Electroless nickel baths for enhancing hardness
OwnerGlenn O. Mallory, Jr.inventor
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Abstract
Electroless nickel baths for producing high hardness nickel alloys "as-deposited" containing phosphorus which are produced using baths employing hypophosphite reducing agents at a particular pH range advantageously above 6 and in the presence of a fluoborate anion. The nickel phosphorus alloys "as-deposited" do not require age or heat treatments to produce high hardness with Vickers Harness Number values above about 700 and generally above about 800 to 900 (VHN.sub.100) and have phosphorus contents below about 4 weight percent and a crystalline nature with crystallite diameters in excess of 60 Angstroms.
Claims7
A method for producing an electroless plated nickel deposit, the improvement comprising conducting electroless nickel plating of the deposit within a bath to produce said deposit having a hardness as-plated above about 800 VHN.sub.100, said bath being an aqueous electroless plating bath comprising a first compound as a source of nickel cations, a hypophosphite reducing agent, and a second compound as a source of a fluoborate anion and with said bath being operated under electroless nickel plating conditions and maintained at a pH range of from about 6 to about 8.5.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.