We continue the talking about the plating of showers.
In the three-layer coating, the nickel layer (including semi gloss nickel and bright nickel) plays a role of corrosion resistance. Because the nickel itself is soft and dark, a layer of chromium layer will be plated on the nickel layer to harden the surface and improve the brightness. Among them, nickel plays an important role in corrosion resistance, while chromium plays an important role in aesthetics. So in production, the thickness of nickel is the most important. The thickness of nickel is more than 8um, and the thickness of chromium is generally 0.2 ~ 0.3um. Of course, the material and casting process of the shower itself are the foundation. The material and casting process are not good. It’s useless to plating nickel and chromium on many layers. So is the shower. The electroplating performance required by the national standard is ass 24-hour grade 9, which is the dividing line between high-quality faucet, shower and market goods.
The electroplating thickness of faucets produced by some manufacturers with small scale, poor equipment, weak technical strength or pursuit of low cost is only 3-4um. This kind of coating is too thin, and it is very easy to cause surface oxidation and corrosion, green mold, coating blistering and whole coating falling off after a short time. The electroplating of such products can not pass the salt spray test, and there is no test control link at all.
In addition, some foreign markets use Cass test as the standard, such as Japan / the United States. Compared with high-end brands such as toto, some products are required to meet cass24h. 
There are mainly two kinds of top spray surface plating: half surface plating and integrated plating.
1. Half plating
That is, the top shower back plate is electroplated, while the spray surface keeps the original substrate.
2. Integrated Electroplating
The top shower back plate and surface are all electroplated, showing an integrated electroplating effect.
In general, integrated electroplating top spray is more corrosion-resistant, longer service life, and more visual texture. But the larger the plating surface, the higher the price. 
If the electroplating quality is not good, the product will be corroded quickly in the bathroom environment with high temperature and humidity, and the surface of the product will appear spots, bubbles, coating shedding and even substrate corrosion. Not only is it not beautiful, but the corroded compounds will also affect the health of water.
Finally, the shower top spray is recommended to use ABS or stainless steel. Electroplating effect can be selected according to personal habits and preferences.
The most common surface treatment of stainless steel is wire drawing process, which changes the smooth surface of stainless steel into diffuse reflection surface, so it will not be stained with fingerprints. The products after such treatment also have high corrosion resistance.
Now many shower products use advanced PVD electroplating technology. PVD refers to the use of low voltage, high current arc discharge technology under vacuum conditions, using gas discharge to evaporate the target and ionize the evaporated material. Under the action of electric field, the evaporated material or its reaction products are deposited on the workpiece. What are the advantages of PVD vacuum plating compared with traditional plating?
First of all, the adhesion between PVD coating and product surface is greater than that of ordinary electroplating. The hardness of the coating is higher, the stability of the coating is better, that is, the service life is longer, and the color that can be plated is richer than that of ordinary electroplating. At the same time, PVD coating is environmentally friendly and will not produce toxic or polluting substances. These advantages are applied to shower products, characterized by bright, uniform color, coating adhesion is very high, but also truly achieve seamless electroplating without holes, even if the product is bent 90 ° Above, the phenomenon of coating spalling will not occur, this super adhesion, ordinary electroplating is unable to do, at the same time, its corrosion resistance is strong, almost no effect of light on it, even in the strong sunlight, or low salt and humidity environment, will not be oxidized, faded, detached or burst, and PVD coating can also according to the design, etching out the required pattern. The cost of PVD coating technology is not high, it is a very cost-effective coating method, coupled with its environmental protection, so it develops very fast.
Post time: Jun-18-2021