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  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Help, pulsed plating alloy

2006

Hi,

I am a beginner in pulsed plating, I'd like to plate Mn/Ni or Mn/Fe, Fe/Co alloy at stainless steel surface, and literatures and books revealed that this technique possesses dozens of benefits.

Is there anybody having any idea how to set parameters first, and is it possible if I use graphite or stainless steel as cathode?

Thanks a lot

Junwei Wu
WVU - West Virginia

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Nothing like starting with the difficult bits! I suggest you first of all understand how your alloy deposition process will work under normal conditions. Find out what the effects of pH, temperature and current density are on the alloy compositions for a standardised bath. Once you are confident you understand the basic bath processes, then start pulse plating. I would suggest duty cycles of 90/10, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 10/90. Keep your bath conditions constant and do chemical and structural analyses on the deposits. It would also be worth doing some stress tests. I would strongly recommend you do not take the short cut and forget about the simple initial studying, because the results you get from pulse plating will be complicated and you will need to have the basic understanding to know what is going on.

Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2006

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2006

I would suggest that you be very careful with books that claim wonderful benefits without giving any clue as to how this is achieved.
Not only is the necessary pulsed rectifier many times the cost of a DC rectifier, the parameters which must be controlled multiply enormously. (see reply from Trevor Crichton)
Having purchased the kit, do you have the equipment to evaluate the results?
Controlling alloy deposits is not simple. The only practical method is Xray fluorescence spectrophotometry and the XRF or possibly EDAX (current UK price about £35,000), plus analytical facilities to control the bath chemistry.
Good luck. Please let us know how you get on.

Geoff Smith
Hampshire, England