CHROMING

AND

HONING SERVICES

world class chroming.

unbeatable turnaround.

Chipped chrome? Get on the phone!

Explore repair options for your nickel chrome tubes with Martin Brothers Inc.

10-day turnaround

Request a Chrome Repair Quote

Launching a New Era of Industrial Chroming

Martin Brothers Inc. has proudly launched a brand-new, dedicated chroming line that is setting a revolutionary standard for the industrial processing sector. Designed to directly eliminate critical maintenance bottlenecks in food and dairy processing facilities, this dedicated expansion establishes an unprecedented 10-day or less turnaround time for heat exchanger tube re-chroming and honing. By pairing exclusive, contamination-free plating environments with advanced multi-stage filtration and precision honing, we deliver the fastest, highest-quality sanitary restoration service available anywhere in the world keeping your processing lines running at peak performance with zero unnecessary downtime.

Shorter Lead Times

Traditional plating shops require 3 to 6 weeks for repairs, forcing plants to buy expensive backup inventory or suffer costly line outages. Our dedicated line slashes wait times to 10 days or less.

Zero Cross Contamination Risks

Mixed commercial and automotive plating shops frequently suffer from airborne debris and cross-contamination that lead to embedded particles on your tubes. Because our new line is dedicated exclusively to sanitary heat exchanger restoration, cross-contamination is eliminated, ensuring a flawless, particle-free finish.

Repair Instead of Replace

Repairing your nickel chrome tubes can cost significantly less than buying new from the manufacturer especially when replacement parts are difficult to find.

What does each hour of machine downtime cost your business? When a tube, cylinder, or barrel is critical to daily operations, repair quality and turnaround matter.

Ice Cream Freezer and Heat Exchanger Tube Re-chroming vs. Replacement – Know the Signs

Heat exchanger tube showing moderate wear and chrome damage, indicating repair is needed to prevent further deterioration.
Heat exchanger tube showing severe chrome damage close to being beyond repair.
Severely damaged heat exchanger tube showing extensive wear and chrome loss beyond repair limit

The condition of your scraped surface heat exchanger (SSHE) tubes directly dictates your plant’s efficiency and safety. Learning to identify the early warning signs of wear before catastrophic failure occurs is key to minimizing unexpected downtime and protecting your bottom line.

  • Early-Stage Wear (Pitting & Light Scoring): If your tubes show minor surface pitting, shallow scoring, or initial chrome loss, they are prime candidates for refurbishment. Catching wear at this stage allows you to utilize our dedicated chroming line to strip, precision-hone, and re-plate your tubes to a flawless sanitary finish—saving you thousands compared to buying new.

 

  • Moderate to Heavy Scoring: Tubes exhibiting deeper grooves or localized chrome flaking under clean-in-place (CIP) washes require professional intervention immediately. Our rigorous three-stage inspection and precision plating protocols ensure a uniform 0.003–0.005″ bond that restores structural integrity and OEM-level performance.

 

  • Beyond Repair (Severe Structural Damage): In rare cases where tubes have suffered deep structural compromise, wall thinning beyond safety tolerances, or severe mechanical distortion, refurbishment is no longer viable. For severely damaged tubes, timely replacement is the safest and most efficient path forward to protect your processing system.

Here’s what sets us apart—below are real examples of the defects you might find in competitor chrome plating, but never in ours.

Foreign body defect in chrome plating showing embedded debris on the surface.
Uneven chrome finish caused by improper current density during plating.
Foreign body defect in chrome plating showing embedded debris on the surface.
Foreign body defect in chrome plating showing embedded debris on the surface.
Cracked chrome surface caused by stress and improper plating conditions.
Chrome-plated tube showing dents and scratches caused by improper handling.
Chrome-plated tube showing dents and scratches caused by improper handling.

The Heat Exchanger Tube Refurbishment Process

In food and dairy processing, SSHE tube maintenance is critical for uptime, product consistency, and sanitary compliance. Our comprehensive refurbishment process restores critical components to OEM standards:

  • Inspection & Prep: We fully inspect exterior flanges, interior surfaces, o-ring grooves, and seals for wear, pitting, or damage.

  • Stripping & Honing: Existing chrome is stripped to the base metal, and the interior is precision-honed to remove imperfections.

  • Hard Chrome Plating: Tubes are replated to a durable 0.004–0.006 inches per wall and post-honed to a hygienic high-gloss finish.

  • Final Quality Assurance: Every tube undergoes a rigorous third inspection to guarantee structural integrity and peak performance before returning to your line.

MBI Chrome Plating

Competitor Chrome Plating

Ready to Restore Your Processing Efficiency?

Don’t let worn or pitted tubes compromise your production schedule or product safety. Take advantage of the fastest, highest-quality chroming service in the industry.

Request a Chrome Repair Quote