The Effect of Quenching and Nickel-Chrome Electroplating with

Variations of Voltage and Time of Coating Againts Value of Hardness

on Brass

T. Endramawan

, A. Sifa

, D. Suwandi

and B. Laksono Jaelane

Design Manufacturing, Politeknik Negeri Indramayu, Jl. Lohbener Lama no.08, Indramayu, Indonesia

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Indramayu, Jl. Lohbener Lama no.08, Indramayu, Indonesia

Keywords: Brass, Heat Treatment, Electroplating, Nickel-Chrome.

Abstract: Brass is a mixture of copper and zinc. Brass is very easy to shape into various shapes, brass is mostly used

for ship applications, one of which is the propeller, the propeller is usually damaged in the form of corrosion

or hit by a hard object so that it bends or breaks at the tip of the propeller leaf. The electroplating process is

one of the metal coating methods. The coating method is influenced by several parameters including: current

strength, electrode distance, current distribution, coating time, concentration level of the electrolyte solution

and others. The process of heat treatment (Hardening) is a process carried out to increase the hardness of the

material. Hardening at a temperature of 650

C for 6 hours with the highest hardness value obtained by water

quenching media of 101.78 HV (12, 67%) with a base material hardness of 90.34 HV. The results of the

Vickers hardness test after the nickel-chrome electroplating process with a voltage variation of 1.5, 3, and 4.5

volts and a time of 5, 10, and 15 minutes, with a loading of 100 gf indentation time of 10 seconds with the

highest hardness value obtained at a voltage of 4 ,5 volts and 15 minutes of 254.82 HV for nickel and 261.95

HV for nickel and 261.95 HV. The results of the thickness test after the nickel-chrome electroplating process

based on the results of the Vickers test with the highest hardness value on nickel obtained a thickness of

70.90833 m and chrome at 99.5483 m. with a loading of 100 gf indentation time of 10 seconds with the highest

hardness value obtained at a voltage of 4.5 volts and a time of 15 minutes of 254.82 HV for nickel and chrome

of 261.95 HV of 261.95 HV. The results of the thickness test after the nickel-chrome electroplating process

based on the results of the Vickers test with the highest hardness value on nickel obtained a thickness of

70.90833 m and chrome at 99.5483 m. with a loading of 100 gf indentation time of 10 seconds with the highest

hardness value obtained at a voltage of 4.5 volts and a time of 15 minutes of 254.82 HV for nickel and chrome

of 261.95 HV of 261.95 HV. The results of the thickness test after the nickel-chrome electroplating process

based on the results of the Vickers test with the highest hardness value on nickel obtained a thickness of

70.90833 m and chrome at 99.5483 m.

1 INTRODUCTION

In line with the development of the industrial

revolution 4.0 and advances in science and

technology, the use of metals cannot be separated

from human life. The development of technology that

is increasingly rapidly affecting the lifestyle of

humans has resulted in almost all equipment around

us being made of metal. The Ministry of Industry is

concentrating on developing the domestic brass-

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5605-680X

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9565-9884

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6816-1570

based industry to make it more competitive. One of

the strategic efforts is to encourage the production of

this sector through the use of recycling raw materials

of brass or copper from the remnants of household

appliances or projects that are no longer used. The

development of the brass industry will contribute to

the performance of the national metal industry. In

2017, the metal industry recorded a growth of 5, 87%

or above the economic growth which reached 5.07%.

Currently, the growth of the base metal industry is

Endramawan, T., Sifa, A., Suwandi, D. and Jaelane, B.

The Effect of Quenching and Nickel-Chrome Electroplating with Variations of Voltage and Time of Coating Againts Value of Hardness on Brass.

DOI: 10.5220/0011711500003575

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science (iCAST-ES 2022), pages 56-61

ISBN: 978-989-758-619-4; ISSN: 2975-8246

still supported by the iron, steel, aluminum, nickel,

copper and tin sectors (kemenperin.go.id).

Brass is a metal that is a mixture of copper (Cu)

and zinc (Zn). Copper is the main component of brass.

