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Machining & Reaming E-nickel Coated Parts

Eric1966

Plastic
Joined
Jul 16, 2021
Does anyone have experience machining or reaming E-nickel coated parts?

I have a part I'm quoting that will be made from S7 heat and treated to 47-25 HRC then E-nickel coated.
Feature I will have to place after HT & plating is a .0970" +/-.0004 hole.

Methods we are considering are:
Either placing hole from scratch - spot, drill and ream
Or placing a smaller hole pre HT & plating then interpolate with and end mill and ream.

Any thoughts on tooling that would work best or which method would work best.

Thank you,

Eric
 
Does anyone have experience machining or reaming E-nickel coated parts?

I have a part I'm quoting that will be made from S7 heat and treated to 47-25 HRC then E-nickel coated.
Feature I will have to place after HT & plating is a .0970" +/-.0004 hole.

Methods we are considering are:
Either placing hole from scratch - spot, drill and ream
Or placing a smaller hole pre HT & plating then interpolate with and end mill and ream.

Any thoughts on tooling that would work best or which method would work best.

Thank you,

Eric

This is very interesting (for about seven or eight reasons) - interested to see how others would weigh in on this.

I don't have an immediate answer,

but I have to say the application and purpose to said processes have a disproportionate bearing on what and how you go about things here IMO.

Just to be clear we are talking about electroless nickel plating ?

If that's the case,

First thought is which nickel process / phosphorous component.

Wikki cut and paste:

Types

The metallurgical properties of the alloy depend on the percentage of phosphorus.[17]

Low-phosphorus coatings have up to 4% P contents. Their hardness reaches up to 60 on the Rockwell C scale.

Medium-phosphorus coatings, the most common type, are defined as those with 4 to 10% P, although the range depends on the application: up to 4–7% for decorative applications, 6–9% for industrial applications, and 4–10% for electronics.

High-phosphorus coatings have 10–14% P. They are preferred for parts that will be exposed to highly corrosive acidic environments such as oil drilling and coal mining. Their hardness mat score up to 600 on Vickers test.

From - Electroless nickel-phosphorus plating - Wikipedia

,

____________________________________

.0970" +/-.0004 hole.


^^^ more info or callouts about said hole might be useful also.

It could be a total no brainer or something more, anything from a door-knob to a platter for a hard drive prep for diamond turning or something optical not well defined by a young engineer ? Or just a hole for a "Pin" on some kind of fixture etc.

Sketch / facsimile of the application. ? [might be helpful.]. ~ this would be a good one for a Robrenz / Robin Renzetti "Type/"Peep".
 
Rob Renzetti stuff for sure... saw a video where he diamond lapped a bore with this exact application. If I remember he machined it just shy of on size and then lapped it with a tool he made and diamond compound and checked it with a gauge he made.
 
A long time ago I had to do .126" +/-.0003 or so holes in .001" thick electroless nickel plated 1/4"ish thick 6061 parts. We made it so the holes were just undersize after plating and reamed with an HSS straight flute reamer on a drill press. Much to my surprise, it worked out perfectly with zero problems. We might have scrapped one or two parts out of around 300. This was for a fiber optic test equipment manufacturer and they were real picky about everything, if it wasn't perfect it was scrap.
 








 
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