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Non-magnetic, conductive plating on Al

 

Hello,

I am looking for a suitable type of plating for a milled aluminium bracket in a high frequency laser application.

The main requirements that I have been given are that the plating is non-magnetic and is conductive.

I am a complete novice in specifying plating materials and so would appreciate any help available. Another factor I have to consider is that the Al component comes from a vendor in the south of China.

Allan Hobkirk
- Glasgow, Scotland

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Silver could be the answer but there are many other answers to this question - tin, zinc, copper to name a few. More information such as the environment that it is going in to - it sounds nice dry and room temperature. Is corrosion going to be an issue? Are you going to solder to it? Please come back with more info.

Martin Trigg-Hogarth
surface treatment shop - Stroud, Glos, England
 

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Allan:

The easiest metal to plate on aluminum that meets your requirement is zinc. It¥s plated by simple immersion, but as Martin said it¥s easy corrodible and very thin. If corrosion is a problem, you will have to cyanide copper plate.

G. Marrufo

Guillermo Marrufo
Monterrey, NL, Mexico