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

Gold plating content measurement?

September 10, 2009

Hello,
My name is Shawn, I am from Canada but ended up in China with my fiance and have been thrust into a position of a factory manager/operations manager for a Printed Circuit Board factory. I am having a bit of an issue, we have a gold electroplating line, the problem is, the staff have been known to deposit an item into the tank to absorb or plate *such as a stick, or a necklace etc* to absorb gold and then steal it.

I am wondering if there is a fast, 2 hour max, and effective way to measure gold content in the tank, g per L of water+acid solution is what I need to know. As the gold is plated away and then stolen, I need to do a test of the solution on a daily basis, but not sure if it is possible. Can a system of measuring of voltage or resistance in the solution be used to check for a drop in gold content? My background is computer sciences, not chemistry, thus the question is a big vague.

Many thanks in Advance!

Shawn Sviridov
PCB Factory Operations manager - Canada/China

A better solution is to install 2 video cameras that record to a DVD and face the side and the end of the tank. Install a sign : Smile, your picture is being taken. Theft will be punished!

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
September 11, 2009

---

September 14, 2009

My thoughts exactly James !

I used to use web 264 video surveillance software and a couple of wireless webcams. It was cheep and can be monitored continuously on a laptop or set up to take snaps or video clips any time there is any motion in the range of the cameras.
As I recall it will monitor up to about 8 cameras at once and the images were much better than the old tape surveillance systems. Best of all, its pretty cheep and the cameras are so tiny they seem to go un-noticed. It worked for me with shop lifters and no doubt it would stop your gold pilferage.
In the end I bought a large capacity 465 GB verbatim external hard drive for $200.00 to capture the images. I had about a million hours of footage on that drive and I never came close to filling it. Storing to DVDs is fine but I found it was easier and quicker to go back on the video files when they were all on the external HD. Plus I could take it home in the evening if I found something missing and review it at my leisure. Best of all a system like that is very cheap and more or less do-it-yourself!
It really screws people up when you show them footage of themselves stuffing their pockets with merchandise. I even had a few people claim that it was some one that looked just like them � not them! The police always seemed to think otherwise. Cops are often not always the smartest tacks in the drawer but they seemed to be real good with pictures. LMAOROF ;o)

Rod Henrickson
gunsmith - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

---

By the way I forgot to mention. It is best not to advertise the fact that you are monitoring for pilferage and hide the cameras. I found that even with the cameras I was still losing stock.
If people are crafty enough to create ways to covertly collect and smuggle the gold out of your shop you can bet that they will be quick to find ways to evade the camera system and keep right on doing what they are doing.
Monitor what's going on for about a month and can all of the people you catch in one fell swoop. You will probably eliminate most of the light fingered ones in one crack and if 5 or 6 people all get canned at once for theft it tends to put the fear of what ever god they happen to believe in into their hearts. At least for a while.
You will never be able to totally eliminate theft. Every time you build a better mouse trap some clown will build a better mouse! ;o)

Rod Henrickson
gunsmith - Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
September 14, 2009