Generally this plating use nickel plated base to commercial chrome plating. The lustrous finish is obtained with this layer of nickel. Bright chrome plating generally applies to industrial applications and can be achieved on many types of metals include of brass, steel, stainless steel, zinc die-cast and ABS plastics.
Chrome is applied after the base coat of nickel to prevent the nickel from tarnishing. It is sometimes described as having a more 'silver' look than nickel. The bright chrome plating is more reflective, bluer, grayish and more speculate. The reflection of bright chrome plating is deeper, less distorted, more like a mirror than other finishes.
Other application of chromium plating is hard chrome is metallic in appearance but is not particularly reflective or decorative. It is not really harder than other chrome plating, it is called hard chromium because it is thick enough that a hardness measurement can be performed on it if compare to decorative chrome plating that is only millionths of an inch thick.
