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Contamination in silver plating on copper

My company buys small silver plated blocks. We had used the same supplier for years and started having problems in our finished parts.

We performed GDOES testing and found there were higher level of Sulfur and Potassium in the plating layer than our older "good" parts. We are now seeing approx. 0.01% sulfur and 150 ppm potassium.

The parts are barrel plated. The supplier claims nothing has changed in their process.

What are typical causes and corrections for this type of problem?

Note: I am quality engineer in charge with managing quality at a plater. I do not have background in plating but I am studying and learning.

Kdee122 Smith
OEM - California, USA
November 4, 2010

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I suggest that you advise your plater to send a sample to his silver brightener supplier and ask for a procedure to remove sulfide compounds from the silver plating solution.

Don Baudrand
Consultant - Poulsbo, Washington
(Don is co-author of "Plating on Plastics" [on Amazon or AbeBooks affil links]
           and "Plating ABS Plastics" [on Amazon or eBay or AbeBooks affil links])
December 29, 2010