Description
Brass plating of steel tire cord is discussed, whereby the plating acts as a lubricant during wet drawing and as an adhesion agent for bonding to rubber. Sequential plating is compared to alloy plating. The remainder of the article discusses thermal diffusion techniques and draws on a broad range of research, including techniques for the following parameters for controlling diffusion: composition gradient, zinc oxide, alpha brass-beta brass ratio, and plated tensile strength loss. AES is cited as very useful for studying microscopic details of brass coatings.