The Critical Importance of Strikes

In an ideal plating or finishing application, a finish would completely adhere when applied to a part (a substrate). However, the ideal is rarely experienced. Some substrates simply resist the application of a finish because they have oxide films, are highly active, are porous, are littered with defects, or lack conductivity. In order to resolve these issues, an intermediary layer is applied to the substrate. Such a layer is called a “strike”.  The desired finish is then uniformly applied to the strike layer.

A strike layer is like a finished layer except that it is restrained. The strike is given just enough time to prepare the substrate for a finished layer before the substrate is removed from the bath. There is not enough time for the strike layer to begin to plate the part.

Common strikes in finishing include: