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modern electroplating book

Modern Electroplating

by Frederick A. Lowenheim

Summary: Modern Electroplating, third edition, edited by Frederick A. Lowenheim, is a major electroplating reference for readers studying electrodeposition chemistry, plating practice, process control, specifications, testing, and related finishing processes.

Edition
Third edition
Format
Hardcover
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons
Year
1974
ISBN
0471549681

Modern Electroplating Book Details

Modern Electroplating, third edition, edited by Frederick A. Lowenheim, is a modern electroplating book with a long-standing reputation in metal finishing literature. For readers who work with electrodeposition, the title matters because electroplating is not one process. It is a family of processes tied together by electrochemistry, metallurgy, surface preparation, solution control, current distribution, deposit properties, testing, specifications, environmental obligations, and production practice. A serious electroplating reference has to help the reader move among all of those subjects without losing sight of the part being finished.

This Lowenheim edition should be kept distinct from later editions of Modern Electroplating edited by Mordechay Schlesinger and Milan Paunovic. Those later editions are valuable in their own right, but this page is for the Lowenheim-linked third edition with ISBN 0471549681. Used-book listings sometimes collapse different editions under the same broad title, so buyers should compare the editor, edition, ISBN, cover, publisher, and condition before ordering. If the goal is the Lowenheim third edition, those details matter.

Frederick A. Lowenheim is an important name for readers of electroplating history and practice. Public biographical traces identify Frederick Adolph Lowenheim, 1909-1980, as a writer and expert on electroplating. Finishing.com also lists his Electroplating: Fundamentals of Surface Finishing as a tutorial classic sponsored by the American Electroplaters Society. That context helps explain why Modern Electroplating reads as more than a narrow recipe book. Lowenheim’s role was editorial and instructional: organizing specialist knowledge so working platers, chemists, engineers, and students could use it.

The value of a modern electroplating book is that it gives structure to a field that can otherwise feel like scattered shop lore. A zinc plating problem may involve cleaning, acid activation, current density, bath chemistry, brightener balance, chromate conversion, drying, and corrosion testing. A nickel-chromium problem may involve strike deposits, leveling, porosity, current distribution, polishing, and service exposure. Precious metal plating, copper plating, electroless deposits, anodizing, electroforming, immersion deposits, and plating on nonconductors each bring their own variables. A broad reference gives the reader a map before diving into a single failure.

For Finishing.com readers, Modern Electroplating is especially relevant because many questions on the site come from people standing between theory and production. They may know the desired coating but not the preparation sequence. They may know the bath name but not why the deposit is burning, peeling, pitting, rough, dull, brittle, porous, or poorly bonded. They may be trying to read an old specification, compare a supplier recommendation, understand an inspection requirement, or decide whether a problem is chemical, electrical, mechanical, metallurgical, or environmental. A reference like this helps make those questions more precise.

The book also belongs in a practical library because electroplating decisions are rarely isolated. Surface finishing connects incoming material, mechanical preparation, cleaning, activation, masking, racking, plating, rinsing, post-treatment, testing, packaging, and waste treatment. A defect that appears after plating may have been created before plating began. A deposit that looks good may still fail thickness, adhesion, porosity, hydrogen embrittlement, solderability, hardness, corrosion, or wear requirements. Modern Electroplating gives the reader a framework for thinking about the whole chain.

There are cautions. A third edition from the 1970s should not be treated as the final word on today’s safety rules, environmental regulations, wastewater permits, PFAS concerns, hexavalent chromium controls, cyanide management, worker exposure limits, or customer specifications. Electroplating chemistry has also continued to evolve through newer additives, trivalent chromium systems, alloy deposits, pulse plating, semiconductor applications, printed circuit technologies, and tighter process-control expectations. The best use of this book is as a foundational technical reference, then to compare its guidance with current standards, supplier data, SDS documents, regulatory requirements, and experienced professional judgment.

For someone shopping for Modern Electroplating, the main decision is edition. The Lowenheim third edition is part of the older lineage of the title, while the Schlesinger and Paunovic editions represent later editorial development. A collector, historian, or reader tracing older plating practice may specifically want Lowenheim. A reader looking for the most updated discussion may prefer a later edition. Either way, search carefully because marketplace listings can be inconsistent.

This modern electroplating book pairs naturally with Finishing.com discussions about plating fundamentals, nickel plating, chromium plating, zinc plating, copper plating, electroless nickel, plating on plastics, electroforming, conversion coatings, anodizing, process control, and wastewater treatment. It is the kind of reference that helps readers move from a vague symptom to a better technical question, and that is often the first step toward solving a real finishing problem.

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