Textile Design with Electroless Nickel Plating

Trials have been performed to assess the practicability of the electroless nickel plating method applied to textile fabrics with various fabric constructions including polyester woven fabrics and polyester meshes. The effect of electroless nickel plating on different polyester fabric constructions had been studied. The results displayed that the nickel could be successfully plated on various fabric structures. In this study, it was found that fabric constructions can influence the appearance of electroless nickel-plated fabrics and generate different metallic effects. Fabric structure is considered to be a very important factor for determining the desired appearances of electroless nickel-plated fabrics. Moreover, electroless nickel plating is able to simulate the metallic effects of hard metal products on non-conductive fabrics with soft handle. Such findings could give inspiration to designers to design fabrics with different brilliant textures.