Hardness Measures approximately 65 - 70 on the Rockwell "C" Scale
Corrosion Protection
Repair Score Marks Hydraulic cylinder rods, for example, often become scratched or scored. They can be ground undersized, hard chromed to oversized, then ground to their original OEM specified dimension, making them harder and better than new.
Correct Grinding Errors Sometimes a diameter on a shaft is mistakenly ground too small. We mask other surfaces and hard chrome the undersized diameter to oversize, so that it can be ground to the correct diameter, thereby saving the part.
Mold Release Hard chrome adds a lubricity factor, which serves to release parts, e.g. rubber parts, from a mold.
Wear Protection In a punch and die operation, the edges of the punch and the die will wear quickly (especially if the part being punched out is abbrasive, e.g. brake shoe material), even if the punch and die are made from hardened tool steel. If the are hard chrome plated the wear will be greatly lessened. If a roller on a production process is hard chromed, it will wear less. Many steel parts that are subject to wear can be hard chrome plated for wear protection, offering cost savings and improved quality in the long run.
Abrasion Resistance Hard chrome offers excellent abrasion resistance because it has a high coefficient of friction. Hard chromed parts last many times longer than hardened tool steel.
Thickness Hard chrome can be applied from a thickness of 0.0001" (known as a "flash") up to more than 0.040".
Before Chrome Plating
After Chrome Plating
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