What are the circuit board plating processes?

Electroplating is a process that uses the principle of electrolysis to plate a thin layer of other metals or alloys on certain metal surfaces. It is a process that uses electrolysis to attach a metal film to the surface of metal or other material parts to prevent metal oxidation ( Such as rust), improve wear resistance, conductivity, reflectivity, corrosion resistance (copper sulfate, etc.) and enhance appearance. It is an important process in the circuit board manufacturing process. If not handled properly, it will directly affect the quality and performance of the circuit board.

Electroplating is simply understood to be a physical and chemical change or combination. Some of the following processes are related to our electroplating processes.

Electroless plating (autocatalytic plating)

A process in which metal ions in the plating solution are catalytically reduced to form a metal coating on the surface of an activated substrate. This is a process project that is mostly involved in our process. Through this process, we can carry out post-processing such as electroplating, and it is mostly used as a pre-processing process for plastic parts.

plating

The process of using electrolysis to form a uniform, dense, and well-bonded metal or alloy deposition layer on the surface of a workpiece. This process is relatively complicated, but it has many advantages, such as the deposition of many types of metals and the variety of colors and phases that can be obtained. Compared with similar processes, the price is relatively low.

Electroforming

The process of making or replicating metal products by depositing metal onto a mold through electrolysis (separating the mold from the metal deposit). This processing method is used when we require the final product to have special surface effects, such as clear and obvious polishing and etching dividing lines or special acute angles. Generally, copper material is used to make the shape of a component, and then through the electroplating process The method is to deposit the alloy on the surface, usually with a thickness of tens of millimeters, and then cut the cavity and insert them into the cavity of the mold respectively to inject the plastic parts. The parts processed in this way have edges and corners and several faces. There will be special effects on the boundaries to meet the design needs.

Vacuum plating

Vacuum plating mainly includes several types of vacuum evaporation, sputtering plating and ion plating. They are all used to deposit various metal and non-metal films on the surface of plastic parts through distillation or sputtering under vacuum conditions. Through such This method can obtain a very thin surface coating, and has the outstanding advantages of fast speed and good adhesion, but the price is also higher, and there are fewer types of metals that can be operated. It is generally used for functional coatings of higher-end products, such as interior Shielding used.