Well the color of the plating doesn't always determine the quality, material or strength of the actual stud underneath, but it is a pretty good indicator. The "chrome" looking studs are actually clear zinc plated studs, and there's a 99% chance they are made in China. We used to sell studs like that (see our 60mm wheel stud kit picture, below/left), but they really are a low cost product. The supplier changed on every order we got, and the quality was not consistent. We stopped selling them a year ago and it was a good decision for us.
As we've found out from several years of selling/making wheel studs, you tend to get a much higher quality part when made in Western Europe or America. There are real fastener/quality standards that can be relied on factories from these regions. We have our lug nuts made in Italy at an ISO certified plant and our wheel studs made in America, also ISO certified. The quality is always the same - we get material certs with each batch we build, the parts are built to our prints/specs and not just a commodity piece, etc.
Left: Cheap studs are usually "chrome" looking. Right: Better studs are usually much more expensive, and usually black
The black coating you see on many low cost fasteners (bolts) is a cheap black oxide coating - its pretty much worthless. But the black or grey coating you see on quality BMW wheel studs is usually a nickel-zinc phosphate coating, which is a much better product.
Cheers,
As we've found out from several years of selling/making wheel studs, you tend to get a much higher quality part when made in Western Europe or America. There are real fastener/quality standards that can be relied on factories from these regions. We have our lug nuts made in Italy at an ISO certified plant and our wheel studs made in America, also ISO certified. The quality is always the same - we get material certs with each batch we build, the parts are built to our prints/specs and not just a commodity piece, etc.
Left: Cheap studs are usually "chrome" looking. Right: Better studs are usually much more expensive, and usually black
The black coating you see on many low cost fasteners (bolts) is a cheap black oxide coating - its pretty much worthless. But the black or grey coating you see on quality BMW wheel studs is usually a nickel-zinc phosphate coating, which is a much better product.
Cheers,
Comment