Brass Plating

INTRODUCTION

Research Background

Brass is a hard yellow shiny metal that is an alloy of zinc and copper, frequently with the addition of other metallic elements to impart specific properties. Brass is harder than copper, ductile and can be hammered into thin leaves. Formerly any alloy of copper, especially one with tin, was called brass (Encarta, 2009).

Brass plating is primarily used for decorative applications and also for engineering applications such as for plating steel wire cord (EPI, 2011). Although all of the alloys of copper and zinc can be plated, the brass alloy most often used includes 70 to 80 percent copper, with the balance zinc (AP-42, 2007). Bright decorative brass finishes are produced by first plating with bright nickel for brightness and then followed with a brass flash plate for 35 to 90 seconds (Stan, 2011).Such finishes are used in wire goods, decorative lamps, furniture hardware and builder’s hardware. Heavy brass deposits between 0.0003 to 0.0006 inches are used for finishes which will be buffed, burnished, antiqued and oxidized. Some of the brass plate will be removed with antiquing and oxidizing processes and therefore the minimum thickness for such processes is 0.0003 inches (Stan, 2011).

Heavy brass deposits will not plate as bright as brass plated over bright nickel (Stan, 2009). To obtain bright finishes with heavy brass deposits, they must be buffed or burnished. There are addition agents which will refine the grain of the brass so that the amount of burnishing or buffing is greatly reduced (Stan, 2011).

Electroplating process is widely used for production of new materials that require specific mechanical, chemical and physical properties (Hariyanti, 2007). Electroplating process is very convenient because of its simplicity and low cost when compared with the other methods of coating (Helen and Huang, 2011, Hariyanti, 2007). Any electrically conductive surface can be electroplated. The metals and alloy substrates...