Low-ammonia, high-speed palladium—nickel electroplating process for connector applications: One-year industrial practice results for Pallamet 600 support claims regarding the process' suitability as a hard gold replacement

SummaryThe Pallamet 600 process presents the advantages of both conventional ammoniacal and ammonia-free processes. The on-line ammonia odor in a production environment is dramatically reduced due to the extremely low free ammonia in the electrolyte. In addition, Pallamet 600 does not require any addition of ammonia for pH adjustment during use.The beneficial characteristics of the plating process and the Pd−Ni deposit of the conventional ammonia-based processes are retained with Pallamet 600. Production trials have shown that the Pallamet 600 process is suitable for various reel-to-reel selective plating techniques, and the plating bath is chemically stable, in spite of the low ammonia content. The quality of the Pd−Ni deposits produced by Pallamet 600 has been well accepted by end users as a viable hard gold replacement at a substantially lower cost.