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-----How to Calculate Current for Electroplating
Q. Hi, I am prasanth. I am working in plating. How does one calculate the current to give plating process?
Thank you.
- Chennai, tamilanadu, India
December 2, 2019
A. Hi Prasanth. If you give us the full particulars of your situation we can try to give you some numbers and guidelines to help you through it. We can also introduce you to the concepts involved such as Faraday's Law which relates the amount of metal electroplated to the current X plating time, and the fact that the total current required is equal to the current required per unit area X the surface area of the parts.
But the direct answer to your question is that people would like to apply as much current as possible, so as to minimize required plating time and maximize production, but too much current causes problems like rough and burned plating ... and we generally do not have the science yet to calculate what that upper limit is based on first principles. Rather, the plating process suppliers and textbooks offer empirical guidelines based on experience.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
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