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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Selective Silver Deposition/plating on Copper
October 21, 2013
Q. I'm interested on a process I can implement that can help me to selectively deposit on some areas tin or silver (both at different times) on copper busbars. Something like plasma torch or related, or anything that can help me to avoid plating the entire busbar and just "plate" specific areas of it as a cost effective solution to save silver or tin and process. These are the thicknesses I require as minimum.
Silver Plating: 0.00005 inch = 50 microns
Silver Flash: 0.000003 to 0.000005 inch = 3-5 microns
Tin Plating: 0.0002 inch = 200 microns
- Monterrey, NL, Mexico
A. Hi Felipe. Sometimes the obvious way is the obvious way :-)
Years ago I visited the (then) world's largest user and provider of plated busbar, and their solution was simply to do one wrap of platers tape for a clean demarkation line, then dip just the end into the plating tanks.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
October 23, 2013
October 25, 2013
Q. Just some additional clarification, we buy complete bars and then we cut them to the required length, it is after this customization that we require the selective plating on areas that vary depending of the product configuration.
Felipe CASTRO [returning]- Monterrey, N. L., Mexico
A. Hi again, Felipe. Broadly speaking there is really only one way to do selective plating -- by exposing only the desired area to plating solution and plating current.
Partial immersion is one approach to that, which I've mentioned already. A second approach is brush plating where only the desired area is touched by the wet, electrified, plating brush/tampon. A third approach is masking with platers tape, vinyl plugs and caps, brush on masking agents, or in special plating machines that temporarily mask the areas where plating isn't wanted via rubber belts, etc. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 2014
August 2, 2014
Q. I HAVE A SOME PROBLEM IN SILVER PLATING.
THE PROBLEM IS HOW CAN [I DO] SILVER PLATING OF COPPER ELECTRIC BUTTON ON TOP SIDE, NOT A FULL PLATING, JUST ONLY TOP SIDE.
- Delhi, India
A. Hi cousin Tanmay. We appended your question to a thread which may have already answered it for you. If the volume is very very high you can use an automatic machine that temporarily masks one side of the button during the plating process. If the volume is lower, you can either use Brush plating equipment . . .
or you can apply some sort of masking to the back side of the button. Good luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
July 2014
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