Surfaces with nickel
A versatile transition metal
History and word origin
The name nickel was derived from copper nickel (Swedish kopparnickel) by Axel Frederic Cronsted, who first presented the metal in its pure form in 1751, the word for red nickel gravel (Rotnickelkies) originating from the Ore Mountains. The miners called the ore so, which looked like copper ore. However, no copper could be extracted from it, as if it had been bewitched by the "Berggeister (mountain spirits)" (nickname therefor: Nickeln).
Characteristics and usage
Nickel is one of the transition metals. It has the chemical symbol "Ni". It is rarely found in nature in a natural form. Despite this, it is recognized as a mineral. Most of the nickel production is therefore obtained from nickel-bearing ores. These are mainly garnierite, nickel magnet gravel and other nickel ores. Nickel is a silvery white shiny metal.
It is hard, malleable, ductile and polishes well. It's ferromagnetic. At room temperature, nickel is very resistant to air, water, hydrochloric acid and alkalis. On the other hand, it is dissolved by hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and nitric acid, especially at higher temperatures.
In addition to its use in electroplating, nickel is an important alloying metal, which is mainly used to refine steel. It is used in many areas, such as coin metal.
Our processes with nickel
Rieger Metallveredlung offers its customers a variety of different nickel coatings.
The most important is the bright nickel plating. In addition to the use of the bright nickel layers as the sole layers, they are used as a substrate for the bright chrome plating as the "brightener" due to the process. The separation takes place here from sulfuric acid electrolytes (so-called Watt's bath). The structure of the deposited layers can be changed by adding mostly organic substances. In addition to the matt layers (not to be confused with the satin or velour effect layers), it is also possible to deposit these glossy layers as well as semi-glossy layers.
While the decorative effect is required for the bright nickel layers, the semi-bright nickel layers serve to improve corrosion protection. The layers are therefore often used in combination, these are the double nickel layers.
The surface coating is carried out both in the rack process and in the barrel process.
In addition to galvanic nickel plating, chemical or electroless nickel plating has found wide application in many areas. We also offer these surfaces. A more detailed description of this follows in another blog article.
