If you want to know some of the properties of this material try this web address; http://www.matweb.com/SpecificMaterial.asp?bassnum=NIND21&group=General, in general we do not use Alloy 42 as such, but we do use a lot of Kovar (registered trademark of Carpenter Metals) which is pretty much the same type of material, except that there is no cobalt in Alloy 42. According to the chart of properties at; www.edfagan.com. We apply electrolytic gold plate to Kovar all of the time and do not have a wetting problem. You may want to look at the thickness of you plating ratios. Our gold thickness is always less than the nickel plating. You might also try to contact Kester Solder, Inc. they have a lot of white papers on the web and their customer service people that I have talked to are very helpful and if they do not know they will usually know who can. Tracy --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------