Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Electroplating on Plastic

2003

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have been in the biz of electroplating for about 25 years however it is hard to find out how to plate plastic with metal please can anyone advise me. I would appreciate your time to give me the opportunity to know more about electroplating on plastic. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you in advance for kind assistance.

Regards,

Ardiasa Keladian
- Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

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2003

Dear Sir/Madam,

Please advise me how to plate plastic with metal. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you.

Regards,

Ardiasa Keladian
- Indonesia

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Your question is too broad to answer as is, but you might check the plating on nonconductors topic in the FAQ section of this site as a start.

James Totter, CEF
- Tallahassee, Florida
2003

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2003

Dear Ardiasa Keladian,

If you want plate plastic ABS is the most common. For this -rinse well plastic parts(degreasing) -etch in sulfocromic acid at 70 °C 5 min -rinse -immerse in astano chloride room temperature 5 min -rinse -immerse in palladium chloride sol. for 3 min -rinse well -alkaline electroless nickel or electroless copper at room temperature 10-15 min -electroplating with common manner. If you have question write details again.

Vahid Hosseini
- Tehran, Iran

Here is a link through which you can get a better idea; it will be only helpful if you are plating ABS plastic

Hiren Rasesh Pathak
- Baroda, Gujarat, India
2003

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2005

Good evening,sir
I am working on electroplating on ABS. I used activation by silver nitrate and disodium tetraborate decahydrate , but I have problem when added two component after dissolved its consist white salts not dissolved. How to prevent this problem .

thanks.

Nabil Salama Zaki
- Giza, Cairo

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First of two simultaneous responses --

1. You should not activate ABS with silver. The correct procedure involves Palladium and tin.

2. Getting back to your procedure, what kind of water do you use? Silver nitrate with tap water gives a milky solution. Whenever you work with silver nitrate, you must use Deionizied water.

Sara Michaeli
Tel-Aviv-Yafo, Israel
2005

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

DEAR NABIL;
HOW CAN YOU ACTIVATED YOU PLASTICS? IF YOU WRITE US YOUR FULL PROCESS MAY BE I CAN HELP YOU. CAN YOU TRY PALLADIUM CHLORIDE ACTIVATOR?

MURAT CETIN
- IZMIR, TURKEY
2005

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2006

Dear Sara,
Thanks for answer; I used pd/tin chloride as a activation now but I wanted to reduce the cost and used silver nitrate with sodium borate. I tested this solution with deionized water but the problem is the same and the activation is slowly. Sometime, solution clear but slowly too.
Please, what the percentage of silver nitrate to sodium borate.
thanks,

Nabil Salama Zaki
- Giza, Cairo

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