Electroplating of Nickel Using a Modified Barrel Design

Nickel is a metal electroplated on a wide variety of articles both ferrous and nonferrous. Small articles which are difficult to jig are frequently plated by barrel plating technique.

In conventional barrel plating the parts to be plated are contacted by either a rod, dangler or metallic wall as they rotate inside the barrel. A modified barrel design has been effected by changing the dangler contact with uniformly distributed contact tips at varying points on the periphery of the barrel. A modification in anode positioning is also made. Improvement in thickness uniformity brought about by use of this modified design are reported in this paper.