Heating and bending a chromed part?

I've been told not to heat and bend a chrome part as it will make the part brittle. I know it will mess up the chrome. I need to heat and bend the spring mount on a chrome banjo rearend. I'm wondering if I will ruin the strength of the metal? Thanks for your help

 

I don't know why it would make it brittle. As long as you let it cool by itself it should actually anneal it. I don't know that for a fact though, I guess there is a possibility that some of the chrome could be absorbed by the steel or something like that...

 

It's not exactly the same, but someone I know that drops axles says that once an axle has been chromed they can't drop them as they will usually break during the dropping process.

 

It's not exactly the same, but someone I know that drops axles says that once an axle has been chromed they can't drop them as they will usually break during the dropping process.



When metal is chromed it will experience sometihng called hydrogen (or is it nitrogen) enbrittlement. Hydrogen becomes trapped in the metal by the chrome and causes the metal to become brittle - not neccessarily enough to make it snap right away, if ever, but premature failure can occur, especially if the part is subjected to stress.

This condition can be avoided by heating the metal and controlling the rate at which it cools. I don't know anymore about the specifics of hydrogen embrittlement, but a search of the web will certainly tell you more than I could.

http://www.omegaresearchinc.com/Publications/metal.html

I don't think heating the bracket will do anything other than color the chrome but when you bend it I'd think the chrome would start to peel.

 

You certainly could have some reduced ductility in the part due to hydrogen embrittlement, but the part would already be brittle, it wouldn't be the heating and bending that would do it. Heating it should only help, by driving out some of the trapped hydrogen.

In ornamental chrome applications, isn't the base layer copper? Copper has a much lower melting point than steel or chrome, (or nickel, isn't that the intermediate layer?), and copper is notorious for causing liquid metal embrittlement in steels. It seems like it would be easy to inadvertently melt the copper layer with a torch, which then could cause the steel to become brittle.

 

Bending it will definitely crack the chrome, and in most cases heating it will.
Letting a spring cool slowly will make it softer.