Nickel-Only Facility | Since 2002 | N4/N6/Ni200 | Ingot-to-Mesh Purity | Free Sample with Chemistry Cert

Pure nickel is not one material — it is four. N4 at 99.9% minimum nickel-cobalt with iron below 0.04%. N6 at 99.5% with iron below 0.1%. Ni200 at 99.2% with iron below 0.4%. Ni201 identical to Ni200 in nickel content but with carbon below 0.02%. These differences in tenths of a percent — measured at the ingot stage — compound over 60,000 operating hours in hot concentrated KOH into measurable differences in electrode overpotential, degradation rate, and stack efficiency. At Jiangsu DZX Alloy Co., Ltd., we manufacture all four grades of pure nickel expanded mesh in a facility that has processed nothing but nickel since 2002. No carbon steel. No stainless. No copper. The melting furnace, the rolling mill, the expanding press, the annealing line — every surface that touches the metal has only ever touched nickel. This is not a marketing claim. It is the physical reality that prevents the iron, chromium, and copper contamination that a multi-alloy facility introduces into every batch of mesh it produces — regardless of what the chemistry certificate says about the ingot.

Why Nickel Purity Is Not Just a Certificate Number

A chemistry certificate shows the composition of the ingot. It does not show what happened to the metal between the ingot and the finished mesh sheet. Every processing step — hot rolling, cold rolling, slitting, expanding, annealing, handling — is an opportunity for contamination. A work roll that ran stainless steel in the previous shift leaves iron fines on the nickel surface. An annealing furnace with a carbon-rich atmosphere from previous steel processing carburizes the nickel surface. A slitting blade with tool steel composition transfers microscopic iron particles to every cut edge. A forklift operator handling stainless sheet with the same gloves transfers chromium oxide to the nickel. The ingot chemistry can be perfect — and the finished mesh can still fail an SEM-EDS surface scan for iron contamination. At DZX, the ingot chemistry and the mesh surface chemistry are the same because nothing between them introduces contamination.

Contamination Sources in Mesh Manufacturing — And How a Nickel-Only Facility Eliminates Them

Grade selection is a lifetime-cost decision, not a purity preference. DZX can produce mesh in all four grades. We provide iron dissolution rate estimates at your operating conditions to help quantify the N4 vs N6 lifetime cost trade-off. The right grade is the one where the incremental material cost is justified by the incremental stack efficiency gain over your target electrode life.

When Purity Fails — What Happens Inside the Electrolyzer

A nickel mesh with surface iron contamination at 0.3% — which passes the bulk chemistry specification — enters the electrolyzer. Over the first 500 hours, approximately 5% of the surface iron dissolves into the 30% KOH electrolyte at 80°C. The dissolved iron ions migrate to the cathode under the electric field. At the cathode surface, they are reduced to metallic iron and plate out as a thin film. This iron film is catalytically active for the hydrogen evolution reaction — but less active than the Raney nickel catalyst coating it partially covers. The result: the cathode overpotential increases by 5–15 mV. Across a 200-cell stack operating at 2 A/cm², this is 2–6 kW of additional power consumption — continuous, for the remaining life of the stack. Over 50,000 hours at $0.06/kWh, the cost is $6,000–$18,000 per stack in additional electricity. The mesh that saved $200 by using Ni200 instead of N4 has cost $6,000–$18,000 in electricity that the stack owner never budgeted for.

This calculation is why DZX exists. We make pure nickel mesh in a pure nickel facility because we understand — from two decades of manufacturing this material — that what is not in the nickel is as important as what is.

Key Features & Benefits

• Nickel-only since 2002 — not a product line, our entire business — Every melting campaign, every rolling schedule, every annealing cycle, every expanding run at DZX has been nickel for over 20 years. The furnace knows nickel. The rolls know nickel. The operators know nickel — because they have never processed anything else. This singular focus is the foundation of purity control that a multi-alloy mill cannot replicate, no matter how carefully they clean their equipment between campaigns.

• Surface chemistry equals bulk chemistry — verified, not assumed — In a multi-alloy facility, the ingot certificate and the finished mesh surface can differ significantly due to cross-contamination. At DZX, there is nothing to cross-contaminate with. When your quality team performs SEM-EDS on our mesh surface, the iron concentration matches the ingot certificate. When they perform ICP-MS on the KOH electrolyte after a 1,000-hour durability test, the dissolved iron concentration tracks with the grade's specification. Predictable chemistry produces predictable electrode performance.

• Iron — the hidden lifetime cost driver, controlled at the source — Iron is the most common contaminant in nickel and the most damaging to electrolyzer efficiency over time. Every 0.1% of iron in the mesh is a reservoir of potential cathode contamination. DZX's ingot Fe targets are in the lower one-third of the specification range — not because the specification demands it, but because the stack lifetime economics demand it. N6 with Fe at 0.06% outperforms N6 with Fe at 0.09% — and we can provide heats at the low end for lifetime-critical production programs.

• Carbon control for elevated-temperature service — For advanced ALK designs operating above 90°C, carbon in the nickel becomes a liability. Carbon above 0.05% can precipitate as chromium carbides at grain boundaries when chromium from the electrolyte diffuses into the nickel. DZX offers Ni201 with carbon ≤0.02% and N6 with carbon in the lower portion of the specification range for elevated-temperature applications. The grade selection is driven by your operating temperature — not by our inventory.

