Kettle Clinic

Does anyone know what way the Old Suzuki bikes had there metal chromed ,
was Chrome straight onto the metal or what. Is it really necessary to have all this triple plating,nickle copper then Chrome ,
I had a part Chromed recently and the chrome on the threads was so thick i could not get the nut on .

I dont know what the japs did. But I do know that chrome on steel is rubbish. Its the nickel first that provides the anti rust protection, The chrome is just the decoration. Copper/nickel/chrome is the most expensive. I suspect most chromers will do nickel/chrome. Its always best to ask. If its cheap then its usually chrome only and not worth the effort.
There are others who know far more that me who might give a better answer.

Japanese chrome is -was as it is today Triple plate.
If you chrome plate bare steel it will peel off.

I don't think chrome on steel is even possible TBH and as others have said it would be useless for longevity.
The so called triple plate of copper, nickel and Chrome isn't actually the best but has been extremely well marketed. It is possibly true that some of the best platers (like the old London Chrome company) do use triple plate in some applications because copper is much cheaper than nickel so if you need to build up a pitted or damaged bit of steel it is the most cost effective way of doing it but it reality building up with semi bright nickel (not ordinary bright nickel) and machining that back before polishing and chroming would be "best" but a lot more expensive. The vast majority of platers don't have semi bright nickel capability anyway so copper nickel chrome becomes the only alternative for bad surfaces. It's all a bit technically complicated but ordinary bright nickel can't be built up into very deep layers because it is too stressed and will crack unlike semi bright nickel and copper which are much more ductile.

I should caveat the above by saying that the above is based on info from the successful plating company I worked at for 6 months learning the processes and they had just introduced the semi bright nickel process at great expense and we're very proud of it so maybe a little biased?!

Kettletimes - do you know for absolutely certain that standard Jap chroming is triple process? It seems highly unlikely to me unless they worked out that it allows them to put the absolute minimum of the more expensive metals on. If you have a perfect virgin surface I would have thought just nickel then chrome would be the cheapest and most robust

Simon

swarrans wrote:I don't think chrome on steel is even possible TBH and as others have said it would be useless for longevity.
The so called triple plate of copper, nickel and Chrome isn't actually the best but has been extremely well marketed. It is possibly true that some of the best platers (like the old London Chrome company) do use triple plate in some applications because copper is much cheaper than nickel so if you need to build up a pitted or damaged bit of steel it is the most cost effective way of doing it but it reality building up with semi bright nickel (not ordinary bright nickel) and machining that back before polishing and chroming would be "best" but a lot more expensive. The vast majority of platers don't have semi bright nickel capability anyway so copper nickel chrome becomes the only alternative for bad surfaces. It's all a bit technically complicated but ordinary bright nickel can't be built up into very deep layers because it is too stressed and will crack unlike semi bright nickel and copper which are much more ductile.

I should caveat the above by saying that the above is based on info from the successful plating company I worked at for 6 months learning the processes and they had just introduced the semi bright nickel process at great expense and we're very proud of it so maybe a little biased?!

Kettletimes - do you know for absolutely certain that standard Jap chroming is triple process? It seems highly unlikely to me unless they worked out that it allows them to put the absolute minimum of the more expensive metals on. If you have a perfect virgin surface I would have thought just nickel then chrome would be the cheapest and most robust

Simon

I know on the new chrome Suzuki parts you can buy today, e.g mudguards , that copper is used as you can often see a copper wash on the underside around mounting holes etc where the nickel and chrome coats are very thin. Kev

I have had had original parts striped and they were triple plated,
Also i have had some bolts chrome plated on bare metal and it peeled off.

the old jap chroming over here as well as being made was done at harland and wolf ship yard for Suzuki GB.
and no they were not triple chromed,maybe later years but certainly not during the early 60/70's.
I'had parts stripped and no copper was found.
the key to any chrome being shiny was the polished surface.
and as we all know the chrome of them days were not the brightest.
a few rubs with autosol and after awhile you've rubbed the chrome off.
I can remember clearly in those days they used to say if you buy rims etc get it done in British chrome.
most chromers now use nickle/chrome.
very few do triple chroming as it very expensive to dispose of the chemicals that was used to apply copper etc.