Leviathan coated by electroless nickel plating
David Brooks, optician at OSL, was excited by the result: 'This has pushed back the boundaries of technology and achieved enormous cost savings. The mirror will be put to good use in the telescope at Birr Castle and we now hope to investigate new opportunities that this mirror technology may open.' Further uses are still in development at OSL, and very much under wraps. The electroless nickel plating technique that enabled production of the mirror, however, has already proved its success and adaptability in many other applications. Shaun Bums says: 'We never know what the next door will involve and have to be very versatile in our methods and technology. We have plated everything from mountain bikes, combining the lightness of aluminium with the hardness and wear resistance of nickel, to enhancing the lubricity of pistons for the motor trade.'
Barrel plating allows large numbers of small items to be plated at the same time, and complex shapes. Computer components are often plated at Nitec, as high nickel purity offers excellent electrical characteristics for items such as contracts and connectors, and for isolated circuits in micro-electronics systems. The resulting nickel deposits can be soldered using an appropriate flux. It also is possible to produce non-ferromagnetic nickel-phosphorus deposits, which are ideal for use in applications such as computer memory discs.
At the other end of the scale, Nitec has plated some extremely large pieces of equipment for the oil industry, including a 19.5 tonne 'swivel' component that was part of a 120-tonne drilling core on a floating platform in the North Sea oil fields, figure 3. Crude oil corrodes cast iron at a rate of around six inches a year, resulting in a very short working life for many pieces of equipment. Electroless nickel plating provides a corrosion resistant and hard-wearing shell that can prolong the use of components by many years. The hardness of the deposits ranges from 500 to 700 VPM, increasing to 900-1000 VPM after heat treatment at 260 for 12 hours.
Nitec is still finding new applications, such as the Leviathan mirror, for its nickel plating process. The company recently introduced undercoating, and coating, with tin and copper, allowing it to nickel plate different metals. such as zinc die castings, and create finished products with and even wider range of properties. It was this flexibility in terms of the machinery and technology that enabled the Leviathan mirror to be plated to such a high specification for OSL, and that will now enable the monster to see once again.Previous
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