• Purity verification — chemistry certs backed by surface analysis — Every shipment includes the EN 10204 3.1 MTC with bulk chemistry. For customers who require surface-specific verification, we can include SEM-EDS surface composition analysis on sample sheets from the production lot — quantifying Fe, Cu, Cr, and C at the mesh surface independently of the bulk chemistry. This data closes the gap between "the ingot was pure" and "the mesh is pure."

• Dedicated nickel tooling — no iron transfer at any processing stage — Our hot rolling work rolls, cold rolling mill rolls, slitting blades, expanding dies, and annealing furnace internals are all nickel-compatible. No tool steel contacts the nickel. No tool steel particles transfer to the mesh surface. The expanded mesh that leaves DZX has never touched iron — from the ingot to the sealed crate.

The DZX Difference — Quantified

We do not ask you to trust that a nickel-only facility produces purer mesh. We encourage you to verify. Send a sample of our N6 expanded mesh and a sample of your current supplier's N6 expanded mesh to an independent laboratory for SEM-EDS surface analysis. Measure the Fe concentration at the mesh surface on both samples. The difference — typically 2–5× higher surface Fe on mesh from multi-alloy facilities — is the contamination that your current supplier's ingot certificate does not report. That contamination is what dissolves into your electrolyte over the first 500 operating hours. That dissolution is what plates onto your cathode. That plating is what increases your overpotential. That overpotential is what costs you electricity — for every remaining hour of the stack's operating life.

The mesh specification is identical. The ingot chemistry certificate may be identical. The surface purity is not — and the surface is what contacts your electrolyte.

• 12,000 m² nickel-only facility — melting, hot rolling, cold rolling, slitting, expanding, annealing, inspection, and packaging. Every tool, every roll, every furnace, every fixture is nickel-compatible because they have never been anything else.

• All four pure nickel grades in-house — N4, N6, Ni200, Ni201. Grade selection based on your target electrode life and operating conditions, not our inventory.

• ISO9001 with full melt-to-mesh traceability. SGS-accredited. Surface chemistry analysis available on request. Ingot Fe trending data available for lifetime-critical production programs.

Chemistry certified from ingot through finished mesh. Surface chemistry consistent with bulk chemistry — verified in a nickel-only processing environment.

Surface chemistry verification available. SEM-EDS analysis of Fe, Cu, and Cr at mesh surface — independent of bulk chemistry certificate. Demonstrates that surface purity matches ingot purity in a nickel-only processing environment.

Third-party verification by SGS, BV, or TÜV. Free 5-sheet sample with complete chemistry documentation including surface SEM-EDS analysis — evaluate our purity control against your current supplier.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I verify that your mesh is actually purer than my current supplier's?

The test is simple and objective. Send one sheet of our N6 mesh and one sheet of your current supplier's N6 mesh to an independent analytical laboratory. Request SEM-EDS surface analysis for Fe, Cu, and Cr at 5 random points across each sheet. Compare the average surface Fe concentration. Also compare the bulk chemistry certificates. If our surface Fe is lower — which we expect it to be due to our nickel-only processing — the difference represents the contamination your current supplier introduces during manufacturing. We are happy to recommend independent laboratories that perform this analysis for electrolyzer OEMs.

What is the iron dissolution rate difference between N4 and N6?

Iron dissolution from nickel into 30% KOH at 80°C is approximately proportional to the iron content in the nickel — though the relationship is not perfectly linear due to surface effects. N6 with Fe at 0.08% will dissolve roughly 2–3× more iron than N4 with Fe at 0.03% over the same operating period. For a 50,000-hour stack, this translates to approximately 8–15 mV of additional cathode overpotential for N6 vs N4 — depending on cell design, current density, and electrolyte management. The economic analysis: compare the incremental mesh cost of N4 vs the incremental electricity cost over the electrode life. For most grid-connected projects, N4 reaches payback within the first 20–30% of the electrode life.

Does a nickel-only facility really matter if the ingot chemistry certificate shows the same numbers?

The ingot certificate shows the chemistry of the solidified melt — before any processing. Between the ingot and the finished mesh, the metal passes through rolling mills, annealing furnaces, slitting blades, expanding dies, and handling by operators. In a multi-alloy facility, each of these steps introduces contamination that is not on the ingot certificate but is on the finished mesh surface. The mesh surface is what contacts your electrolyte. If you are evaluating mesh suppliers, request a surface SEM-EDS analysis — not just the bulk chemistry cert. The surface data tells you what the ingot cert cannot: whether the manufacturing process kept the nickel clean.

Can you provide mesh with Fe at the very bottom of the specification range?

Yes. For N6-grade mesh, we can select ingot heats with Fe ≤0.06% — documented on the MTC. For N4, we routinely achieve Fe at 0.02–0.03%. This is not a different grade — it is heat selection within the grade. There is no additional cost for heat selection — it requires advance notice so we can reserve the appropriate ingot for your production run. For lifetime-critical programs, we trend Fe across heats and provide the trending data as part of your quality documentation.

What if I'm currently using Ni200 and want to evaluate whether upgrading to N6 is justified?

We recommend a comparative durability test. Run identical single cells — one with Ni200 mesh, one with N6 mesh, same mesh geometry — for 2,000–5,000 hours at your operating conditions. Measure the cathode overpotential drift on each cell. The difference in drift rate, projected to your target electrode life and multiplied by your electricity cost, determines whether the N6 upgrade pays back. We can supply N6 and Ni200 mesh with identical geometry for this comparative test — and we can provide estimated dissolution rates to guide your test planning.