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Cleaning electroless nickel plated aluminium post plating.

Hi all, I'm trying to find a suitable method for cleaning electroless nickel post plating. What are the industry standards for this process? The metal work will be used in a number of high spec industries such as Aerospace, Medical and Space, so must be super clean from oils and surface contaminants across all elements such as blind holes and threads. I am currently using an alkaline cleaner in an ultrasonic bath, however this doesn't seem to be doing the trick for our quality assurance buffs.

Any help would be greatly received.

Roy Faull
Student/engineer - Yeovil, England
December 15, 2008

Hi, Roy. When you are finished electroless nickel plating (and applying an anti-tarnish dip if applicable), you are done; no further cleaning is done before packaging.

If you are speaking about cleaning the parts after storage or after further work has been done on them, most any cleaning method is applicable, from your ultrasonic cleaning in an alkaline bath, to a wipe with isopropyl alcohol ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] , to vapor degreasing, to scrubbing with pumice ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . I think the real question may be why is QA unhappy? It could be that you need a DI rinse or solvent drying to satisfy them, rather than more cleaning.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
December 15, 2008