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Poor adhesion appears in nickel from base metal

I am working in an electroplating company and is assigned in quality assurance department. Right now, we are facing problems on poor adhesion of Nickel from its base metal (copper). Based on our experiences, poor adhesion usually happens when there is partial loss of contact during Nickel Plating. But this time, there is no loose contacts being identified and considering that plating conditions is OK and within standards. Occurrence of poor adhesion is only random and not true to all surface of the material, causing the affected area to form bubble-like appearance. With this, we would like to know other possible causes of this kind of defects and what are the best remedies to avoid this?

Your immediate reply is highly appreciated. Thank you very much.

JURY B. CASAS
ELECTROPLATING COMPANY - PHILIPPINES
2007

Pitting that is random is almost always caused by poor cleaning and etching prior to the nickel. What process do you use?

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
2007

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Hi Jury,
If the problem is sporadic and not on all surfaces of the parts there is most likely a hydrogen bubble trapped on the surface during nickel plating. A wetting agent or an increase in the wetter concentration in the bath will help. Your nickel supplier can advise you on the amounts and addition schedules. Also make sure you have adequate solution agitation, and your filter system is not taking in air. Good Luck!

Mark Baker
Process Engineer - Syracuse, New York
2007

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Sounds you may be plating nickel over copper and copper over aluminum (aluminum wheels?). Give us more input please.

Trent Kaufman
electroplater - Galva, Illinois
2007