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Curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
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Plating onto molybdenum
Q. I am looking for some advice on plating molybdenum. After checking out the mainstream literature and trying lots of experiments, still can't get it to work.
I am trying to plate on a wire EDM moly surface ~3 microns of nickel followed by ~3 microns of gold. The main constraint we face is that the molybdenum is part of an assembly which cannot withstand temperatures over ~700 °C … so the "plate thin nickel + hydrogen sinter" approach isn't feasible.
The assembly must be able to hold up to a post-plate 500 °C heat treatment without blistering--a real challenge. If anybody has some ideas on what might work, I'm all ears. Thanks for helping.
- Singapore
A. Hello, Ted. ASM International's "Metals Handbook:
Volume 5: Surface Engineering has an excellent chapter on plating onto molybdenum. It may be a good start.
Topic 927 addresses plating onto molybdenum. Good luck.
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Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
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