Mike: I'm not sure what the "gold prospector" is but if you are trying
to analyze the gold concentration of your bath there's a couple of ways to do
it. The easiest is if you already have an x-ray fluorescence(XRF)thickness
measurement system avaiable. I'll bet your plating or quality dept has one.These
can be fitted with an option called a solution analysis cup. This gives you
virtually an instantaneous read out of the gold conc. The CMI Co. I know for
sure offers one with their XRF system, others probably have something similar.
They're usually only a couple hundred dollars or less but may require a software
upgrade.

This other gravimetric method you briefly mention with the acids sounds like you
may be doing weighing/plating/stripping/weighing or something like that. Another
way is create a plate out cell. The cell is filled with electrolyte usually the
same chemistry as the gold plating bath without any gold in it. Then add in a
measured quanity sample of the actual working bath that has the gold in it, this
will  give you a known amount of gold in the plate out cell. Weigh the
cathode(W1)to four decimal places. A piece of gold flashed nickel hullcell panel
works well for the cathode. Plate out the solution onto the cathode, rinse,
bake/cool, reweigh(W2). The delta in weight is the amount of gold for that
sample size. From that you can calculate the oz/gal or g/l for the gold content.

                                                regards
                                                                Michael Barmuta
                                                                Staff Engineer
                                                                Fluke Corp.
                                                                Everett Wa.
                                                                425-356-6076




On Thu, 10 Dec 1998 17:57:48 -0800 Michael D. Doty wrote:

> From: Michael D. Doty <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1998 17:57:48 -0800
> Subject: [TN] Gold analysis
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>      Hello Techies,
>
>                 I have a couple of questions on gold bath analysis. We
>      currently use the gold prospector from Dynatronix. Since they are no
>      longer making these nor supplying test solutions I was wondering what
>      the alternatives might be. I know of the gravimetric method utilizung
>      Nitric and Sulfuric acids but my Lab operators have some major
>      heartburn with this.
>                 Thanks in advance for the help.
>
>      Mike Doty
>      Process Eng.
>      Hadco TCE
>
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