Hi everyone,

I'm facing a dilemma regarding the capacity of electric plating to carry high currents.

We made a PCB that had to handle a current of 30 amps.

We made some calculations and figured that we needed 3 once copper thickness to achieve the requirements.

The PCB manufacture didn't have in stock the required thickness, so they proposed to use a PCB 2 once thick and simply electro plate the missing once.

Since we were short in time we agreed to the proposal.

The results we got are completely off the track according to what we expected.

What could be responsible for this?

Does electric plating has the same current capacity or does it differ from the plain old copper on the PCB?

Or could this be the result of a calculation error from our part?

If so can anyone tell me were I can find more accurate charts and data to establish what need for this high current design?

Cheers,

--

Jimmy Blier
Senior PCB designer
Paradox Security Systems Ltd.
780 Industrial Blvd.
St-Eustache, Quebec, Canada J7R 5V3 
Phone : 450.491.7444 Fax : 450.491.3454 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
<http://www.paradox.ca/>

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