Many types of plating including zinc and cad plating can cause hydrogen embrittlement to the metal. It depends on several factors including the hardness of the base metal. I was checking into cad plating some wing attach fittings a while back and was told by the plater that if the steel was over a certain Rockwell hardness that they would have to do a stress relief bake after plating. It involved bringing the part up to something like 250 degrees for about 12 hours if I remember correctly. It was a temperature that would not degrade the original heat treating of the metal, but would cure the hydrogen embrittlement problem.
Your best bet with plating aircraft parts if you must is to talk to a plater that knows what they are doing. I work with a shop that does mil spec plating and works with several aircraft parts manufacturers. Your local motorcycle or auto plating shop would not be recommeded. Brian Kraut Engineering Alternatives, Inc. www.engalt.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 1:05 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: KR> coatings I thought Chroming anything on an airplane besides cosmetic things is a NO NO. I have heard horror stories of the FAA red tagging showplanes with chrome work done on them. Chroming makes metal brittle. Kevin. _______________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected] please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html
