Thread: Hydrogen Embrittlement after hard chrome finish

So I guess the short answer to your question would be, "No, if you're plating quality parts, and you're only doing the gun one time, it is HIGHLY unlikely the plating process will lead to cracked parts."

I do not have experience in chroming, but I know about steelmaking. In making steel, hydrogen embrittlement usually occurs because they get water into the refining ladle and it gets so hot it dissassociates into hydrogen and oxygen. It does not take much (8-10 parts per million) to cause an issue. That said, I do not see how the hydrogen would form (low temps) and how it would be able to penetrate into the metal of the gun (at relatively low...

I've seen a couple of STI frames develope cracks after hard chroming and have read that Hydrogen Embritlement occurs to steel after receiving a hard chrome finish. The plater I talked to said they bake all parts after plating to relieve the hydrogen embrittlemt, but it still seemed like parts failure was a concern after plating. So my question is, does hard chrome finish weaken the gun parts and lead to premature failure?

I don't have scientific facts to back this answer up but....no. At least nothing you would notice. I have seen, owned, and used several hard chrome guns and I have never noticed a difference in failure rate due to hard chrome.

well, Tim, it looks like I will be off to google or wikipedia here in a minute to look up "hydrogen embrittlement". My first knee jerk reaction is to be skeptical. Do you have any pics of where these cracks are? I only ask that because...well... I have seen some questionable milling practices with respect to slides and frames, totally ignoring some common engineering mechanics/metallurgy principles...or at least I think...

I would think that if Hydrogen Embrittlement was really as common as you say, then less and less people would be hard chroming their guns. But this is the first I've even heard of such a thing.

The folks at SV told me that is why they don't offer HC as a finish. This post has been edited by rangertrace : Yesterday, 07:38 AM

'..Hydrogen Embrittlement: Hydrogen embrittlement can occur when hardened tool steel (Rc 52 or harder) is plated with industrial hard chrome. Stresses caused by the formation of hydrogen in the deposit can render the component susceptible to fracture. Although overlooked by many platers, this problem is easily solved by baking the component at 350 F within 8 hours of plating...' http://www.meadvilleplating.com/chrome.html...

QUOTE (Duane Thomas @ Aug 16 2009, 09:47 AM) So I guess the short answer to your question would be, "No, if you're plating quality parts, and you're only doing the gun one time, it is HIGHLY unlikely the plating process will lead to cracked parts." I would agree with Duane... I've discussed this with Virgil Tripp and although he said it seemed to happen more years ago it's not really...

a friend of mine sheered the lugs off of his barrel (1911), the barrel had been chromed and was deemed a failure to hydrogen embrittlement. Bang, bang bang, shchhlllink.........now how did that slide get on the ground?