I believe Stu that that heat process must take place w/in a specific time period after the plate process, like w/in 60 minutes. So asking a plate shop to do this may be a little difficult.I had a part fail after cadmium plating.
After plating, parts which are susceptible to embrittlement are often subjected to a heat treatment (baking) procedure, called "hydrogen embrittlement relief". Often, a temperature of 375 deg. F for 3 or more hours is used. Sometimes, specifications require that the embrittlement relief bake be performed within a certain number of hours after plating. The process serves to remove or redistribute the hydrogen, but may further reduce the fatigue limit of high strength steels. This phenomenon was described by R.A.F. Hammond and C. Williams ("Metallurgical Reviews", 5, 165, 1960) and again by J.K. Dennis and T.E. Such ("Nickel and Chromium Plating - Second Edition", 1986, p.72).
http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Forms/embrittlement.htm http://www.nmfrc.org/crarchive/feb02a.cfm
