Atlas offers a deep, rich shade of hexavalent chrome with a thickness of 7–15 micro-inches. We apply our chrome over various base metals, but most jobs include a layer of bright nickel as the final base before chrome plating. We can also apply chrome directly over polished stainless steel or brass. Atlas offers both satin chrome and non-directional matte chrome. The chrome layer is the same whether it's for show-quality or street-quality finishes.

Chrome Plating Aluminium

Chrome Plating Aluminium requires an extra step to prevent the oxidation of Aluminium surface after de-greasing and before plating starts. the conventional process is to deep the Aluminium parts inside a zinc based solution for less than a minute then proceed to Strike copper or directly to Nickel plating tank.

Show Chrome VS. Street Chrome

"Show chrome" refers to a finish suitable for award-winning show vehicles. When we accept a job requiring show-quality chrome, we aim for a flawless surface. If large pits or voids appear after polishing, we braze or solder the pinholes one by one and sand them down until the surface is nearly perfect. Alternatively, we may fill minor imperfections with layers of copper, buffing and inspecting after each layer. This process results in an almost flawless finish—what we call "Show Chrome." Sometimes, the base metal is already close to perfect after polishing, so no brazing or soldering is needed. If we skip surface repairs or copper layering, we classify the result as "street quality." In some cases, street-quality chrome can be as good as show chrome—depending entirely on the condition of the base metal.

Triple Plating and our Duplex Nickel

Triple plating traditionally refers to three layers: copper, nickel, and chrome. However, the most critical factor for durable chrome plating—especially for outdoor exposure—is the use of two distinct nickel layers: semi-bright nickel followed by bright nickel. This is due to anodic corrosion concerns. Bright nickel is anodic to semi-bright nickel and sacrificially protects it, causing corrosion to spread laterally rather than penetrating toward the steel. OEMs tightly control this process and use the STEP test (developed by Chrysler) to ensure proper potential differences between layers. Careful control of this factor is one reason modern chrome plating lasts significantly longer than in the past. If a shop uses only a single layer of nickel, it must be applied very heavily to ensure corrosion resistance—any porosity or pinhole can compromise the underlying steel. Experts debate whether copper plating improves corrosion resistance. Regardless, a thin single layer of nickel topped with chrome is not sufficient for vehicle-grade durability. The industry term for the two-nickel-layer system is "duplex nickel plating," which is a more accurate and effective term than "triple chrome."

Chrome Electroplating OR Dipping

Chrome is always applied via electroplating—never by dipping. Some customers ask, “Don’t you just dip it in chrome?” The answer is no—it’s not dipping, and it’s far from simple. While the actual chroming process on a small part may take only 45 seconds, the preparation that leads up to that point requires extensive work.

Re-chroming Pot metal Is Expensive,Why?

When you strip an old piece of chrome plated potmetal, under the plating you can see these small black pin holes. These are the damages due to corrosion. At Atlas we blast these holes first to remove the black non-conductive layer then we sent piece to polishing room. The polisher would sand a layer off (if there is enough thickness on the base metal). If the surface is free from pin holes we can proceed to plating and expect a nice finish. In most cases the surface is still covered by small or large pin holes in that case we have to braze the large holes and attempt to fill the small holes with acid Copper layers. We may end up with 3-4 layers of acid Copper and after each layer we need to go back to the polishing room and rebuff the surface. this repeated process of plating and sanding/buffing makes the restoration of potmetal expensive.

Black Chrome

Black Chrome is a darker version of chrome due to some additive it the tank.Black chrome has a poor throwing power even less than traditional chrome tanks. This poor throwing power causes the deposits to skip the corners. Most of what we see in the market as black chrome has nothing to do with chrome. In most cases there are some layers of primer paint then a layer of Aluminium Vapor and translucent black on the top. At Atlas we have a small tank for actual black chrome on very small pieces like gun parts. for larger applications we have our method of black chrome which include traditional plating plus translucent black top coat.