The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
-----

Gold plater rinse water reclaim

 

I am maintenance man that works on production equipment. I have electronic gold reclaim units on my stagnant rinse tanks on my gold plater. They are 15 years old. I question the efficiency of the units. I draw current but see little gold from my hard gold bath rinse water. I know my anode, which titanium with a black anodized coating needs to be replaced every so often but knowing when to replace it is a mystery. I don't know how to tell if the unit is working correctly. The industry must have improved over the last 15 years. I back the electronic reclaim unit up with a anion exchange resin canister.

Any feedback will be more than welcome.

Donald L. Putman
- Johnson City, New York

Check the operating voltage across the anodes & cathodes in the reclaimer unit with a calibrated voltmeter. Too high a voltage will select for other than gold. Check if the rectification is still operating. A/C will not do the job. Try fresh plates. Alternatively check the electrical resistance between the plates when the plates are unclipped from the power supply. You should have been doing this from when you put them in fresh and then monitored the resistance during their lifetime to ascertain the resistance region when gold does not plate out.

John Tuohy
- Ireland