Abstract: A simple method of electroless plating on fiber glass/epoxy composite surface is proposed. A layer containing short fibers with nickel plating was coated on the composite surface. The composite and layer were co-cured in the same process condition. Experimental results show that a uniform nickel coating was successfully deposited on the fiber glass/epoxy composite substrate by electroless plating after appropriate mechanical roughening and acidification. A three dimensional surface profiler was adopted to measure the surface morphology and roughness of the composite after mechanical roughening. In addition, SEM and digital microscope with large depth-of-field were employed to observe the surface microstructure and cross-sectional micrograph of nickel coating. Effects of electroless plating time and loadage on the coating morphology, coating thickness and deposition rate were discussed. The tensile tests were performed to determine coating adhesion strength. Under the process conditions with coating time of 8 h and loadage of 1.25 dm²/L, the experimental results indicate that the coating thickness and coating adhesion strength can reach 38.96 μm and 8.45 MPa, respectively.

Key words: fiber glass composite, nickel plated short fiber, electroless plating, metallization