Brass is usually classified as an alloy of copper and

zinc. The color of brass varies from dark reddish

brown to light silvery yellow depending on the

amount of zinc (Zn) content. Zinc affects the color of

the brass more. Brass is stronger and harder than

copper, but not as strong or as hard as steel. Brass is

very easy to form into a variety of shapes, is a good

conductor of heat, and is generally resistant to

corrosion from salt water. Because of these

properties, brass is mostly used to make pipes, tubes,

screws, radiators, musical instruments, marine

applications, and cartridge casings for firearms. (Tata

Surdia, 1996).

Most ship propellers are also made of brass and

aluminum alloy, both of which have their own

advantages and disadvantages. The propellers on

fishing boats are rarely damaged in the form of

fractures caused by the work of the propellers.

Damage experienced by fishing boat propellers is

generally due to corrosion or bending of the leaf tips

on the fishing boat propellers.(Mad & Ellyawan,

2006).

Corrosion process is an event of damage or

decrease in the quality of a metal material caused by

a reaction to environmental conditions and at the

place where the metal is used (AR Hakim, 2012).

What is meant by environmental influences and

places of use can be in the form of air or sunlight,

dew, fresh water, sea water, river water, ground

water, lime water, and rocky sandy soil. Corrosion of

metals can also be interpreted as the reverse reaction

of metal refining. This corrosion itself can lead to a

decrease in the quality of the metal, resulting in the

metal becoming weak and damaged quickly.

Corrosion or rust is a form of metal degradation due

to electrochemical reactions with the environment

that are directly related to open air or often referred to

as corrosion. Almost all corrosion products are

caused by the atmospheric environment. This is

because in general, metals are always in contact with

open air where humidity and pollutant content can

affect metal corrosion. Atmospheric corrosion is

strongly influenced by topographic and climatic

conditions of the environment, factors such as

temperature, humidity and chemical content in the air

or water greatly determine the corrosion rate. One of

the prevention and protection against corrosion is by

electroplating nickel-chrome plating. factors such as

temperature, humidity and chemical content in the air

or water greatly determine the corrosion rate. One of

the prevention and protection against corrosion is by

electroplating nickel-chrome plating. factors such as

temperature, humidity and chemical content in the air

or water greatly determine the corrosion rate. One of

the prevention and protection against corrosion is by

electroplating nickel-chrome plating.

The electroplating process is one method of metal

plating. The electroplating process is often called

electrodeposition, which is a process of deposition of

protective metal on top of another metal by means of

electrolysis. The metal electroplating process is

basically carried out with the aim of preventing the

corrosion process that attacks the steel surface.

Currently, the electroplating method is very popular

because of its brilliant appearance, uniform

distribution of coating material throughout, not easy

to corrode and durable. The metals used as coatings

are copper, nickel, chromium, zinc, gold, silver, brass

and others (Kaban et al, 2010). In metalworking

technology, the electroplating process is a metal

finishing process. Simply, Electroplating can be

interpreted as a metal plating process using the help

of an electric current and certain chemical compounds

to transfer the coating metal particles to the material

to be coated. In chrome plating, currently there are

two kinds of chrome plating that can be done, namely

decorative chrome plating.

The electroplating coating method is influenced

by several influential parameters and needs to be

considered in order to obtain good coating results

including: current strength, electrode distance,

current distribution, plating time, agitation,

concentration level of the electrolyte solution and

others (Adnyani and Triadi, 2009: 77).

From the explanation above, the urgency of this

research is important to carry out, the aim is to

increase the hardness, physical and mechanical

resistance of the material to corrosion and to coat the

material so that it can be oxidized so as to increase the

life of the brass alloy. The method used is to treat the

brass material, this treatment includes a direct heat

treatment (hardening) process and coating the

material with the nickel-chrome electroplating

method. This research was carried out on brass

material for experimentation and testing, with the title

taken in making scientific papers, namely "The Effect

of Quenching Media and Nickel-Chrome

Electroplating with Variations in Voltage and Plating

Time on Hardness Values in Brass"

The Effect of Quenching and Nickel-Chrome Electroplating with Variations of Voltage and Time of Coating Againts Value of Hardness on

Brass

2 RESEARCH METHODS

2.1 Materials

The specimen material used in this study was brass

were brass that had been cut beforehand with a cutting

saw that shown at Figure 1.

