What Is Involved in Brass Plating?

Steel wire electroplating brass (electrobrassing of steel wire) The surface of the steel wire is plated with a brass layer by electroplating.

Steel plated brass

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Steel wire electroplating brass (electrobrassing of steel wire) The surface of the steel wire is plated with a brass layer by electroplating.

The composition of the plating layer is that copper accounts for about 65% to 70%, and zinc accounts for about 35% to 30%. The purpose of steel wire electroplating brass is to increase the binding force of tire steel wire and rubber. The plating itself is also suitable for plastic processing, which can be deformed at the same time as the steel wire, and is beneficial for drawing. There are many methods for electroplating brass with steel wires, but only two are actually used: cyanide plating and thermal diffusion plating. The cyanide electroplating method uses a cyanide electrolyte, which can directly plate brass on a steel wire, and the plated brass plating layer adheres well to the steel wire, which is conducive to drawing. However, when using this method, it is difficult to adjust the plating solution, and the cyanide electrolyte is highly toxic. The waste cyanide solution must be treated. The workshop ventilation must also be adjusted so that production can be safe and a good production environment can be guaranteed. Cyanide-plated brass has been used for decades, and environmental issues have also been resolved. The thermal diffusion electroplated brass method was developed in the 1960s. In the electroplating process, copper is electroplated first, then zinc is electroplated, and then thermal diffusion is performed, so that the copper and zinc plated on the steel wire mutually diffuse into a copper-zinc alloy. When electroplating copper, most of the two-step method is used, that is, the alkaline method is used first and then the acid method is used to plate the copper. However, the alkaline copper plating method has a slow reaction speed, so the second step is to use an acid copper plating method to increase the copper plating speed. The two-step copper plating method can obtain a copper layer that is well combined with steel wires and has a sufficient thickness. The thermal diffusion method of brass plating is convenient for adjusting the copper-zinc ratio, and there is no highly toxic cyanide.