Description

Bright dip is a chemical polishing process that removes oxides and enhances the brightness of base metals while at the same time providing a shiny finish to the original base material color. The finished-part brightness is dependent on the type of base material. In addition, the bright dip process does not leave any type of deposit on the surface of the part that might interfere with later processing steps.

Benefits

•  Bright dip gives a glossy clear o colored finish on parts or products.
•  Gives protection against corrosion, fading and scratching..
•  Cosmetic enhancement with a variety of colors for your finish.
•  No deposits are left on the surface.

Applications

Bright dip is widely used in the automotive industry, appliances, sporting goods, for light reflectors, and more.

Description

Epoxy powder coating has a high dielectric strength, which is a necessary quality for electrical insulation to protect manufacturing people, service technicians, and customers who work on electrical systems. With the proper application technique, most parts can be uniformly coated to ensure a consistent insulation barrier. The material eliminates insulation cut-through from the high-voltage spikes that are often generated in cable systems. Prototype and short-run requirements, in particular, benefit from this insulating process by reducing the need for costly fixtures typically required to insulate or laminate multiple conductor assemblies. What’s more, the smooth and uniform finish that the epoxy provides is especially suited for protecting motor components, switchgear, cables, and other parts.

Epoxy powder coating is a free-flowing, thermosetting dry powder. Think of this process as a way of «melting» paint over a busbar’s surface to create a durable, protective surface with thickness ranging from 6 to 120 mils or .006 to .120 inches. When the epoxy powder cures, a cross-link occurs increasing molecular weight and insulation capability.

 Applications

Epoxy powder is chemical resistant and one of the oldest powder paints used in the electronics industry. It not only protects against corrosion but carries a high insulation rating of 800 volts per mil (.001 inches) at a minimum of 10 mil (.010 inches). Due to safety consideration it is recommended that a Hipot test is performed rather than rely on film thickness. Tensile strength on raw and plated copper bar is in the range of 7500 PSI. UL rating is 130 Cº. Epoxy powder coating’s high dielectric strength can be varied based on the application process, thickness and component preparation.

Description

Copper is a soft, ductile, lustrous metal with a pink hue that exhibits very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is very soft and malleable but can have considerable strength when alloyed with elements such as beryllium, chromium or tellurium. Most commonly copper is alloyed with zinc to form brass or with tin to form bronze alloys. Copper readily forms compounds with elements found in the atmosphere including oxygen, carbon and sulfur. Based upon the oxidation state, available moisture and pH of the environment, the compounds formed can have distinctive blue or green hues (acidic environments) as opposed to dark brown appearance (alkaline environments).

Benefits

Copper has a high plating efficiency and provides an excellent undercoat for other metals. Ecoplating offers three basic types of copper processes, including alkaline, acid, and mildly-alkaline. Processes vary in their throwing power and current density. Choosing the right process depends on part configuration and intended use.

Description

Tin is a soft, ductile, silvery-white metal that is not easily oxidized in air. It has good conductivity and corrosion resistance while enhancing solderability of substrates that are not otherwise easily soldered to. Tin is generally considered non-toxic and non-carcinogenic and as such its use is generally approved for food contact applications. There are two primary categories: Brigh tin and matte (solderable) tin. Both deposits are electolytically applied. Bright tin plating has a high degree of luster and is generally prefered for electrical contact applciations such as bus bars, terminals, and switching components that are not soldered to. If bright tin is soldered, the codeposited organics in the deposit can burn, resulting in a dewetting of the solder and a visible charring of the solder joint.

Description

Phosphate coating, a chemical conversion coating that transforms the surface of a base metal into a non-metallic crystalline coating, is employed for the purpose of pretreatment prior to coating or painting, increasing corrosion protection and improving friction properties of sliding components.

Nickel is a silver white, hard metal with satin to bright luster. It can be plated uniformly in recesses, blind holes and cavities, does not build up on edges. Nickel plating provides customers with a finish that offers both decorative (see nickel chrome) and engineering applications. Engineering applications are smooth, matte deposits that are most often applied to improve corrosion performance of industrial equipment. Pure nickel deposits are used to control wear, erosion, surface hardness and lubricity, offering an excellent coating for electronics applications.

Description

 Passivation of stainless steel is not electroplating, it is a non electrical process that removes surface impurities that cause corrosion and promote friction-related damage in stainless steel. This prevents the formation of possible corrosion sites and the development of tightly adhering oxides. Passivation forms a thin, transparent oxide coating that fights selective oxidation.

Benefits

Passivation improves corrosion resistance without plating, gives a superior clean surface and eliminates iron contamination reactions with other materials.

Description

Silver plating has many unique properties that make it desirable for these applications. Silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal, which facilitates the efficient transmission of electricity and heat. In addition, silver is a relatively soft metal which allows the silver deposit to compress and form around a mating connector filling small voids and micro-roughness. This increases the effective contact area resulting in less overall connector resistance. Silver has excellent lubricity and resists galling in switching, sliding or rotary applications. High pressure wear surfaces can be susceptible to silverwear. In applications such as this, a higher deposit thickness of silver is recommended as well as the use of a nickel or electroless nickel underplate. Thinner silver plating without a nickel underplate is best used on static joints or low duty cycle connectors that are mated and unmated relatively infrequently.

Benefits of Nickel Underplating of Copper The use of a nickel underplate prior to silver plating copper can improve the performance of the overall deposit in several ways. Diffusion Barrier: When silver is plated on copper a natural solid-state diffusion of the copper into the silver will occur over time. The rate of diffusion is accelerated greatly at elevated temperatures. As copper diffuses into silver it forms a hybrid copper/silver eutectic layer wich negatively affects adhesion, solderability and electrical performance. Nickel forms an effective diffusion barrier to prevents this copper/silver migration from occurring- this is highly recommended in most specifications and even required in some.

Corrosion Performance: The addition of a nickel underplate prior to silver plating helps form a more effective barrier between the copper base and the environment since it limits the overall deposit porosity. A heavy deposit of nickel can be used to imporve corrosion perforance with much less cost impact than increasing the silver thinkcess alone.

Load/Bearing Durability: The use of nickel underplate helps provide a rigid structure for with the silver layer can be deposited upon. This helps reduce the wear of the silver in high pressure switching and wear applications such as fuse stabs or high voltage switch gear.

Solder Base: Solderability of a copper component is improved- extends the shelf-life of solderability and reduce the amount of silver that needs to be plated to succesfully solder a copper component. *The most common nickels used as an underplate to silver are an electrolytic sulfamate nickel or electroless nickel.