Title: NiKlad ELV 835
1NiKlad ELV 835
- Organically Stabilised Electroless Nickel
2Why an Organically Stabilized EN
- RoHS/WEEE/ELV legislation
- Limits metal stabilizers
- Competitors reverted to early stabilizers system
- Technical issues with early systems
- More stringent controls being introduced
- NSF/51
- JPSSFI
- Pressure from large OEMs and Countries
- Volvo Black list
- China ELV
3Issues with Existing Processes
- Earlier Stabilizers
- Already replaced by Lead and Cadmium for process
improvements - Re-used as Cadmium and Lead removed
- Issues with early formulations
- Product stability
- Semi matrix systems difficult to produce
- Activation of some substrates is very poor,e.g.
copper alloys
4Organic Stabilisers
- They do not presently fall into any prospective
environmental legislation - Originally developed 20 years ago
- Elnic 100 organically stabilised
- First generation had technical limitations
- Work started on next generation 3 years ago
- Initially, only available as semi bright
- Were more difficult to control
5Newer Processes
- Development over past 2 years
- Family of 4 processes now developed and in use
- Mid Phos 6 9 NiKlad ELV 838
- Low Mid Phos 4 6 NiKlad ELV 835
- Low Phos 1 3 NiKlad ELV 824
- EN Strike NiKlad ELV 831
6NiKlad ELV 835
- Equipment Operation Experience
- Polypropylene tanks - OK
- Stainless Steel tanks - OK
- 6 g/L Nickel use - OK
- LMO - OK
- Substrates
- Steel - OK
- Copper - OK
- Brass - OK
- Aluminum (cast/wrought) - OK
- Thicknesses from 0.1 to 11 mils
- In use at 8 applicators
7Why Use These Baths
- RoHS compliant, and as long as the use of nickel
is still acceptable. - No shelf life issues for product stability
- Can be used as LMO
- Easy to use and tolerant to abuse
- Low Metal Operation
8Deposit Composition
- Deposit contains only nickel, phosphorus, carbon
and sulphur - Carbon and sulphur contents are similar to
conventional low medium phosphorus
9Deposit Composition
10NiKlad ELV 835 - Experiences
- Stability
- Used in Anodically Protected Stainless Steel
- Polypropylene
- No issues, in fact opinion was in favour of
superior stability over conventional systems and
at least as good as the ELV systems
11NiKlad ELV 835- Speed
12NLV 835 - Speed
- Many customers can achieve over 1 mil/Hr
(25ums/Hr), even when the bath is old - It can be difficult to load the bath when plating
this fast - Customers are using 10 15 oF (6 9oC)lower
temperature at nominally the same speed - Saving energy over older chemistry
13NiKlad ELV 835 - Speed
14NiKlad ELV 835 - Gloss
15NiKlad ELV 835 - Gloss
- Brightness is slightly reduced when compared to
conventional systems - This is very true for a new bath
- Brightness is comparable to other ELV processes
- Brightness very consistent over the bath life
- Some customers like this consistency
16NiKlad ELV 835 - Stress
17NiKlad ELV 835 - Hardness
18NiKlad ELV 835 - Hardness
- The hardness and wear resistance is superior to
medium phosphorus baths - It is similar to conventional baths with similar
phosphorus contents
19NiKlad ELV 835 - Wear
20NiKlad ELV 835 - Wear
21NiKlad ELV 835 - Corrosion Resistance
- The process performs to the same standard as 5
7 phosphorus baths at customers - Electrochemical testing shows similar results
with medium and low medium phosphorus baths - NSS testing gave gt 120 hours with a new solution
and 1 mil plating
22NiKlad ELV 835 - Corrosion Resistance
96 Hours
23NiKlad ELV 835 - Corrosion Resistance
144 Hours
24NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience
- Effect of large additions
- Operation as an LMO
- Bath Loading
- Use of lower temperatures
- Activation of Substrates
25NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience
- Effect of large additions
- Bath is less sensitive to large additions than
conventional chemistry - Largest addition made was gt60 in a single
addition - Bath continued to plate with little or no
negative effects
26NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience
- Operation as an LMO
- Ideal, due to low sensitivity to additions
- Operation as a LMO does not require controllers
- Bath Loading
- Bath functions in a wide range of bath loadings,
from 0.01 to 1.5 ft2/gal (0.03 4.0 dm2/L)
27NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience
- Use of lower temperatures
- As stated earlier, due to the high speed it is
possible to reduce the temperature and still
obtain good rates - Activation of Substrates
- Unlike some of the ELV compliant chemistries,
activation is very fast
28NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience
- Bath Life
- The bath consumes hypophosphite at the same rate
as a normal low medium phosphorus bath. - Can be used to gt 8 MTOs
- Due to low stress and high speed useful life is
greater than the older conventional systems - Life on aluminum is at least as good as the older
conventional systems - 6 MTOs on 7075 alloy with no strike
29NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience
- Pretreatment
- Good pretreatment is critical for these processes
- Can drag in organics reducing the effectiveness
of the stabilisers - It does not smooth over smut as effectively as a
cadmium brightened bath - You cannot easily activate copper and brass using
palladium
30NiKlad ELV 835 - Summary
- The use of non metallic stabilisers as a viable
alternative to the traditional metallic systems
is now production proven - These baths have few disadvantages and many
advantages including - Speed
- Energy Efficiency
- Product Stability
- Future Proofing