"tnik" wrote in message
...
OK guys.. Hopefully someone can help me out here..

We have these 4140 plates for a customer. On the print they call out for
.007 - .009 thick chrome on one face finished. So we try to get the plater
to put .004-.005 over so we can grind them flat. We tried having them only
putting .001-.002 over, but that never worked out well.
The plater we use is having a really hard time getting a consistent
buildup all over the plates.. And recently we are seeing a crap load of
bubbles, and some of the plates are actually flaking on the edges. So,
here is two questions to the more knowledgeable than I.

1) Is there any other type of coating that is comparable or better than
chrome, that we could suggest to our customer, that would save the time
and anguish of us grinding, finding out the chrome is bad, and sending the
plates back to get more added?

2) If it's the chrome plater that is actually at fault, does anyone know
of a good plater that is in Florida, preferably near central, but not
required.. We can UPS the plates. I'll even send them out of state if need
be.. Anything is better than the situation that we are in now.

Are you sure your customer is not missing a zero? Hard chrome coatings are
typically 1/10 that thickness. As plating gets thicker internal stresses
buiuld up and can cause it to delaminate. Although, I am searching the web
and see that there is a process called "hard chrome build up" where some
vendors advertise up to 1000 microns (.039")

You might want to try lapping instead of grinding. It is much easier to
control on very thin coatings. Also makes flatter and finer finishes than
grinding.