Zinc Nickel Plating

Zinc nickel is used as an environmentally and process friendly alternative to cadmium. Zinc-nickel provides sacrificial corrosion protection, performing in the same way as cadmium plating. The advantage of zinc nickel over cadmium is that it combines both the sacrificial properties of zinc with the strength and corrosion resistance of nickel. 

Zinc nickel was originally developed for the automotive industry as it offers excellent protection in aggressive environments, including salt and high temperatures. Typically applied with a thickness of 10-15µm, zinc nickel is proven to withstand up to 1000 hours of salt spray testing, putting it on par with cadmium.

The finished zinc nickel coating offers a blue-grey appearance as well as a good key for paint to be applied on top of it. Similar to cadmium, components coated with zinc nickel also go through a passivation procedure increasing the corrosion resistance.

Where cadmium plating has been used for lubrication performance as opposed to corrosion protection, we would recommend replacing cadmium with a dry film lubricant (DFL), such as one of our Apticote 200 range of coatings.

Zinc nickel is a key treatment throughout the aerospace industry, with Poeton holding a number of approvals including for Collins Aerospace, Moog and Safran. Zn-Ni is however also extensively used across a range of industries such as automotive, defence, oil & gas, marine and plant machinery.