Figure 1: Brass specimen.

2.2 Heat Treatment

The heat treatment carried out in this study is uses

Bench Furnace Type BF02, where in general the heat

treatment consists of heat treatment and quenching

with water and oil. In the heat treatment process, the

test object is heated from a temperature of 650°C for

6 hours (ASM Metal Handbook V.4 – Heat Treating),

then the test object is quenched with water and oil

media after.

2.3 Pre-Treatment Process

Before doing the electroplating proses the spesimen

will be mechanical and chemical cleaning, first proses

is the mechanical cleaning process is carried out by

sanding which aims to remove dirt attached to the

surface of the brass specimen. This sanding process

uses 240 CW to 2000 CW sandpaper. After that we

continiue to the chemical cleaning process, this

cleaning is carried out by washing the specimens

using sodium carbonate (NaOH) and H2SO4. The

concentration used in this process (50 gr/liter), 5%

H2SO4 and distilled water for rinsing.

2.4 Electroplating Nickel Proses

Furthermore, in this process the specimen is

immersed in a plastic bath containing a nickel

solution that has been mixed with distilled water with

varying concentrations of the solution as shown in

Table 2 of nickel chemicals solution (Nickel Plating

Handbook, Nickel Institute 2014). In this

electroplating process, the brass specimen is in the

conductor as the cathode (-) and the coating is at the

anode (+). Furthermore, the anode and cathode

distances are set for 5 cm and the power supply

electric current is regulated before the specimen is

immersed with a current of 5 amperes, voltage

variations of 1.5 volts, 3 volts, and 4.5 volts and

immersion time of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes

and the temperature of the solution. ± 40 °C. After the

nickel electroplating process is complete, the

specimen will be rinsed first to neutralize it.

Table 1: Nickel Chemical Solution.

No. Material Name Concentration

1 Nickel Sulfate 250 gr/l

2 Nickel Chloride 70 gr/l

3 Boric acid 45 gr/l

4 Brightener 1 cc/l

5 Carrier 2 cc/l

2.5 Electroplating Chrome Proses

Furthermore, in this chrome electroplating process,

the specimen is immersed in a plastic bath containing

a chrome solution that has been mixed with distilled

water, with variations in the concentration of the

solution as shown in table 3.4 of the chemical chrome

solution. In this electroplating process, the brass

specimen is in the conductor as the cathode (-) and the

coating is at the anode (+). Furthermore, the distance

of the anode and cathode is adjusted as long as 5 cm

and the electric current of the power supply is

regulated before the specimen is immersed with a

current of 5 amperes, a voltage variation of 3 volts

and an immersion time of 1 minute and a solution

temperature of ± 40 °C. After the nickel electroplating

process is complete, the specimen will be rinsed first

to neutralize it.

Table 2: Chrome Chemical Solution.

No. Material Name Concentration

1 Chrome Acid 200 gr/l

2 Sulfuric acid 0.85 cc/l

3 Catalyst 4 gr/l

2.6 Testing

The method used to collect the test data is the vickers

hardness testing is carried out at the Mechanical

Engineering Laboratory of the Indramayu State

Polytechnic using the Innovatest Verzus 700AS type.

iCAST-ES 2022 - International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science

The macro Vickers hardness testing process is carried

out through 3 data proses, the testing in this hardness

test uses an indenter load of 5 kg with a holding time

of 15 seconds, aiming to determine the hardness value

of the KTM 25 base, after hardening and aging

material.

Vickers microhardness testing aims to test the

hardness of the anodizing layer, this test was carried

out at the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of the

Indramayu State Polytechnic using a microhardness

tester type FM-810. This test uses an indenter load of

100 gf with a holding time of 10 seconds.

