| Search our quarter-million Q&As |
Home of the finishing HOTLINE since 1989
-----Gold Plating Adhesion on bending part
I am looking to find a process that will improve the adhesion of electroplated gold onto a formed 303 stainless spring wire. I am experiencing coating flaking after several bending cycles. Will an undercoating or strikeplate help? I need to keep the final gold thickness. The Au coating thickness is 0.0003"
Brendan McCrea- Redwood City, California
1999
Brendan, I'm assuming from your substrate material and coating thickness that this is for a radiopaque coating. I don't know much about electroplating but I do know that in the PVD industry Cr or Ti is used as an undercoat to make Au, Pt, Pd or Ir stick when adhesion problems are experienced.
John Davis
- Berthoud, Colorado, USA
1999
Mr. McCrea:
To get electroplating to adhere to a surface, the surface needs to be active. Because stainless steel naturally passivates in air, it is virtually always necessary to activate it. The "standard operating procedure" is to use a Wood's Nickel Strike ⇦ huh? -- do you presently nickel strike?
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
Sorry! Finishing.com is temporarily Read-Only.
Ted Mooney is retiring but I have several offers to take it over.
We're working hard to make sure we find it the best new home.