Press release -
AURUNA® hard gold electrolytes: Optimized layer thickness distribution brings cost advantages in times of high precious metal prices
The price of gold has nearly doubled in the past two years, presenting the industry with new economic challenges. In times of such high precious metal prices, cost-saving solutions for material efficiency and process optimization are becoming increasingly important. Umicore Metal Deposition Solutions (MDS) offers proven processes for coating technical components with the hard gold electrolytes AURUNA® 526 and AURUNA® 527. These are technically and commercially impressive thanks to their excellent depth dispersion and uniform layer thickness distribution.
Umicore MDS has developed the weakly acidic gold-cobalt electrolyte AURUNA® 526 and the gold-nickel electrolyte AURUNA® 527, hard gold electrolytes specifically for small parts mass coating in barrel plating and vibration coating systems. Despite the varying current density conditions typical of these coating methods, these electrolytes allow a uniformly distributed gold layer of the desired thickness to be deposited on individual components. Conventional solutions often have difficulty achieving uniform gold deposition on exposed areas and in recesses or cavities, especially in complex geometries such as plug contacts or contact sockets.
The two AURUNA® hard gold electrolytes ensure a balanced layer thickness ratio and thus a uniform minimum layer thickness at all relevant measuring points. This is based on the increased deposition rate at low current densities and the significantly reduced deposition rate at high current densities. This significantly reduces the overcoating typical of standard electrolytes and the associated unnecessary consumption of gold – an advantage that is particularly noticeable at internal measuring points of sleeves or sockets.
As is customary with high-quality hard gold electrolytes, the layers deposited from them are abrasion-resistant and meet the highest requirements for corrosion protection and low contact resistance for reliable contact applications. In internal measurement series, the contact resistance is 3.33 mOhm for AURUNA® 526 and 3.26 mOhm for AURUNA® 527 (at 50 cN), which is characteristic for hard gold layers. The coated components can therefore also be used in demanding areas such as defense technology, as they comply with ASTM standard B 488-01, Type I, Code C. This is due to a high fineness of ~99.8% and a hardness of ~150 HV, which ensure reliable functionality and durability.
"In these difficult economic times, our AURUNA® processes offer interested parties a simple way to optimize their cost structure and thus remain competitive," says Benjamin Wieser, Division Manager for Technical Applications Precious Metals at Umicore MDS, explaining the significant increase in demand for these hard gold electrolytes.
Another reason for the high demand is that both electrolytes do not place any unusual requirements on the process landscape and can be quickly implemented in any plating line. They have a wide operating window, stable long-term behavior and simple process control.
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About Umicore Metal Deposition Solutions
Umicore's Business Unit Metal Deposition Solutions (MDS) is part of Umicore Group. The business unit harbors two business lines Electroplating and Thin Film Products. MDS is one of the world's leading suppliers of products for (precious) metal-based coating of surfaces in the nano and micrometer range – with the expertise of the two areas, we combine the two highest-quality processes: electroplating and PVD coatings.
MDS's solutions are used in many products for everyday use, and in some cases their production would not be possible without them. Almost all well-known manufacturers in the electronics, automotive, optics and jewellery industries purchase components that have been coated with our Umicore products, either directly or indirectly.
In addition to development and production, Metal Deposition Solutions offers a comprehensive service for its products. This includes not only advice and technical support on site, but also recycling and precious metal management.
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