From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter to The Rover Co. Ltd. detailing standard practices for nickel and chromium plating to prevent rust.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 127\3\ scan0211 | |
| Date | 6th April 1938 | |
| 1091 Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Std.15/JH. 6th April, 1938. The Rover Co.Ltd., COVENTRY. For the attention of Capt. S.B. Wilks. Dear Sirs, Mr. Robotham has passed your letter of March 31st. on to the writer to deal with and he would apologise for the delay in replying. We do not use any special or particular process for plating either brass or steel other than the normal commercially accepted plating methods but we have found the question of rust, corrosion etc. is dependent on (1) Thickness of nickel deposit under chromium deposit. (2) Quality of material being plated. Actually our standard practice is to use .002 - .0025 thickness of nickel on both brass and steel with the ordinary commercial chromium deposit (whose thickness is negligible - of the order of .00005 or less) - although .0015 of nickel would be adequate for all normal purposes in the case of brass. It is obviously important that the material used is of good quality - free from slag, pores, etc. if a satisfactory deposit is to be obtained. At the moment we do not chromium plate any large pieces but we plate gear levers, hand brake levers, lamp supports etc. in this manner and these are entirely satisfactory and give no trouble from rust in Service. Yours faithfully, F p ROLLS-ROYCE LTD. | ||