Additives are the “secret sauce” for quality electroplating, but more isn’t always better. Overdosing additives can turn a smooth plating process into a costly disaster—ruining coatings, wasting materials, and halting production. From electronics factories to auto part workshops, this mistake plagues both large plants and small shops. Let’s explore the impacts across industries and answer common questions.
PCB factories rely on levelers and brighteners for uniform copper plating. A Suzhou-based plant once doubled their leveler dosage hoping for smoother microcircuits—instead, the excess formed a thin, brittle film on PCBs. When soldering components, the film peeled off, causing 3,000 boards to fail testing, costing $20,000 in losses. The fix required draining the plating tank and recalibrating additive ratios.
Zinc-plating brighteners are critical for Corrosion Resistance on auto bolts. A German auto supplier overdosed brighteners by 30% during a rush order. The result? Glossy but porous coatings that failed salt-spray tests. 10,000 bolts had to be re-plated, delaying shipment to a car assembly plant by a week.
Small shops often skip precise dosing tools. A Zhejiang hardware workshop added extra nickel-plating additives to “boost shine” on door handles. The excess caused the coating to blister and crack when heated, forcing them to discard 500 finished parts and restart production.
A: Additives work in balanced ratios—excess disrupts their synergy. Brighteners overload the solution, creating uneven deposits; levelers form thick, weak films; and surfactants cause foaming that traps air bubbles, leaving pinholes in coatings.
A: Watch for telltale signs: overly shiny but brittle coatings, foaming in the plating tank, slow deposition speed, or white residues on parts. Testing a small sample before full production also helps catch overdoses early.
A: It depends on the severity. For minor overdoses, adding fresh plating solution to dilute the mixture works. For major cases, you’ll need to partially drain the tank and replenish with new solution and correctly dosed additives. Always test the adjusted solution first.
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