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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
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How to clean a plating bath?
I use a Watt's dull Ni plating bath and find the Ni surface plated with so many pits. The pits look shiny when viewed by unaided eye. But under microscope, it is a small dark hole, sometimes the Ni around the dark hole is also dark in color.
Concentration of Ni I use = 95g/L of Ni without additive.
With current density about 2.8ASD\
I have tried to use hydrogen peroxide and carbon filter to clean the bath over 7 days... but no improvement...
Is that using active carbon powder to clean the tank is the only method to solve this problem? Please help me.
Thanks for your kindly help.
- Hong Kong
2000
Generally, hydrogen gas is evolved when you plate nickel. The hydrogen bubbles can adhere to the part, and when this happens, a pit is created in the electroplate. The most common way to prevent this is to add a commercial anti-pit agent (wetter) which will prevent the hydrogen bubble from adhering to the work.
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James Totter, CEF
- Tallahassee, Florida
2000
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