letter 22187

Alternative to 316 SS for a leaf spring  

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I have a plating rack that has been adapted from a standard PCB plating rack. I am electroplating Cu and Sn on a silicon wafer. The rack holds 24 wafers. The body of the rack is 316 stainless and I use 316 leaf springs to electrically connect the frame to the wafer. After plating, the entire frame assembly goes through a Cu/Sn stripping process.

My problem is the strength of the 316. It can't be heat treated and it doesn't seem to get very hard by the simple bending that it sees in manufacturing. It is "3/4" hard stock.

My plating Engineer tells me that I must use 316. My question is simple: Is there some other material that would work better as a spring and could still stand up to the abuse of this plating process?

Jamie Ross
- Sunnyvale, California, USA

Titanium. It's commonly used for plating/anodizing racks, as well as things like spring clamps for plating barrels.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey

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