NiKlad ELV 835

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NiKlad ELV 835

• Organically Stabilised Electroless Nickel

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Why an Organically Stabilized EN

• RoHS/WEEE/ELV legislation
• Limits metal stabilizers
• Competitors reverted to early stabilizers system
• Technical issues with early systems
• More stringent controls being introduced
• NSF/51
• JPSSFI
• Pressure from large OEMs and Countries
• Volvo Black list
• China ELV

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Issues with Existing Processes

• Earlier Stabilizers
• Already replaced by Lead and Cadmium for process
  improvements
• Re-used as Cadmium and Lead removed
• Issues with early formulations
• Product stability
• Semi matrix systems difficult to produce
• Activation of some substrates is very poor,e.g.
  copper alloys

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Organic Stabilisers

• They do not presently fall into any prospective
  environmental legislation
• Originally developed 20 years ago
• Elnic 100 organically stabilised
• First generation had technical limitations
• Work started on next generation 3 years ago
• Initially, only available as semi bright
• Were more difficult to control

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Newer Processes

• Development over past 2 years
• Family of 4 processes now developed and in use
• Mid Phos 6 9 NiKlad ELV 838
• Low Mid Phos 4 6 NiKlad ELV 835
• Low Phos 1 3 NiKlad ELV 824
• EN Strike NiKlad ELV 831

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NiKlad ELV 835

• Equipment Operation Experience
• Polypropylene tanks - OK
• Stainless Steel tanks - OK
• 6 g/L Nickel use - OK
• LMO - OK
• Substrates
• Steel - OK
• Copper - OK
• Brass - OK
• Aluminum (cast/wrought) - OK
• Thicknesses from 0.1 to 11 mils
• In use at 8 applicators

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Why Use These Baths

• RoHS compliant, and as long as the use of nickel
  is still acceptable.
• No shelf life issues for product stability
• Can be used as LMO
• Easy to use and tolerant to abuse
• Low Metal Operation

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Deposit Composition

• Deposit contains only nickel, phosphorus, carbon
  and sulphur
• Carbon and sulphur contents are similar to
  conventional low medium phosphorus

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Deposit Composition
NiKlad 767 ppm NiKlad 767 ppm NiKlad ELV 835 ppm NiKlad ELV 835 ppm
MTOs Carbon Sulphur Carbon Sulphur
0 lt 200 173 lt 400 lt 50
6 lt 400 414 lt 200 561
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Experiences

• Stability
• Used in Anodically Protected Stainless Steel
• Polypropylene
• No issues, in fact opinion was in favour of
  superior stability over conventional systems and
  at least as good as the ELV systems

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NiKlad ELV 835- Speed
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NLV 835 - Speed

• Many customers can achieve over 1 mil/Hr
  (25ums/Hr), even when the bath is old
• It can be difficult to load the bath when plating
  this fast
• Customers are using 10 15 oF (6 9oC)lower
  temperature at nominally the same speed
• Saving energy over older chemistry

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Speed
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Gloss
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Gloss

• Brightness is slightly reduced when compared to
  conventional systems
• This is very true for a new bath
• Brightness is comparable to other ELV processes
• Brightness very consistent over the bath life
• Some customers like this consistency

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Stress
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Hardness
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Hardness

• The hardness and wear resistance is superior to
  medium phosphorus baths
• It is similar to conventional baths with similar
  phosphorus contents

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Wear
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Wear
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Corrosion Resistance

• The process performs to the same standard as 5
  7 phosphorus baths at customers
• Electrochemical testing shows similar results
  with medium and low medium phosphorus baths
• NSS testing gave gt 120 hours with a new solution
  and 1 mil plating

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Corrosion Resistance
96 Hours
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Corrosion Resistance
144 Hours
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NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience

• Effect of large additions
• Operation as an LMO
• Bath Loading
• Use of lower temperatures
• Activation of Substrates

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience

• Effect of large additions
• Bath is less sensitive to large additions than
  conventional chemistry
• Largest addition made was gt60 in a single
  addition
• Bath continued to plate with little or no
  negative effects

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience

• Operation as an LMO
• Ideal, due to low sensitivity to additions
• Operation as a LMO does not require controllers
• Bath Loading
• Bath functions in a wide range of bath loadings,
  from 0.01 to 1.5 ft2/gal (0.03 4.0 dm2/L)

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience

• Use of lower temperatures
• As stated earlier, due to the high speed it is
  possible to reduce the temperature and still
  obtain good rates
• Activation of Substrates
• Unlike some of the ELV compliant chemistries,
  activation is very fast

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience

• Bath Life
• The bath consumes hypophosphite at the same rate
  as a normal low medium phosphorus bath.
• Can be used to gt 8 MTOs
• Due to low stress and high speed useful life is
  greater than the older conventional systems
• Life on aluminum is at least as good as the older
  conventional systems
• 6 MTOs on 7075 alloy with no strike

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Operational Experience

• Pretreatment
• Good pretreatment is critical for these processes
• Can drag in organics reducing the effectiveness
  of the stabilisers
• It does not smooth over smut as effectively as a
  cadmium brightened bath
• You cannot easily activate copper and brass using
  palladium

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NiKlad ELV 835 - Summary

• The use of non metallic stabilisers as a viable
  alternative to the traditional metallic systems
  is now production proven
• These baths have few disadvantages and many
  advantages including
• Speed
• Energy Efficiency
• Product Stability
• Future Proofing