Cyanide Copper Plating on Zinc

A. Hi Chase. All of your temperatures are reasonable as design parameters, although Nickel is conventionally 140 °F, and the suggested temperatures for cyanide copper and acid copper may vary a bit. When you're in the general right range as you are though, holding the temperature constant within close limits is probably more important than trying to optimize it by tweaking it up or down a few degrees :-)

Yes, you need full copper coverage from your cyanide bath before you go to acid copper.

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi, Chuck. I'm reluctant to say that you are approaching this wrong because I don't know all the facts, but ...

Very few OEMs do their own plating these days; they almost always farm it out to a plating shop. Unless your situation is really special, that's what I think you should be doing.

In turn, very few plating shops attempt to formulate their own plating chemistry; they almost always buy proprietaries. Even if otherwise, I'd suspect that they would order copper cyanide rather than trying to make up the solution from potassium cyanide. Plating is not a one-step process. Do you have tanks and chemicals for cleaning & acid activation? Do you have a wastewater treatment system ready?

You need a dedicated containment area for the cyanide; are you ready for that? You need HCN detectors; do you have them? You need a cyanide antidote kit; do you have it?

Again, I don't know the facts, but I'd strongly consider cancelling that cyanide order, and retaining a plating consultant to come in and advise. If his conclusion is that you should do plating in house, he may advise that you use a proprietary copper pyrophosphate bath or other proprietary instead of cyanide.

Regards,

Thanks Ted, I think I have canceled that order. I have spent the last couple of days reading up on cyanide handling and safety. Was really starting to regret going down that path. I am an electrical engineer that didn't do too well in chemistry. You probably saved someone's life with your advice.

I can make the plating tanks, that is no problem, we do lots of plastic fabrication. I need to put a coat of copper onto an antenna substrate we manufacture. It has to be done in house due to time constraints. This is to improve the solderability of the zinc as well as the conductivity.

Please recommend an alternate solution and a vendor of the solution if you would please.

A. Hi, Chuck. You can probably get a proprietary copper pyrophosphate plating bath or other proprietary plating bath from a number of vendors, but one who specializes in it is EPI / Electrochemical Products Inc. [a finishing.com supporting advertiser]. Contact them and I think they can help you.

Regards,

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