THE PERFECT TECHNOLOGY FOR EVERY SURFACE

 

»The combination of reel-to-reel and single-part electroplating with a high quality standard and to our customers’ great satisfaction makes us stand out from the crowd.
We support customers from the early phases of new electroplating projects with our state-of-the-art prototype system right through to subsequent series production.
To meet the requirements of the dynamic markets, we focus on the technological system development and automation of our production lines with the latest analysis methods.

 

 

 

SINGLE-PART ELECTROPLATING

Standard process
We use a wide variety of barrel plating with various perforations and contacting options for electroplating punched and turned parts. We are thus able to process all of your orders, from the smallest series to mass production, and also finish all types of standard to complex parts.
This production method is yet another way of gently processing sensitive punched parts so that their properties are maintained. Mass-produced small parts are carefully mixed using vibration, and the metal plating is evenly distributed. This method is particularly suitable for internal plating of closed sleeves or bores and particularly for long, thin pins.
Our rack electroplating method is used for refining sensitive metals, extremely large and heavy parts, and products with high visual requirements that are unsuitable for drum and Vibrobot processing. The racks are specifically constructed for each product to ensure that the material is optimally positioned in the production process.

 

Special methods
This special method is used for plating structurally etched films with a minimum thickness of 35 µm all around or selectively. We use a masking method that we have specially developed for selective plating, which enables us to plate the foils on just one side or on both sides with pinpoint accuracy.
Our specialized prototype electroplating is used for processing reel segments of up to 400 mm as well as selected individual parts with different platings on one part. A and B models can be produced using series electrolytes under conditions that closely resemble series production. This provides optimal support for the product throughout the production process, from model to series.
 

REEL-TO-REEL ELECTROPLATING

All selective methods, such as immersion, strip, Tesa, brush, and spot methods, are applied for the electroplating of full and punched reels on a continuous production line. We continuously improve these methods to achieve precision selectivity and an improved performance, and consequently the optimal consumption of the precious metals. Quality remains continuously high thanks to our 100% automated camera monitoring process during production.

 

This method is highly versatile. It can be used for plating level as well as profiled contacts with great precision. The brush method is usually only used for depositing the precious metals gold, palladium, palladium-nickel, and silver. We use both static and roller brushes for such products. Our company has developed the µCRO brush. It has a high deposit speed and also deposits the precious metals with increased precision.
The most accurate method of reel-to-reel galvanizing, the spot technique, (plating of the functional surfaces with pinpoint accuracy) has been used successfully for many years. The CRISP wheel cell (Cost Reduced Intelligent Selective Plating) is also used for this purpose. It has been specially developed for our spot plating. The CRISP cell selective plating method uses the least amount of precious metals. Our development department continuously works on its further improvement.
Full and punched reels can be plated all around or selectively through immersion. Both the front and back are finished in this process. Our advanced OVER CROSS and KAMµ cell methods further optimize the discharge areas. These two newly developed cell methods provide you with considerable savings, particularly regarding the consumption of precious metals, compared with the standard immersion processes.
Strip methods are used for plating strips on full reels or lead frames with low profiles. The various methods mask out the edge plating and apply one or several strips on one or both sides of a reel. Gerweck has developed its own low-maintenance wheel method (CRISP strip cell; Cost Reduced Intelligent Selective Plating cell), an innovative cell method for such products. The CRISP cell provides major advantages regarding performance, precision of the strips, and precious metal savings compared with the standard methods.

 

 

WE CAN PLATE YOUR PRODUCTS WITH THE FOLLOWING PRECIOUS METALS



Fine gold

Material

(silk-matt gold layer with 99.9% purity)

  • Ductility (good formability)
  • hardness 50-100 HV
  • good solderability
  • good bondability

Hard gold

Material

(Gold alloy with 0.2-0.3% cobalt, nickel or iron)

  • Improved wear
  • higher hardness 140-200 HV
  • poor ductility (deformation => cracking)
  • Solderable

Sandwich nickel

Material

(deposition of bright nickel over semi bright nickel)

  • no sensitivity to touch (optics)
  • ductility =>better formability than bright nickel

Semi bright nickel

Material

(matt deposited nickel layers)

  • hardness approx. 330 HV
  • slight sensitivity to touch (optics)
  • ductility =>better formability than ni-brightness

Bright nickel

Material

(Bright deposited nickel layers)

  • Hardness approx. 450 HV => good wear resistance
  • insensitive to touch
  • Ductility =>worse formability than semi bright nickel

Bright tin

Material

(Bright deposited tin layers)

  • Friction wear =>low mating cycles better than matte tin
  • Hardness approx. 25 HV
  • Ductility =>deformability worse than semi bright tin

Semi bright tin

Material

(Semi bright deposited tin layers)

  • high friction wear =>low mating cycles
  • hardness ca.10 HV
  • high ductility => good deformability
  • sensitive to grip

Palladium nickel

Material

(alloy deposition with 80% Pd / 20% Ni)

  • less expensive than pure palladium
  • poor ductility (deformation => cracking)
  • hardness 560-600 HV

Pure palladium

Material
  • poor ductility (deformation => cracking)
  • hardness 280-350 HV

Semi bright copper

Material

semi bright deposited copper layers => cyanide)

  • Adhesive layer
  • Barrier layer

Hard silver

Material

(Ag alloy with approx. 0.1% lead, bismuth, antimony, arsenic or tin)

  • Good abrasion resistance
  • Hardness 120-150 HV
  • uniform, shiny surface
  • good friction wear (better than bright Ag)
  • good fretting corrosion behavior (better than bright Ag)
  • low contact transition resistance

Bright silver

Material

(bright deposited silver layers with 99.9% purity)

  • high ductility (good formability)
  • hardness 80-100 HV
  • increased friction wear (better than semi bright silver)
  • poor fretting corrosion behavior
  • (better than semi bright silver)
  • tendency to cold welding
  • good solderability

Semi bright silver

Material

semi bright deposited silver coatings with >99.9% purity (bond application)

  • high ductility (good formability)
  • hardness 60-80 HV
  • high friction wear
  • poor fretting corrosion behavior (fretting)
  • tendency to cold welding
  • good bondability
  • good solderability

 

GERWECK GMBH Surface Technology

Gewerbestraße 95
75015 Bretten-Gölshausen
Phone: +49 (7252) 963107-0
info(at)gerweck-gmbh.de

Office hours

Mo-Th  8:00 h - 16:30 h
Fr 8:00 h - 15:30 h

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