Chrome plating products

For more than 10 years we have been constantly evolving our products and paints for chrome plating and silver plating of parts. We are manufacturers of all the Chrome Plating Systems we sell, as well as of the products for chrome plating. We develop and test everything: from the base coat, the pre-activator, activator, silver, to the final varnish, essential to achieve the adherence and durability we are looking for in our paints.

At Racing Colors we understand that it is just as important that the chrome finish is as perfect and shiny as possible, as it is that it is as durable and resistant as we can get. To this end, we carry out countless resistance tests on our products, testing them under the worst possible conditions, to evaluate the resistance of the parts in conditions of humidity, shocks or impacts, immersion in hot and cold water, exposure to the sun,…

The procedure we normally perform is as follows:

– We take a PVC plate, sand it with fine sandpaper, and apply the base coat.

– We chrome plated the parts with the products selected for testing

– Then we dry it properly and carry out the tests.

The tests to which we subject the parts are basically:

– UNE EN ISO 2409:2007 dry grating cut, according to ASTM D3359, ISO 2409 adhesion test standard with NK2000 adhesion tester. This test is carried out 24 hours after varnishing the piece when it is completely dry. Also in this case we test the packaging or sealing of the pieces, to check that the varnish is dry enough so that it does not leave marks and can be shipped in just 1-2 days after chrome plating.

– Once this test is passed, the part is subjected to the immersion test for a period of 24 hours, completely submerging the scratched part, and the adhesion test is carried out again. This test is much more aggressive, as the water is penetrating through the lattice cut marks, simulating a hit or scrape on a real part that is in contact with rainwater outdoors.

Then we leave it in immersion for another 1 month to test the long-term durability, again immersing the scratched part completely in water to make the test as realistic and aggressive as possible.

We also subject the parts to several months of exposure to the sun, salt spray and Xenotest (U.V. / UVB test), to check their actual durability.

But the best proof is to have chromed thousands of parts for years and, with proper care, they still have the same chrome effect they had the first day they left the workshop.

CHROME PLATING DEFECTS

It is important to follow all the application steps for a correct chrome plating result. Here we can see some of the most common errors The following are easily corrected with a correct application and drying of the products, and that we collect both in the Technical Manual com in the Full Instruction Videoto learn all steps to follow to achieve the chrome plating of any part.

We can see in this image how the chrome is “cloudy” because the base coat is not sufficiently dry, or there are paints under the chrome that are not 100% evaporated.