Introduction to the uses and applications of nickel

Introduction to the application of nickel

Nickel has good plasticity, corrosion resistance and magnetic properties, so it is mainly used in steel, nickel-based alloy, electroplating and battery and other fields, widely used in aircraft, radar and other military manufacturing, civil machinery manufacturing and plating industry.

Steel field

Because nickel has good corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, rust resistance and other properties, so it is widely used in stainless steel and alloy steel fields.

Stainless steel

The largest consumption of nickel is in stainless steel applications, with two thirds of the world's primary nickel ore used in stainless steel production. Nickel containing stainless steel can resist the corrosion of atmosphere, steam and water, but also resistant to acid, alkali, salt corrosion, so it is widely used in chemical industry, metallurgy, construction and other industries, such as the production of petrochemical, textile, light industry, nuclear energy and other industries require welding containers, towers, tanks, pipelines; Manufacture urea production in the synthesis tower, washing tower, condensing tower, stripping tower and other corrosion resistant high pressure equipment. According to the different proportion of nickel, nickel stainless steel is mainly divided into: austenitic stainless steel, austenitic - ferritic duplex stainless steel, precipitation hardening stainless steel.

Alloy steel

Alloy steel is also called special steel. Due to the different composition ratio of the elements, the types are also different, the participation of nickel can improve the strength of the alloy steel, maintain its good plasticity and toughness. Nickel-bearing alloy steel is mainly used in the manufacture of acid-resistant towers in chemical production, medical instruments, daily supplies, and for the transformation of Bridges, warships and other machinery manufacturing, transportation and military industry.

Nickel-based alloy field

Nickel-based alloy is a kind of alloy with high strength and certain oxidation resistance at 650 ~ 1000℃. According to the main properties, it can be subdivided into nickel base heat resistant alloy, nickel base corrosion resistant alloy, nickel base wear resistant alloy, nickel base precision alloy and nickel base shape memory alloy. Nickel-based alloy products mainly include: Electric furnaces, electric irons, turbine engine turbine discs, combustion chambers, turbine blades, color television sets, communications equipment, pendulum hammers in clocks and measuring tape, manufacturing furniture, fine tools with permanent magnet properties, self-opening structures for spacecraft, self-stimulating fasteners for the aerospace industry, and artificial heart motors for biomedical use. Widely used in aviation, shipbuilding, chemical, electronics, medicine and energy and other industrial fields.

Electroplating field

Nickel plating refers to the steel and other metal substrate covered with a layer of durable, corrosion resistant coating, its corrosion resistance than galvanized layer 20% ~ 25%. Nickel-plated articles are beautiful, clean and not easy to rust. The processing volume of nickel plating ranks second only to galvanizing, and its consumption accounts for about 10% of the total nickel production. Nickel plating is divided into electroplating nickel and electroless nickel plating. The characteristics of nickel plating and electroless plating are analyzed as follows:

Nickel plating

The electroplating nickel layer has high stability in the air, extremely fine crystallization, and has excellent polishing performance. The coating hardness is relatively high, which can improve the wear resistance of the surface of the products. It is widely used in the plating of optical instruments, protective decorative coating, casting crystallizer electronic components, etc.

Electroless nickel plating

Electroless nickel plating has good thickness uniformity, no hydrogen infiltration, no hydrogen embrittance, no need to remove hydrogen after electroless nickel plating. Many electroless nickel plating products have better corrosion resistance and high temperature oxidation resistance than nickel plating, can be deposited on the surface of various materials, do not need general electroplating required DC motor or control equipment, heat treatment temperature is low as long as 400℃ after different holding time, can get different corrosion resistance and wear resistance, therefore, especially suitable for complex shape, The surface requirements are wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant parts of the functional coating.

Type of nickel plating solution

The main types of nickel plating liquid are sulfate type, chloride type, sulfamate type, citrate type, fluoroborate type and so on. The sulphate type (low chloride) known as Watts(watts) nickel plating fluid is the most widely used in industry. Sulfamate type, fluoroborate type suitable for thick nickel plating or electroforming. The citrate type is suitable for direct nickel plating on zinc die castings. The cost of these baths is relatively high. Other nickel plating types include: ordinary nickel plating (dark plating), bright nickel plating, sulfamate nickel plating, high sulfur nickel, nickel seal, satin nickel plating, high stress nickel plating, multilayer nickel plating, nickel citrate plating, etc.

Battery field

Nickel plating is also used in the field of batteries, mainly nickel - hydrogen batteries, cadmium - nickel batteries and nickel - manganese batteries. In recent years, the most rapid development is the increasingly practical application of MHx-Ni battery, which has the advantages of non-toxic green pollution-free, battery reserves 30% more than nickel-cadmium battery, lighter than nickel-cadmium battery, longer service life, the disadvantage is that the price is more expensive than nickel-cadmium battery, performance is worse than lithium battery. Mainly used in mobile communication, notebook, video recorder and other fields, but also used in military, national defense, high-tech and other fields. Cars powered by such batteries are already on the market