Visit pfonline.com and look for articles on nickel plating.  Do you know if the current source in Spain is electroplating?  Most nickel coatings are electroless (also called autocatalytic).

Thanks TVP, I went on that site (www.pfonline.com) and checked it out. Nothin' doin' !
The source in Spain consists of a vat containing the Ni-salt solution while an appropriate current is applied to the vat and steel part to be coated.
Cheers.

Cedric Bhihe, PhD (alma mater: UCSB)
General Manager of the JV
Henan Inramik Xinji
People's Republic of China

Cedric,

I entered the keywords "nickel plating" and found 133 feature articles with another 51 entries from Art Kushner's "Plating Clinic".  The following is one example:

http://www.pfonline.com/articles/040102.html

Hey Cedric,
Weren't you one of Tony Evans students? From France or Swizerland? What is JV (it usually means a junior varsity sports team in the US)?

This will help: 'Nickel Electroplating' from INCO.
http://www.inco.com/customercentre/nickelplating/science/pdf/NickelElectroplating.pdf

Maybe buy ASTM B689-97(2003), 'Standard Specification for Electroplated Engineering Nickel Coatings.' It gives quality requirements & tests for the electrodeposited nickel; doesn't tell how to do the plating although gives requirements for pre-plating stress relief & post-plating hydrogen bake-out based on the strength of steel being plated.
http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/DATABASE.CART/REDLINE_PAGES/B689.htm?L+mystore+sgrn4976

In Spain they maybe use ISO 4526:2004, 'Metallic coatings -- Electroplated coatings of nickel for engineering purposes,' but like the ASTM standard, this gives the required properties rather than tells how to do the plating.
http://iso.nocrew.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=37513

Maybe also
ASTM B183-79(2004)e1 Standard Practice for Preparation of Low-Carbon Steel for Electroplating
and
ASTM B242-99(2004)e1 Standard Guide for Preparation of High-Carbon Steel for Electroplating.
Note: in these 2 guides, high-carbon indicates > 0.35 wt% C.

For setting up an electroplating line, best to get professional advice from the major nickel plating chemistry suppliers: Atotech, Chemetall, Enthone (Cookson Electronics), MacDermid, SurTec or Uyemura.  All have branches in or near China. Using proprietary chemistry avoids many problems and gets you professional troubleshooting advice.

Good luck,
Ken

Yes, I am  a former Tony Evans' student at UCSB, finished in July 1992. My passport says I'm French, but I am not originally from France... seriously ... "49% from Europe and 51% from Africa" is a more appropriate description).

I found the answers you provided most helpful. I will follow your advice, Ken, and probably contract Uyemura out to set up my plating line in mainland China. Also would be happy to get in touch again after all those years (offline).

Btw, JV means "joint venture" between a chinese and foreign partner.

THREAD closed.

Thanks much to y'all.

Cedric Bhihe, PhD (alma mater: UCSB)
General Manager of the JV
Henan Inramik Xinji
People's Republic of China

Just one addition, a free download:
Nickel Plating Handbook, 74 pages, very thorough w/o being too technical, many figures & photos, from OMG:
http://www.omgi.com/buprod/nickel_metals_products/om8285_nickelhandbook.pdf