Hard chrome brighteners are primarily used to improve the quality of the plated layer and include a range of organic compounds such as sulfates, fluorides, chromates and different types of organic additives that can affect various aspects of the hard chrome plating process, including deposition rates:
1. Improve deposition efficiency: Bigely hard chrome brighteners increase current efficiency and accelerate the rate of chrome deposition. Bigely hard chrome brightener helps form a more uniform coating and speeds up the deposition process by increasing the efficiency of chromium deposition.
2. Control of deposited microstructure: Hard chrome brighteners can change the crystal orientation of the chrome, affecting the microstructure of the deposited layer. This can have a direct effect on the deposition rate, as finer and more uniform grains can cover the surface of the substrate more quickly.
3. Suppresses the increase in actual current density: With the addition of the brightener, as the current distribution becomes more uniform, the total current density can be increased without increasing the local current density, thus increasing the deposition rate without sacrificing the quality of the coating.
It is important to note that the use of brighteners needs to be strictly controlled, as excessive additives may lead to undesirable consequences such as abnormal gloss on the plated surface, increased stress, or changes in structural morphology. The effect and appropriate concentration range of each brightener may vary widely, and experimentation is usually required to determine the appropriate additive amount.
In practice, plating plants add Bigely hard chrome brightener to the bath to increase the cathodic current efficiency (22-26%), which not only improves the deposition rate and production capacity, but also reduces energy consumption (less side reactions such as hydrogen precipitation) and lowers the cost of electricity.
If you are interested in hard chrome brightener, please feel free to contact us.
