The process of electroplating is also referred to as electro-deposition and is a fairly simple process. Firstly, a negative charge is placed on the object that will be electroplated, the object to be plated being referred to as the cathode. The positive charge is applied to a wand with swabbing on the end, referred to as the anode. The wand is then immersed in an electrolyte solution containing the dissolved metal that will be used to plate the object. Once the saturated swabbing comes into contact with the object to be plated it completes the circuit, the charged particles of dissolved metal bond to the cathode and you have your newly electroplated object.

With tank electroplating, controlling the thickness of the electroplated object is generally achieved by adjusting the time it spends in the tank. The longer it remains inside the tank, the thicker the electroplating layer becomes. To be able to control the thickness of the coating when brush plating a different technique is applied based on the volume of solution and surface area to be brush plated.

Before electroplating an object, it must be cleaned thoroughly. All scratches and other imperfections must be polished out of the object in order to obtain the desired result, often a smooth mirror finish surface. Recessed areas will be more difficult to polish and may plate less than other external surfaces, due to wand access, so a scratch may become more prominent, rather than being smoothed over by the plating process.

Brush plating is extremely Flexible and versatile. Due to the equipment needed, you can use this as a portable process in the workshop or out in the field. It is used on site to perform operations such as selectively plating nickel onto areas of the international space station, touching up defective cadmium on aircraft landing gear and repairing scores and pits in the valve stems at nuclear power plants.

There are many types of chrome plating. However, the type recognized by many is known as hard chrome plating. This chrome electroplating method involves heavy coating of chrome onto the object. The main purposes of this style of electroplating include making the object more resistant to wear and tear and improving its oil retention. Things that undergo hard chrome electroplating include rollers, mold surfaces, gun bores, hydraulic cylinder rods, thread guides, piston rings, and many others. Hard chrome, as it is popularly known, does not mean that the chromium material that is applied to the object is harder. This simply means that the coating used on an object is thick enough such that hardness measurement can be used on it. One thing that you need to remember about this particular type of chrome electroplating is that it is not used for decorative purposes because objects that have this coating do not have any metallic luster.

Another type of chrome plating is called decorative chrome plating, which is also known as nickel chrome plating. The reason why this is called as such is due to the fact that objects had to undergo nickel plating first before it gets a thin coating of chrome. In some cases, the object even undergoes copper plating before having a coat of nickel and chrome plating. Nickel plating is important because it makes the object corrosion resistant, smoother, and more reflective. The thin chrome electroplating, on the other hand, is only used to protect the nickel plating. Thus, the decorative qualities of the object are usually due to the nickel.

When choosing the type of chrome plating, it is important that you consider the main purpose of the object. If you want it strong and you do not intend to use it as a decoration, then what you need is hard chrome plating. If you want your metallic vase or plate to look beautiful in your bedroom or living room, decorative chrome plating is what you need.