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How to Calculate Plating Rate

Q. How can we calculate acid copper plating rate of deposition on metal?

Pugazh
student - Tamilnadu, India
July 31, 2025

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A. Hi Pugazh

You calculate the plating rate of any plating solution by starting with Faraday's Law, which states that one "Faraday", i.e., 96,485 ampere-seconds (i.e., a current of 96485 amperes flowing for one second, or 1 ampere flowing for 96,485 seconds, or any current and amount of time which multiplies out to 96,485) will deposit 1 gram atomic weight of the metal divided by its "valence" ⇦ huh?.

In practice, however, plating is not 100% "efficient" ⇦ huh?, so after running this calculation, you must multiply by the efficiency of acid copper plating, but it's probably over 90%.

After you understand how this works you can save a lot of calculation by consulting the "Electrochemical Equivalents chart" ⇦ huh? in the Metal Finishing Guidebook ⇨
which takes all the constants, like density, valence, atomic weight, into account and gives you the plating rate.

However, remember that you are not free to arbitrarily increase the current to any desired level ... if you try to plate too fast, the plating will "burn" ⇦ huh?

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
(Ted can offer longterm or instant help)
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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