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-----Bad Solderability of Copper Zinc Plating
Q. I have material supplied from our supplier. This material use for pin contact of electronic component. Pin contact is plated by CuZn.
But when I solderability test, it fail. The tin can not cover the whole pin contact surface.
The next process, the pin contact shall be tin dip, but the result is not good. The solderability problem.
Question :
1. What is the cause of bad solderability.
2. I want to repair it. Shall I remove the plating before re-plating? How do I remove it?
- Bekasi, Indonesia
September 20, 2012
A. Copper zinc alloys are normally referred to as brass. Brass is a common material for electrical contacts but is usually plated with gold or silver because brass is a very poor contact material. So I am a little puzzled why you are plating your (unknown) base material with brass.
If you have a good reason for the CuZn plating, many soldering problems originate in poor choice of flux. I would suggest that you speak to your solder / flux supplier
Geoff Smith
Hampshire, England
September 21, 2012
Q. Continuing the above problem. The brass 4 - 6 um, covered by nickel 1 - 2 µm or copper 1-2 um. No contamination on the tin plating layer. So the bad solderability is because of not enough nickel thickness? Which is better nickel or copper base?
tq
- Bekasi, Indomesia
October 15, 2012
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