Microstructure Photo Testing this test is carried out to

see the thickness of the coating resulting from the

anodizing process. The tool used in this test is the

Olympus BX3M with 20x optical magnification.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Hardness Test Results

From the results of the heat treatment research, in the

hardening process with water and oil quenching

media directly with a hardening temperature of 650

with a holding time of 6 hours, then the quenching

process with water and oil, obtained hardness results

as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Graph of Hardness Value After Heat Treatment.

The results of this study are similar to those

carried out (Cahyono, 2018) where the highest

hardness in his research was obtained in water

quenching rather than using oil and open air

quenching, and in his research showed that quenching

using oil can reduce the hardness of brass materials.

From the results of the nickel electroplating

process with a voltage variation of 1.5, 3 and 4.5 volts

with a time variation of 5, 10 and 15 minutes, the

results of the surface hardness of the coating can be

seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Graph Coating Hardness Value Chart Nickel

Against Time.

Figure 4: Graph Coating Hardness Value Chart Nickel

Against Voltage.

Based on the graph above, it can be seen that the

value of hardness is increasing which shows that each

voltage and the coating time, the value of hardness

will increase. This is similar to research (Sumpena, &

Wardoyo, 2020) and (Tahu, Maliwemu, & Limbong,

2015) where the highest layer hardness value is

obtained at each increase that occurs as the coating

time and voltage increases.

Figure 5: Graph Coating Hardness Value Chart Chrome

Against Voltage.

The Effect of Quenching and Nickel-Chrome Electroplating with Variations of Voltage and Time of Coating Againts Value of Hardness on

Brass

From the results of the chrome electroplating (3

volt, 5 ampere) againts nickel process with a voltage

variation of 1.5, 3 and 4.5 volts with a time variation

of 5, 10 and 15 minutes, the results of the surface

hardness of the coating can be seen in Figure 5.

Based on the graph above, it can be seen that the

value of hardness is increasing which shows that each

voltage and the coating time of nickel variations, the

value of hardness will increase. This is similar to

research (Sumpena & Wardoyo, 2020) and(Tahu,

Maliwemu, & Limbong, 2015) where the highest

layer hardness value is obtained at each increase that

occurs as the coating time and voltage increases.

3.2 Electroplating Nickel-Chrome

Coating Thickness Test Results

From the results of the hardness test that has been

carried out, the highest layer hardness value of the

electroplating process is obtained at 4.5 volt and 15

minutes of coating time. Then the specimen is tested

for thickness, where the thickness test results are

obtained as follows:

Table 3: Electroplating Nickel Layer Thickness Values.

. Layer Thickness Average

1 76.82

70.90833

2 69,80

3 70.23

4 73.26

5 62.38

6 72.96

Table 4: Electroplating Chrome Layer Thickness Values.

o. Layer Thickness Average

1 95.69

99.5483

2 100.79

3 91.88

4 90.04

5 117.37

6 101.52

For more details where the measurement is located

taken from the process of testing the thickness of the

electroplating layer with a time of 15 minutes and 4.5

volt can be seen in the following figure:

Figure 6: Electroplating Nickel Layer Microstructure

(Measurement Position).

Figure 7: Electroplating Chrome Layer Microstructure

(Measurement Position).

Based on the table data above, the lowest thickness

value is at point 5, which is62.38 µm, and the highest

thickness is obtained at point 1 which is 76.82 µm.

While the value of the average thickness obtained

from the results of the electroplating process with a

voltage of 4.5 volts and a time of 15 minutes

is70.90833 µm in nickel coating.

Based on the table data above, the lowest thickness

value is at point 4, which is90.04 µm, and the highest

thickness is obtained at point 5 which is117.37 µm.

While the value of the average thickness obtained

from the results of the electroplating process with a

voltage of 4.5 volts and a time of 15 minutes is

99.5483 µm in chrome coating.

