Knowledge about plating of connectors

2022-05-09

Electronic Connectors are an emerging electronic product industry. Since their birth, they have developed rapidly and have become an important electronic product industry. The products include RF coaxial connectors, EPT European connectors, optical fiber connectors, DRAWER connectors, and local broadcasting. Connectors, household appliances connectors, PC connectors, network connectors, microelectronic device connectors, explosion-proof electrical connectors, etc. In short, wherever there are electronic products, there must be connectors.

So what is the connector for? As the name suggests, it is used for electrical connection. Without connectors, the functions of electronic products cannot be exerted, and the flow of energy, electrons, and information cannot be circulated and transmitted. Our most common connectors are all kinds of plugs, sockets and various cables on the computer at home. Obviously, without these cables, all home appliances and computers cannot work, which shows the importance of connectors.

Like the electroplating of microwave devices, connector electroplating requires a large amount of precious metal electroplating solution. Therefore, saving precious metal resources is also an important issue faced by connector electroplating. The reason for putting this content in this chapter is that pulse electroplating is first and foremost used in precious metal electroplating, and connector electroplating happens to be an area where precious metal electroplating is more widely used.

In the electroplating of connectors, due to the high electrical performance requirements of the contact pair, the gold plating process occupies an obvious important position in the electroplating of the connectors. At present, except for some strip connectors that use the selective gold plating process, the rest of the large number of pins The gold plating in the holes of the hole parts is still carried out by barrel plating and vibration plating. In recent years, the size of the connectors has become more and more miniaturized, and the quality problems of the gold plating in the holes of the pinhole parts have become increasingly prominent. The quality requirements of the connector are also getting higher and higher, and some users are even very picky about the appearance quality of the gold layer. In order to ensure the quality bonding force of the connector's gold-plated layer, these common quality problems are always the key to improving the quality of the connector's gold-plated layer. The reasons for these quality problems are discussed below.

2.1 The color of the gold layer is abnormal
The color of the gold-plated layer of the connector is inconsistent with the normal color of the gold layer, or the color of the gold layer of different parts in the same accessory product is different. The reasons for this problem are:

2.1.1 Influence of impurities in gold-plated raw materials
When the impurities brought in by the chemical materials added to the plating solution exceed the tolerance level of the gold plating solution, the color and brightness of the gold layer will soon be affected. If it is affected by organic impurities, the gold layer will appear dark and flowery. The position of the dark and flowered pieces is not fixed. If the metal impurities interfere, the effective range of the current density will be narrowed. .Reflected to the plated parts, the coating is red or even black, and the color change in the hole is obvious.

2.1.1 The current density of gold plating is too large
Due to the wrong calculation of the total area of the plating tank parts, the value is larger than the actual surface area, the gold plating current is too large, or the amplitude of the gold plating is too small when the vibration plating is used, so that all or part of the gold plating in the tank has rough crystals, and the gold plating is visually impaired. layer redness.

2.1.3 Gold plating solution aging
If the gold plating solution is used for too long, the excessive accumulation of impurities in the plating solution will inevitably cause the color of the gold layer to be abnormal.

2.1.4 The alloy content in the hard gold coating changes
In order to improve the hardness and wear resistance of the connector, the gold plating of the connector generally adopts the hard gold plating process. Among them, gold-cobalt alloy and gold-nickel alloy are used more. When the content of cobalt and nickel in the plating solution changes, it will cause The color of the gold plating layer changes. If the cobalt content in the plating solution is too high, the color of the gold layer will turn reddish; if the nickel content in the plating solution is too high, the metal color will become lighter; When the parts are not plated with gold in the same tank, the gold layer color of the same batch of products provided to the user will be different.

Shenzhen Antaike Electronics Co., Ltd.'s products mainly include board-to-board connectors, wire-to-board connectors, wire-to-wire connectors, I/O connectors, terminal blocks, network sockets, as well as various terminal machine inner wires and computer peripheral wires And other series of products, the products produced are in line with the EU ROHS and REACH environmental protection requirements, most of the products have passed the US UL certification, UL number E472792, the factory has passed ISO9001 and ISO14001 management system certification. Products are widely used in: liquid crystal display, digital cameras, communications, communications, industrial control, various mobile storage disks, digital home appliances, electronic toys, computers, network communication equipment, motors, air conditioners, washing machines, audio, automobiles, various precision instruments , instruments, etc. Domestically, the products are distributed in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an and other electronic center cities; overseas, the products are distributed in the United States, South Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, India, Israel, Russia, Iran, New Zealand, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, Hong Kong and Taiwan and other regional markets, and have won the trust of customers and enjoy a good reputation.

The main products are board-to-board connectors, cable connectors, wire-to-wire wire-to-board connectors, FPC/FFC cable connectors, card slot connectors, battery box socket connectors, square input/output connectors, Circular input/output connectors, telecommunication input/output connectors, terminal series, terminal wires/cables, and other customizable products.

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