With the planned investment in new wafer fabs in the Midwest and Southwestern US, it is likely that there will be an increase in the demand for electronic specialty gas cylinders to support the expanded market. Many of the cylinders used for specialty gases have been nickel-plated to preserve the purity of the gases, but currently the availability of nickel-plated cylinders is limited.
A Texas company, Houston Plating & Coatings has developed a scalable process which it calls Ni-side™, that can supply the industrial gases industry with an ample supply of nickel-plated cylinders to fill this increased demand. Electroless nickel-plating has been applied extensively in the oil and gas sector to ensure that certain components of transmission pipelines do not suffer from corrosion during decades of use.
Like gas cylinders, pipelines operate at pressure, undergo pressure cycles, and are exposed to all types of weather conditions from snow and sun to driving rain.
... to continue reading you must be subscribed
