45019

Student requiring an electrolytic nickel/PTFE bath [Pennsylvania]

May 4, 2007

Hi,

I am a student requiring an electrolytic nickel/PTFE bath. As I am not interested in going to the trouble to develop this bath, especially without experience in plating, I am looking for a commercially-made bath. Does anyone know of a supplier that sells such a bath in small quantities?

Also, to clarify: I did a bit of looking on the internet, and I've seen some mention of electroless nickel-phosphorus-PTFE baths, but what I require is nickel and PTFE only that can be plated electrolytically.

Thanks for any help!

Jason McLafferty
- State College, PA, USA

Jason,
Plating a co deposit with electrolytic nickel has more problems than electroless nickel does, so it is not really commercially available. The electroless (EN) has a major problem of finding a way to keep the tiny teflon particles in suspension where the can be agglomerated into the plating. Vendors have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars perfecting this process, so are not interested in tiny quantities or students--unless they might be working in an area the the vendor is interested. A number of years back, it was extremely difficult to not have the teflon get "dirty" and not plate out. Also, once it settled to the bottom of the tank, it was difficult to get back into suspension.

You need an experienced major professor or one with contacts; or it is simpler and cheaper in the long run to send it to a job shop that specializes in that process.

James Watts
- FL

Why must it be electrolytic nickel? Electrolytic nickel/teflon is possible, but the solutions are usually individually prepared, and would take some considerable research. Why not just use readily available commercial electroless processes?

Jeffrey Holmes, CEF - Spartanburg, SC, USA