Design for hardness of electroplated Ni coatings

Electroplated nickel coatings are widely used in industry to improve the su rface finish, hardness and wear resistance of metallic surfaces. The purpos e of the present study was to collect and analyse a complete set of hardnes s data from a group of coatings between 10 to 50 mu m thick under indentati on loads between 0.05 and 200N. The system hardness variation for each coat ing thickness can be described as a function of contact load using a work-o f-indentation model. The introduction of dimensionless parameters, such as the relative indentation depth RID and the hardness partitioning ration r a llows the data for coatings of different thickness to be collated onto a si ngle master curve. It is demonstrated how this curve can be used as the bas is for designing coatings for specific applications.