Cylinder Plating Services: NiCom Tech Info

NiCom Plateau Honed Cylinder Coating: Driven to Perform

Cylinder Services Piston Coatings US Chrome's NiCom coating is comprised of a proprietary composite, primarily nickel and silicon carbide, with other hardening and lubricity agents. We create our cylinder coating with these two composites for their renowned hardness and wear resistant properties. The minute particle size (which averages three microns) makes our Nicom cylinder plating composite 100% non-abrasive. Due to the very high hardness value and thickness which is applied, the U. S. Chrome cylinder coating is superior to any factory or aftermarket Nikasil, hard chrome, electrofusion, or iron or steel sleeve alternative!

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Worn cylinders are submerged in dual plating baths for optimum plating thickness, durability and longevity. Laminar lubricant like boron nitride and graphite can be added to any of our cylinder coating composites to further reduce frictional properties.

NiCom: Improved Performance over Chromium

NiCom is applied up to 10x the thickness of chromium, making it especially ideal for sliding wear applications under a wide range of loads. NiCom’s superior wettability offers better frictional characteristics than chromium or electroless nickel. With its oleophilic properties, the NiCom cylinder coating maintains hydrodynamic lubrication easier than its counterparts. This outstanding feature accounts for its extensive use in internal combustion cylinders (both 2 Stroke and 4 Stroke), oil well tubes and hydraulic equipment.

Unlike chromium or electroless nickel, NiCom also offers incredible corrosion resistance and upper operating temperatures. With U. S. Chrome’s patented cylinder plating, prolonged exposure to temperatures up to 1200 F (540 C) will not result in significant loss of its physical properties. Nickel Composite Coatings are also substantially more eco-friendly than other options. Plus, all solid waste is 100% recycled and reused into stainless steel. We are an environmentally-friendly facility!

Cylinder Honing

Our unique cylinder honing process uses a double diamond plateau technique which symmetrically sizes the cylinder bore. The finished surface allows for superior oil retention due to the oleophilic nature of the silicon carbide in the NiCom cylinder coating. The serviced cylinder is meticulously inspected before it’s returned to the customer.

U.S. Chrome has more than 35 years of technical experience in nickel-carbide composites. Our innovative cylinder plating technology enables us to create cylinder coating thicknesses up to 0.025”, as opposed to electroless nickel composites which are limited to 0.001” or less. When you need performance-driven results, get NiCom cylinder plating.

View more information on our cylinder wear rate and friction data or click on the PDF below.