Because of its high hardness, strong heat resistance, good wear resistance and chemical stability, chrome plated rods are very popular among users in the current machinery industry.
What kind of material is chrome-plated rod generally used for chrome-plating?
1. 1045 steel
1045 steel is the most commonly used material for chrome-plated rods. It belongs to a medium carbon quenched and tempered structural steel. It has good mechanical properties and can have high strength and good machinability. Especially when it is quenched and tempered or normalized, it can obtain better cutting performance, higher strength and stronger toughness. If we need surface hardness and want to exert the superior mechanical properties of 1045 steel, it can be directly subjected to surface quenching, high frequency quenching or direct quenching to improve the surface hardness of the parts. 1045 chrome plated rod is our most popular product of chrome plated rods.
2. 42CrMo steel / SAE 4140 steel
42CrMo steel is also a commonly used material for Hard chrome plated shafts. It is one of the medium carbon quenched and tempered steels and one of the most widely used steels in the machinery manufacturing industry. It is equivalent with US standard SAE 4140 steel. After proper heat treatment, 42CrMo steel can obtain certain toughness, plasticity and wear resistance. Because the hardenability of 42CrMo steel is higher than that of 1045 steel, it is more suitable for surface hardening treatment such as high frequency quenching and flame quenching. 42CrMo chrome plated bar is also well known as 4140 cromado bar also.
1045 steel and 42Cr steel are two kinds of chrome-plated materials commonly used for chrome-plated rods. The chrome-plated rods chrome-plated with these two kinds of materials have high hardness. And its hardness can also be changed in the range of 400 ~ 1200HV according to the composition of the plating solution or the process conditions.
3. Other materials for chrome plated bar
Besides SAE 1045 and 42CrMo, there are also other materials for chrome plated bar, here below is the chart of the material specifications of chrome plated rods.
Besides chrome plated rods, honed tubes also are very important material for hydraulic cylinder and pneumatic cylinder applications, our factroy also produces and supplies various sizes and materials of honed cylinder tubes. In next article, we will introduce the materials for honed tubes.
