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their high performance levels are hard to replace. Palm, for
example, offers its Platinode anodes for various surface and
electrochemical applications.
These are titanium anodes coated with layers of platinum,
replacing the conventionally used lead anodes. The result is that
there is no lead requiring disposal, nor any of the toxicity issues
associated with this metal.
Applications, Palm says, include extended anode life, reduced
labor costs and high levels of corrosion resistance. They are
employed in metal electroplating, electroforming, plating on
plastics, trivalent chrome plating, electrogalvanizing, plating of
alloys, and hard chrome plating.
“The platinum coating is applied by means of high-temperature
electrolysis, or HTE,” Palm says. “The platinum is deposited from a
cyanide molten salt bath at temperatures of 500 to 600 deg. C.
“The functional platinum layer thus produced displays excellent
adhesion in addition to high ductility and maximum purity. It is
possible to produce layers with high load bearing capacity,
maximum corrosion resistance and excellent service life.”
Swiss-based Metalor supplies various precious metals for both
electrolytic and electroless processes. These, according to the
company, were developed over many years to meet the demands
of a diverse set of activities in the electronics, semiconductor and
decorative industries.
“The Metalor processes are designed for use with high speed,
reel-to-reel, barrel, rack, vibratory and semiconductor metallization
equipment,” Metalor states. “Our processes are designed for use with
high-speed, reel-to-reel, barrel, rack, vibratory, and semiconductor
metallization equipment.”
Metalor manufactures precious metal salts, solutions and
anodes from silver, gold and platinum group metals. Its Advanced
Coatings business group provides solutions in precious metal
plating, powders, and flakes, as well as chemicals, compounds,
and plating equipment.
Uyemura offers a wide selection of coatings technologies involv-
ing precious metals. In recent years, it introduced a reduction-
assisted immersion bath for board shops with customers requiring
an immersion gold deposit above the standard one to two µ-in on the
ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel Electroless Palladium Immersion
Gold) standard.
Epithas TWX-40, is a mixed reaction bath that delivers both
immersion and autocatalytic (electroless) modes of deposition.
The process, the company says, “is a proven alternative to earlier
attempts to achieve heavier gold deposits on ENEPIG, such as
extending the dwell time in the immersion bath. That practice
forces the immersion bath to do what it was never designed to do,
and has been fraught with problems, the most serious of which is
virtually inevitable damage to the nickel underlayer.
“TWX-40 is a single immersion gold bath with autocatalytic
capabilities,” Uyemura says. “Added to a line, manufacturers plating
ENEPIG can now deposit four to eight µ-in gold in a single step. The
standard alternative way to accomplish this is to deposit an autocat-
alytic gold over immersion gold – an additional step requiring costly
additional make-up.”
An alternative process, the company’s Gobright TWX-40 reduc-
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