Low hydrogen embrittlement zinc/nickel plating for high strength steels
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsLuong M. Tran, Matthias P. Schriever, John H. Jones
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Abstract
The invention provides a method for producing a corrosion-resistant article, where the article is conductive and subject to hydrogen uptake during electroplating of a coating. The method comprises electroplating a zinc/nickel coating on the article in an aqueous, basic plating solution containing zinc and nickel ions. The method uses an electrolyte in the form of a soluble hydroxide salt with the weight ratio of zinc ions to nickel ions in the solution being sufficient to provide the coating comprising from about 85% to about 95% by weight zinc, and about 5% to about 15% by weight nickel. The plating solution is substantially free of brightening agents which retard hydrogen bake-out.
Claims21
A zinc nickel plated article comprising a substrate and a zinc nickel alloy plating on the substrate, wherein the substrate is steel having a tensile strength of 200 ksi or higher, wherein the zinc nickel alloy plating is 85-95% by weight Zn and 5-15% by weight Ni, and wherein the article meets the corrosion specification requirements of ASTM B-117 and the low embrittlement specification requirements of ASTM F-519, Type 1 a.2, wherein the zinc nickel alloy plating is characterized by a morphology having micropores with diameters from about 5 μm to about 20 um.
A zinc nickel plated article comprising a substrate and a zinc nickel alloy plating on the substrate, wherein the zinc nickel alloy plating is characterized by a morphology having micropores with diameters from about 5 μm to about 20 um.
An aircraft component comprising a zinc nickel plated article, wherein the plated article comprises a steel substrate with and a zinc nickel plating on the substrate, wherein the substrate is characterized by a tensile strength of 200 ksi or higher and the zinc nickel plating is 85-95% by weight Zn and 5-15% by weight Ni, and wherein the plated article meets the corrosion specification requirements of ASTM B-117 and the low embrittlement specification requirements of ASTM F-519, Type 1a.2, wherein the zinc nickel plating is characterized by a morphology having micropores with diameters from about 5 μm to about 20 um.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.