Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Copper alkaline or brass bath make up

good evening;
I am working in an electroplating company as lab assistant, I want to know ( make up of copper ) the method , the quantity of chemicals and types of it to prepare copper alkaline or brass bath make up where I am freshely work in my company
thanks.

good evening; I want to know make up method of gold and silver plating bath and its analysis method where I am working as lab assistant in an electroplating company thanks.

good evening; I am working in an electroplating company as lab assistant. I want to know method to determine copper cyanid in copper alkaline or brass bath by using EDTA , ammonia [on eBay or Amazon] and MUROXIDE indicator thanks.

good evening; I am working in an electroplating company as lab assistant. could you give me some information about what is acid which add with phenol reagent to detection water from oil gas or no . thanks.

Marwa Nour Eldin
electroplating lab assistant - Cairo, Egypt
July 21, 2008

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July 21, 2008

Hi, Marwa. Welcome to the industry.

Although you posted a bunch of different questions and on different topics, we combined them so we wouldn't need to post a mostly duplicative response a half dozen times.

The first thing you should know is that most shops do not attempt to formulate their own copper, brass, gold, and silver plating baths (and related cleaners, activators, and post dips); rather, they purchase the processes from specialty vendors who will give you the operational and testing procedures and will arrange to periodically run some chemical analysis tests which you cannot do in-house.

Plating baths generally cannot be fully analyzed through chemistry, but you will need to also periodically run "Hull Cell" tests. You should try to build your library with a couple of plating books from our "must have" booklist. And you should immediately join an educational society for people in the plating industry like the Indian Association of Metal Finishers. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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I beg to differ with Ted in some respects. If you are making up traditional cyanide brass and copper solutions (or acid copper) you may find the formulations for these baths in a variety of textbooks. My favorite for first timers with some knowledge is the Electroplating Engineering Handbook [on AbeBooks or eBay or Amazon] (revised many times). It is important to understand to get optimal performance, current technology bath additives are available from suppliers who will give you analytical procdures, operating/make up instructions and hopefully periodic analysis. Non cyanide copper and brass baths tend to be entirely proprietary.

Gene Packman
- Great Neck, New York
July 22, 2008