What hard chrome plating actually does

The word 'chrome' brings decorative trim to mind — a thin, shiny cosmetic layer. Industrial hard chrome plating is a different job. It deposits a dense chromium layer onto a machined surface for what it does mechanically: restore lost material, cut friction, and resist wear and corrosion. Appearance is beside the point.

The chromium is deposited out of solution onto the prepared surface, built to the thickness the job needs, then ground back to the drawing. We plate to the current revisions of AMS 2460 and AMS 2406.

First, rebuild. On a worn part, hard chrome restores the lost diameter — from a .0001" flash where dimensional change must stay negligible, up to a .050" buildup that brings a worn journal back to print. Ground afterward, the part goes back to spec.

Second, cut friction. A ground chrome surface is hard and slick, which is why it is the default on sliding surfaces, hydraulic rods and anything running against a seal. Third, resist corrosion — a dense chrome layer protects the substrate underneath, and a thin one adds that protection without meaningfully changing size.

Hard chrome is not the answer to everything, and pretending otherwise is how parts come back. For heavy abrasion, tungsten carbide applied by thermal spray goes harder than chrome will. For a ceramic or electrically insulating surface — aluminum oxide, chrome oxide — chrome cannot help at all, because those are not platable. And very long components can exceed the practical plating envelope while still being sprayable.

That is why we run both plating and thermal spray. We have no reason to push you toward the one machine we own, because we own both. If your part wants spray, we will tell you.