coatings w ere found to be less wear resistant.