Electroplating Options
We’re often asked “What’s the best plating option for custom copper electrical components?” The answer depends largely on the components application. However, no matter the industry or the application, Storm’s plating experts know exactly how to achieve the right thickness to meet precise specifications for copper bus bar and electrical component designs.
Selecting the Best Plating for Copper Bus Bar
A general rule is that tin is a great choice for copper bus bar applications such as power sub-stations, tower grounding, and high-voltage connections because it’s inexpensive and protects copper from environmental degradation. At the same time, tin masks copper from theft, destroying its value in recycling. Alternatively, silver plating is widely used to connect key electrical contact points which makes it a popular choice in the switchgear industry. Lead plating is often used to prevent the degrading of lead/acid battery connectors, making it the plating choice for battery back-up or motive power industry.
Storm Power offers a variety of electrolytic finishes:
- Bright tin
- Matte tin
- Nickel
- Silver - B700
- 100 % lead
- Various tin/lead alloys
Electroless Nickel Plating (EN)
We also perform Medium Phosphorus Electroless Nickel Plating. The process is completely free of chrome, lead, and cadmium, eliminating the health and environmental hazards related to these elements.
Due to its exceptional corrosion resistance and high hardness, the process, which is quite versatile, finds wide application, from aerospace to oil and gas equipment, to enhance the life of components exposed to severe conditions. EN uses less nickel and offers distinct advantages over 'electrolytic' processes in an engineering environment when plating irregularly shaped objects, holes, recesses, internal surfaces, valves, or threaded parts.
Additional benefits include:
- high durability and lubricity
- increased service life on coated parts
- uniform thickness on complex parts
- recycling capability of used parts
Cynanide-Free Nickel Plating