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Gold plating on the pre-tinned brass

November 9, 2010

Dear all,

I am working on connector/terminal field. In this field, pre-tinned copper are often used.
Recently, we have a case that need to plate gold on the pre-tinned brass. In my experience, it may causes the adhesive issue, so I've made a suggestion as follow.
1. Using the bare brass as the base.
2. Plate nickel on whole terminal as the barrier.
3. Selected plate gold at required zone.
4. Selected plate tin at zone.

However, I do want to know if there is any way to this solve this adhesive issue. If anyone has any suggestion, please guide me. Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,
Ian Chen

Ian Chen
plating industrial employee - Taipei, Taiwan

Copper will definitely migrate thru thin tin and thin gold, causing a color change that customers do not like to see. Takes time for this to happen. A thin layer of nickel will help, but at what cost? Tin, even aged tin, is not that hard to activate for the gold layer.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
November 11, 2010