The authoritative public forum
  for Metal Finishing since 1989
  

  -----

Is there a way to plate Tin with some sort of BLACK coating (oxide, anodize, etc)?

2005

I have an application that I'm trying to find a solution for. I'm working on a product that has an small enclosure made of Tin coated Brass. We need to make this enclosure black in color, but still leave the tin coating exposed in certain areas to solder a circuit board to for conductivity purposes.

Can anyone tell me if there is a process (besides painting) for coating Tin with a black coating?

Thanks,

Patrick Tuxbury
Medical Device Mfg. - Wallingford, Connecticut, USA

---

Try black nickel or black rhodium plating [adv: black rhodium plating solution on eBay or Amazon [affil links] or you can chemically colour tin(you can use 20% iron(III) chloride solution)!

Good luck!

Goran Budija
- Cerovski vrh Croatia
2005

Electrodeposition is a process that could get your tin black, and still leave bare areas for you to apply your circuit boards. While e-coating is still technically a paint process, the thickness of the paint can be controlled to 2 ten-thousanths of an inch, and any areas that you need to keep clean masked off. E-coat is probably cheaper that some of the other options suggested.

Adam Adkisson
- Seminole, Oklahoma
2005

---

If my memory serves me right, there is a black anodize process for tin that might do the trick. If might be tricky to re-activate the tin to solder however.

Milt Stevenson, Jr.
Syracuse, New York
2005