Electroplating Technology for Electronic Connectors

Electroplating Technology for Electronic Connectors

Electronic connectors include connectors (plugins and sockets), connectors, wiring terminals, coupler terminals, current contact springs (relays), plug-in electronic components with gold/silver leads/chips, SMD electronic component SMD holders, electronic circuit board connectors, etc.

Advanced automated electroplating production lines will replace traditional manual and semi-automatic barrel plating and hanging plating production methods. At present, advanced equipment suitable for connector electroplating includes vibration electroplating equipment, strip selective electroplating equipment, and chemical electroplating equipment, especially strip selective electroplating equipment. Currently, most contactors have been washed into strips for electroplating. With the development of connector types, more and more products will adopt this production method of contactors. Continuous electroplating is suitable for terminals, connectors, copper strips, copper wires, LED, semiconductor and other parts.

1) The continuous electroplating production line is a combination of continuous electroplating, which involves electroplating of continuous strip materials after stamping or stamping of copper strips after electroplating. It is called roll to roll electroplating abroad. Continuous electroplating not only has advanced and reliable production technology, but also is easy to reduce pollution emissions. Installing compressed air blowing heads in the inlet and outlet of the plating pieces at both ends of the plating tank can reduce the amount of cleaning water brought into the plating tank to dilute the plating solution, reduce the loss of plating solution brought out, and further become pollutants, increasing the difficulty of wastewater treatment. The cleaning process can be made into multi-stage countercurrent spraying, which is not easy to implement and can be easily achieved on continuous electroplating lines. For example, a 40 meter long double line continuous electroplating line with an average daily discharge of only 20M of wastewater is considered a less polluting process.

Adopting strip selective electroplating equipment for electroplating processing can not only meet the needs of various functional parts of the contact body, but also save the consumption of precious metal materials and meet the needs of automatic assembly.

The electroplating options for the selective electroplating production line of strip materials include immersion type, spray type with mask, drum type, and fixed head brush type. When choosing this type of production line, it is necessary to decide based on the shape of the own strip and the quality requirements of the coating functional parts, and it is not necessary to prepare a fully functional production line.

2) The combination technology of continuous electroplating production line integrates high-speed electroplating technology, liquid level selective electroplating, fixed head brush electroplating, and mask selective electroplating technology, which can achieve automatic control of some plating solution components (such as additives, main salt level, etc.) and some process parameters (temperature, pH value, etc.). By installing a ray thickness gauge, online continuous measurement and control of coating thickness and alloy composition can be achieved. It is a collection of advanced electroplating technologies with high production efficiency, good consistency in product quality and performance, and saves 90% -95% of precious metals compared to conventional methods. It is the most representative combination electroplating processing technology in the production of electronic connectors.

1) According to product requirements, selective electroplating technology only applies selective coating to areas that require coating, such as contacts, welding wires, etc. The coating area is only 5-10% of the conventional roller coating area, and the thickness distribution is more uniform and reasonable, especially for fixed head brush and mask electroplating. Precious metal is only plated on one side of the contact area, which has a significant saving effect.

2) The high-speed electroplating technology involves the movement of the electroplated parts themselves, and the electroplating solution is forced to flow back in the direction of the electroplated parts at a higher speed in the electroplating tank. In this case, even if ordinary electroplating solution is used, the current density is allowed to be more than twice that of traditional electroplating. The working speed of continuous electroplating lines is 1-30m/min, and the cycle speed is also fast. High speed electroplating solutions with high main salt concentration allow the upper limit current density to reach three times or even more than that of regular hanging plating. The distance between the anode and cathode of the fixed head brush and mask electroplating is very close, and the plating solution updates (cycles) quickly, greatly improving the current density and electroplating speed.