4 CONCLUSION

Vickers hardness test results with a loading of 5 kg

indentation time 15 seconds after the heat treatment

(Hardening) process that is gradually starting from a

iCAST-ES 2022 - International Conference on Applied Science and Technology on Engineering Science

temperature of 350oC to 650oC for 6 hours with oil

quenching media decreasing the hardness value by

85.75 HV (5.08%) and water quenching experienced

a significant increase of 12.67% with a hardness value

of 101.78 HV compared to the hardness of the base

material 90.34 HV, it can be concluded that the

highest hardness value was obtained using water

media.

The results of the Vickers hardness test after the

nickel-chrome electroplating process with a voltage

variation of 1.5 volts, 3 volts, and 4.5 volts and a time

of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes, with a

loading of 100 gf indentation time of 10 seconds

increased the hardness value. with increasing stress

and time on the coating, the variation of the increase

in at a voltage of 4.5 volts with a time of 15 minutes

with the highest hardness value for nickel of 254.82

HV and chrome of 261.95 HV. The increase in

voltage and time in the nickel-chrome electroplating

coating affects increase in the hardness of the coating.

The results of the thickness test after the nickel-

chrome electroplating process of 4.5 volts and 15

minutes based on the results of the Vickers test with

the highest hardness value on nickel obtained a

thickness of 70.90833 µm and on chrome the

thickness is 99.5483 µm.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank the Ministry of

Research and Technology, Indramayu State

Polytechnic and the Department of Mechanical

Engineering, Indramayu State Polytechnic.

REFERENCES

https://kemenperin.go.id/artikel/18999/Tingkatkan-

Efisiensi,-Industri-Kuningan-Manfaatkan-Bahan-

Baku-Daur-Ulang.

Surdia, Tata. 1996. Teknik Pengecoran Logam, Edisi ke-2,

Cetakan ke-7, PT. Pradnya Paramita, Jakarta.

Mad, Y., & Ellyawan, A. (2006). Studi Kasus Laju Korosi

Baling-Baling Perahu Nelayan. Jurnal Teknologi

Academia Ista, 43.

Hakim, AR. 2012. Analisa Korosi Atmosfer pada material

Baja Karbon Sedang di Kota Semarang. Semarang.

Universitas Diponegoro.

Kaban, Hadir, dkk. 2010. Menguji kekuatan bahan

6 ubtract 6 ating pelapisan nikel pada 6 ubtract besi

dengan uji impak. Jurnal Penelitian Sains Vol. 13 No

3B. September 2010.

Adnyani, I.A.S., dan Triadi A.A.A., (2009). Pengaruh Kuat

Dan Distribusi Arus Terhadap Ketebalan dan

Kekerasan Lapisan Krom Pada Stoneware Dan

Earthenware. Mataram: Jurusan Teknik Elektro

Fakultas Teknik, Universitas Mataram.

ASM International Metals Handbook Volume 4 – Heat

Treating

Nickel Plating Handbook, Nickel Institute 2014.

Cahyono, I., 2018. Analisa Hasil Pengecoran (Cu, Zn)

Dengan Variasi Media Pendinginan (Air Sumur, Oli

SAE 40 Dan Udara) Menggunakan Cetakan Pasir CO2,

Fakultas Teknik Univeritas Muhammadiyah.

Sumpena, Wardoyo, 2020. Analisa Kuat Arus Listrik dan

Waktu Electroplating Nickel-Chrome terhadap

Kekerasan dan Ketebalan Lapisan Permukaan Baja

Karbon Rendah. Jurnal Engine Vol. 4, No.2, 2020 : 96-

102.

Tahu, F., Maliwemu, E. U., 7 Limbong, i.S. (2015).

Pengaruh Tegangan Listrik dan Waktu Terhadap Mikro

Pelapisan Nikel-Krom Pada Produk Pengecoran

Alumunium Bekas (Scrap), Jurnal Teknik Mesin

UNDANA.

The Effect of Quenching and Nickel-Chrome Electroplating with Variations of Voltage and Time of Coating Againts Value of Hardness on

Brass