Plasma vs Chrome
Advantages of Plasma Nitriding Vs. Chrome Plating
Plasma nitriding imparts a hard wear resistant diffused layer to the surface without the problems encountered with most wet bath platings. Be- cause plasma nitriding is a diffusion process it eliminates the problems of flaking, spalling, edge build-up, chipping and the cost associated with stripping and replating the products.
Cutting edges remain sharp during plasma nitriding and the uniform glow dis- charge enveloping all surfaces achieves a consistent hardness and case depth.
The build-up associated with chrome plating that causes the rounding of edges and webbing at the base of cavities is eliminated with plasma nitriding. In some cases, grinding is necessary to remove the excessive build-up leading to additional production costs.
The diffused case in ion nitriding provides good resistance to indentation which chrome plating does not offer. This allows plasma nitriding to be se- lected for a wider range of materials and applications.
Plasma nitriding will improve the fatigue strength of your material. Chrome plating does not offer this benefit.
Performance of plasma nitrided hydraulic shafts in Europe has satisfied the requirements for corrosion and wear resistance vs. chrome.
Plasma nitriding is environmentally friendly. Plasma nitriding does not use any toxic substances. The chrome plating process uses hexavalent chrome which is a known carcinogen.