I was involved in a aluminium structure adventure some years ago. We needed extremly good solderability. And solder joint strength. I found this worked very good: double zincate+ 10 micrometers nickel+ 10 micrometers copper+ gold flash. The solder wetted the best possible. Silver tarnished, so we skipped that. Asked plater if this was a problem, but he just said that after zincate you can put on anything. It's of course an exaggeration, but in my case we got an excellent treatment. Aluminium finish questions are very interesting to me. Especially tin over aluminium. Ingemar Hernefjord Ericsson Microwave Systems -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Brooks,Bill Sent: den 9 juni 2005 22:24 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] plating on AL I think copper under plating is most commonly used with ferrous metals as the base material, but don't quote me on that, I'm not a chemist or metallurgist... just a humble PCB designer... :) Bill Brooks - KG6VVP PCB Design Engineer, C.I.D.+, C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 Datron World Communications, Inc. _______________________________________ San Diego Chapter of the IPC Designers Council Communications Officer, Web Manager http://dcchapters.ipc.org/SanDiego/ http://pcbwizards.com -----Original Message----- From: Stadem, Richard [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 11:51 AM To: TechNet E-Mail Forum; Brooks,Bill Subject: RE: [TN] plating on AL That's right, I mistakingly thought you had a copper underplate. Thanks -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brooks,Bill Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 1:41 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] plating on AL Actually we were plating SILVER to Aluminum and I think it was necessary to plate .0005 inches of electroless nickel to adhere to the aluminum carrier plates... The callout on the drawing was: Silver plate per QQ-S-365C, Type 1, 0.0005 min., Grade B, matte finish - no brighteners. I think the reason we got away with that was it was a carrier plate and we were interested in solderability more than any conductivity or signal path reason... The plating company was Electrolurgy Inc, in Irvine California or we also used Palomar Plating in Escondido or AVI plating in San Diego, they used to be known as San Diego Hybrid labs... Hope that helps... Bill Brooks - KG6VVP PCB Design Engineer, C.I.D.+, C.I.I. Tel: (760)597-1500 Ext 3772 Fax: (760)597-1510 Datron World Communications, Inc. _______________________________________ San Diego Chapter of the IPC Designers Council Communications Officer, Web Manager http://dcchapters.ipc.org/SanDiego/ http://pcbwizards.com -----Original Message----- From: Stadem, Richard [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 11:14 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] plating on AL I would talk to Bill Brooks. We recently had a good email chat about this exact subject and he has some experience with plating copper over aluminum. You out there, Bill? -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott B. Westheimer Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 11:55 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] plating on AL I was wondering if anyone can help me with finding a company that can plate copper on Aluminum. I believe that the Al will first need to be zincated. Thanks Scott B. Westheimer 5709 Clarks Fork Drive Raleigh, N.C. 27616 Phone: (919)713-0748 Office: (919)713-4258 Cell: (919)961-5364 --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- Email: [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a 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/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------