Over the past 20 years, zinc nickel plating companies have seen a significant increase in their customer base. In fact, many industrial concerns are now looking at this zinc alloy as a means of increasing their products ability to resist the problem of corrosion. Among the companies currently increasing their reliance on this zinc alloy for rust resistance are those in the automotive industries – both OEMs and contract component suppliers.
Why Choose this Zinc Alloy?
Automotive industries elect to use this zinc alloy for a combination of reasons. Zinc nickel:
Provides superior corrosion protection than zinc alone
Offers comparative or superior corrosion protection than cadmium does
Is more environmentally safe than cadmium
Zinc nickel acts as a “sacrificial coating.” It, therefore, provides extra protection to the substrate surface it covers, increasing the material’s longevity. However, the zinc-nickel plating also can function in place of cadmium in galvanic interaction applications. In this instance, its role is to reduce the amount of corrosion that occurs when two dissimilar metals interact. This is another case when the plating material acting as an anti-corrosive layer, reduces the speed of corrosion while increasing the ability of the items it coats to last longer. Such actions help automotive companies improve the ability of their products to last longer.
Automotive Applications
In the automotive industry, zinc nickel alloy plating finds its way into a number of components including these two major ones:
1. Fluid and hydraulic systems including transfer tubes
2. Fasteners for chassis joints and other under the hood or other highly exposed areas where corrosion is probable
Zinc Nickel Plating
During the last two decades, the commercial popularity of zinc nickel coating has continued to grow. Among the many industrial concerns utilizing the zinc-nickel combination are automotive companies. They understand how zinc nickel plating provides higher levels of corrosion protection than zinc. The automotive industry also accurately perceives how it is a less toxic replacement for cadmium.
