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Activation treatment for nickel barrier coating

Dear's
I would like to know what could be the most effective and suitable activation treatment for 1-3 micron nickel barrier coating I want to coat lead-tin copper on this barrier coating of Nickel so kindly suggest what should be the activation treatment for nickel barrier coating for effective adhesion of cu-alloy plating.

I also like to know that we have bronze product over which nickel plating and cu alloy plating is carried out , the pretreatment which we use for this product is correct or not?
process maps is - degreasing - acid etching - rinse - metaclean dip-rinse-nickel plating - rinse - fluoboric dip-cu alloy plating-rinse-tin plating-rinse.kindly suggest is it ok to do acid etching without fluoboric dip for lead alloy.

regards

Aditya Kumar
- India
May 16, 2010

The cheapest and cost effective method is to plate the nickel with the next coat immediately after it comes out of the nickel rinse tank. Activating a 1 micron nickel is not easy because it is so thin and has voids. Nickel can be very difficult to activate if you need exceptional adhesion of the follow on plating.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
May 19, 2010