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Pulse Plating for Palladium?

Please explain the advantages/disadvantages of using pulse plating at Pd. Is Pulse plating used more widely than DC for Palladium? and Why/Why not...

Thanks for your advice.

Nishath Yasmeen
Employee - Houston, Texas
October 28, 2008

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November 4, 2008

Nishath,
The advantages of Pd pulse plating is improved grain structure of the deposit resulting in lower porosity, better thickness distribution on the part, which results in metal cost savings. The overall appearance (cosmetics) is also improved. Depending on the metal concentration of the bath the current density usually has to be lowered, which may result in longer plating times. Pulse plating rectifiers are very expensive however. Pulse plating is more widely used in gold and copper plating and used more for electronic plating. I'm pretty sure that most platers of palladium today use constant current rectification. Good Luck!

Mark Baker
process engineer - Malone, New York

The window of ON vs Off time makes a difference. If you go with period reverse pulse plating the window makes a massive difference and very very few people will share exact numbers.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
November 6, 2008