Influence of Phosphorus Concentration and Heat Treatment on Anticavitation Erosion Characteristics in Electroless Nickel Plating

Cavitation erosion has been a serious problem in the use of turbomachineries such as ship propellers. In this paper, we proposed a technique to prevent cavitation erosion using electroless nickel-phosphorus plating (ENP). ENP was plated on JIS CAC703 (Ni-Al Bronze), which is known as a material of ship propellers. We examined the anticavitation property of ENP by a vibratory cavitation apparatus based on ASTM G32. It was found that the mass loss of plated substrate can be decreased ten times less than that of substrate by selecting suitable heat treatment temperature for the concentration of phosphorus in ENP. Finally, the mechanism of erosion of ENP is discussed.