Russ: Cost: The Ni sulfamate plating step is not exotic or unusual for fabricators doing Ni/Au plating. If the board fabricator is set up to do deep/full panel Ni sulfamate electroplating I would not expect added cost. They would not have to strip the etch resist metal and would not have to hot air level, so it should be a push at least. I'm assuming, looking at the notes that the fabricator could do a single plating step of sulfamate Ni for a final finish. By plating a minimum of 0.0038mm (@150u"), there is no minimum called out for the wiper area, with a nominal of 200u" over the entire board surface it would meet the drawing call out. If a double plate with two thickness' of Ni is required then it would be costlier than HAL/SMOBC. Soldering: You may have a difficult time trying to activate and solder to the nickel depending on your SM solderpaste flux. Baked Ni(30-60mins/300F to cure the soldermask at the fabricator)could be a real bear to solder to. Why don't they put 15-20u" of electroplated hard Au over the Ni and make everyone happy? That should provide sufficient wiper life and provide a good solderable surface. Regards Michael Barmuta Staff Engineer Fluke Corp. Everett WA 425-446-6076 -----Original Message----- From: Russ Steiner [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2003 7:55 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Sulfamate NI?? I have a couple basic questions on the cost of (to me at least) exotic coating/plating requirement. These PCB's are electromechanical in application as they contain a few passive components and the plating is also a contact for a mechanical switch wiper contact. My customer is calling for the following (on various boards, about 1 dozen p/n's): 1. 200 u-in. of sulfamate mickel plating on wiping surface, matte finish electroplate is acceptable. 2. Minimum 100 u-in. of ductile sulfamate nickel plating 3. Nickel plated, 0.0038 mm min., plated thru holes Are these spec's going to cost more than HAL/SMOBC in large production? (Asian PCB source). Also, is there any issue soldering 1206 and 0805's in convection reflow on this plating? P.s. This is how their notes read. I assume the "mickel" is really supposed to be "nickel". Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! All the best... Russ Steiner Manager, Marketing & Business Development Phone 877-622-EMS1 (Toll-Free in USA) Phone 989-539-1811 (From Canada/Mexico) Fax 877-622-3672 Cell Ph 989-245-2606 "The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/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 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/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 -----------------------------------------------------