50042

How to do electroless tin plating over electroless nickel  

September 19, 2008

I currently do electroless plating nickel on ceramic tubes. I want to electroless plate tin over the nickel. Can anyone tell me how to do this or where to find information.

Brett Michaud
employee - Portland, Oregon

Since the part is very hot coming out of the electroless nickel it may be partially passivating, so, lets go back thru a quick nickel chloride strike (Woods) and then the immersion tin.

Robert H Probert Robert H Probert Technical Services Garner, North Carolina Editor's note:        Mr. Probert is the    author of Aluminum How-To / Aluminio El Como

Immersion tin as far as I know requires a copper substrate for the reaction to occur. Without copper, no replacement reaction occurs. Also, as opposed to electroless or autocatalytic deposition which continues to plate as long as there is a catalytic surface provided, tin only deposits as long as copper is exposed - once covered, reaction shuts down. Therefore, immersion tin is VERY THIN like 10 millionths of an inch.

Milt Stevenson, Jr. Anoplate Corp Syracuse, NY, USA