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Selective "Brush Plating" is a process gaining wider acceptance in the airline/aerospace industries. Applications are no longer limited to mere "touch ups" of cadmium, but are being expanded to include heavy build-ups with other metals on larger areas. As the process applications were expanded, it became evident that the most widely used brush plated coatings, the high speed neutral or alkaline Nickels, would not be acceptable for most applications. Deposits from such solutions were highly stressed, constantly showed evidence of surface to base cracking, and poor adhesion in bend/fracture tests. With the development of the sulfamate based AeroNikl® plating solutions, these traditional plating problems have been eliminated. Successful plating, however, requires "state-of-the-art" brush plating techniques, including an auxiliary piece of equipment, known in the trade as the AeroNikl® Sump.

Acceptance within the aircraft/aerospace industry of nickel sulfamate coatings, applied by selective (brush) plating methods, has greatly increased not only the number and types of applications but the methods of application as well. This paper will describe the latest technical data on the deposits obtained by the selective deposition of nickel sulfamate solutions (AeroNikl®), current applications for these coatings and advancements in application technology, including SIFCO's CVGP (Controlled Velocity Gap Plating) process for high speed selective deposition in bores.

Recent advances in Selective “Brush Plating” technology combined with selectively plated Nickel Sulfamate coatings (Known in the industry as AeroNikl), permit the precise plating of close-tolerance small diameter holes, on a repetitive basis. The ability to “plate-to-size” small diameter holes should be of great interest to anyone involved with the manufacture or overhaul of aircraft quality parts or assemblies. Many close-tolerance parts are being “scrapped” during manufacture for discrepancies of 0.001 inch on the diameter, or less. The latest fixturing and plating techniques utilized by SIFCO Selective Plating technicians can correct such discrepancies in minutes, with high quality nickel sulfamate coatings. The time consuming and costly method of masking, tank plating, and remachining is avoided in most applications.