Plating Thickness Calculator

Electroplating deposits metal atom by atom according to Faraday's law of electrolysis, and this calculator implements that physics directly rather than using a generic time estimate. It starts from each metal's atomic mass, density, and valence (the number of electrons each metal ion needs to be reduced to solid metal — 1 for gold and silver, 2 for nickel, zinc, copper, and tin, and 6 for hexavalent chrome), and combines them with Faraday's constant (96,485 coulombs per mole) to derive a plating-rate constant: how many mils of thickness one amp-per-square-foot deposits per minute for that specific metal. Chrome's high valence of 6 means it needs six times the charge per atom deposited compared to a divalent metal, which is a major reason hex chrome plating is notoriously slow and current-hungry relative to nickel or zinc at the same current density. That rate constant, scaled by your bath's cathode efficiency (the fraction of current that actually deposits metal rather than being lost to competing reactions like hydrogen evolution), determines plating time for your target thickness and current density.

From there, total current, power, and energy follow directly from Ohm's-law-style multiplication using each metal's typical operating voltage, and metal deposited is a straightforward volume-times-density calculation converted to weight. Anode consumption divides that deposited weight by cathode efficiency, since less-than-100%-efficient baths consume more anode metal than actually lands on the part — the difference goes to drag-out losses and bath chemistry. The metal properties and operating voltages used here are representative values for common commercial baths; actual efficiency, voltage, and plating rate vary by proprietary bath formulation and should be verified against your plating shop's process data.