Ha! my past comes back to haunt me.... Well, I have been TOLD by my SUPERIORS to plate 30u over 100u nickel, and I am telling them that that's too much gold for the SMT, but of course since I'm "the new guy" here they need to hear it from "a reliable source" too... (and 5u seems a little thin for contacts, I'll check into the carbon, never tried that) thanks everyone for the responses, I'm collating and summarizing onward thru the fog, Jack -----Original Message----- From: David J. Ricketts [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 3:02 PM To: 'Jack Olson' Subject: RE: [TN] Flash Gold and Switch Contacts Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack, All that time at the company formerly known as B/E, and you still have gold questions? If the switch area is a contact surface, like a push button, then consider screening carbon ink. Otherwise, you can flash nickel and gold, 100 and 5 microinches max. If it is a wear surface, like fingers wiping on the surface, then you need electrolytic gold. So what kind of grass do they grow in that new valley of yours? David MMI Designs voice> 949-675-7360 fax> 949-673-3650 -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jack Olson Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 9:58 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Flash Gold and Switch Contacts I have just read through about a thousand messages regarding gold plating in the Technet archive, but still couldn't find exactly what I need to know: We have a design with one side all contact switch patterns, and the other side SMT components. Since we wanted to gold plate the contact patterns, we were told to just gold plate the whole board. So the question is: What gold thickness would be thin enough for the SMT's and still thick enough for good reliable contacts? Or is there a better way? thanks in advance, Jack ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################ ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################