Letter 24079

Nickel plating is peeling off nickel  

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Hi guys!

I'm having some problems with my tiny caps, that go in to making of a fuse. The substrate is brass, plated with copper and then bright nickel. The nickel peels off over nickel. There is no break in nickel plating. The nickel portion remaining in contact with copper is very thin (2-10 microinches). The nickel portion peeling off is thick (100-200 microinches). If you have faced similar problems or have some knowledge about this please send to me your inputs. Thanks in advance for your valuable help.

Regards,

Pravin Aagashe
Consumer Electronics Mfgr. - Bombay, India

You need to give more information about your nickel solutions.
You say that there is no break in the nickel plating - do you mean in the application of current or in the actual deposit?

If you are using two nickel layers and the first one contains any additives such as brighteners or levelers, this can cause poor adhesion of the second layer, unless it is adequately activated.

More information please

Trevor Crichton R&D practical scientist - UK

Trevor's observations are correct. The most likely cause though is that there is a loss of electrical current or electrical contact during the plating process. This would lead to the nickel deposit becoming "passive" and any consequent nickel deposition would not be fully adherent.

Joseph Garner
trade platers - Corby, Northamptonshire, England, U.K.

+++++ Actually I have working in semiconductor's company, I have many doubts in this fields, so you please consider my questions & cleared it , my question's is 1) what is meant by peeling ,and how we have to find out this 2)what is meant by blistering 3) what is meant by uneven, and how we have to find out this. Lakshmanan Chandra Mohan - India October 17, 2009 Hi, Lakshmanan. Blistering of plating is called blistering because it is very similar to blistering of human skin; it's a separation of the outer skin from the body of the part. It is a precursor to peeling, because the plating has peeled away from the substrate, but until the blister breaks, you don't see the substrate. "Uneven" has no specific meaning in plating; look up synonyms in a dictionary or a thesaurus and you will understand. Good luck. Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey