New corrosion-resistant electroless nickel process passes salt spray tests up to 8,500 hours

April 23, 2025

Ronatec's new Paladin high-phos electroless nickel chemistry was designed to offer enhanced corrosion protection and hardness.

Ariana Hurtado

Ronatec, a provider of surface finishing solutions, has recently released its Paladin electroless nickel, which it says is "a breakthrough in plating technology."

The formulation is designed to increase bath life and deposit performance as well as consistent plating quality. Paladin is also said to improve corrosion resistance by 10 to 15 times.

Paladin is applicable in several industries including aerospace, automotive, electronics, oil and gas, and heavy manufacturing.

For the offshore energy industry, Ronatec's new Paladin high-phos electroless nickel chemistry offers enhanced corrosion protection and hardness. This technology is designed to offer protection for well tooling and associated equipment, and the company says the process "dramatically improves quality of downhole tooling."

The company says Paladin also can eliminate post-plate organic coatings currently in use, offering the oil and gas industry cost savings while improving the quality of the final product.

The chemistry also provides salt spray protection up to 8,500 hours.

Paladin was developed to address two key issues for the offshore oil and gas industry when using electroless nickel as a coating: corrosion resistance and to address hardness issues.

Regarding highly corrosion-resistant deposits, Ronatec has measured salt spray performance over 4130 steel panels past 8,500 hours. In addition, the company has been able to achieve a hardness of about 570 to 620 knoops.

Testing was performed at a NADCAP-accredited materials testing laboratory last year. The technology has a one-component makeup, is self pH adjusting and has a high-speed deposition rate. It also maintains high phos electroless nickel characteristics, having a non-magnetic, amorphous coating that passed nitric acid tests.

About the Author

Ariana Hurtado | Editor-in-Chief

With more than a decade of copy editing, project management and journalism experience, Ariana Hurtado is a seasoned managing editor born and raised in the energy capital of the world—Houston, Texas. She currently serves as editor-in-chief of Offshore magazine, overseeing the editorial team, its content and the brand's growth from a digital perspective.

Utilizing her editorial expertise, she manages digital media for the Offshore team. She also helps create and oversee new special industry reports and revolutionizes existing supplements, while also contributing content to Offshore magazine, its newsletters and website as a copy editor and writer.

Prior to her current role, she served as Offshore's editor and director of special reports from April 2022 to December 2024.

Before joining Offshore, she served as senior managing editor of publications with Hart Energy. Prior to her nearly nine years with Hart, she worked on the copy desk as a news editor at the Houston Chronicle.

She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Houston.