Fabrication Traveler: Route Cards and Process Sign-Off A fabrication traveler is the document that moves with a lot of panels through the shop, and it names every operation in sequence with a place to record the result. It is called a route card, a job card or a process sheet…

Insoluble Anodes: Coating, Contact and Service Life An insoluble anode is an anode that supplies current without dissolving into the bath, and it is used where the metal being plated comes from a chemical addition rather than from the anode itself. Titanium is the usual substrate, coated with a mixed…

Desoldering Braid: Removal Control in Rework Desoldering braid is a flat woven strip of fine copper that is pressed onto a joint with a soldering iron, and it removes the solder by capillary action. It is the simplest way to clear a pad or a through hole, and it is…

Dummy Plating: Bath Purification and Rebalance Dummy plating is the deliberate plating of a blank cathode to strip metallic contamination out of a working bath. The dummy is plated at a low current density, so impurities that plate more readily than the metal being deposited are removed onto a surface…

Make-Up Water: Design Rules and Process Limits Make-up water is the water used to build a new plating bath or to bring an existing one back to volume, and its purity is part of the formulation whether or not the process sheet says so. A bath made with clean water…

Plating Ampere-Hour Tracking: Charge and Bath Life An ampere-hour is one amp flowing for one hour, and on a plating line the total charge passed through a tank is the best available measure of how much work the bath has done. It is independent of the product mix, it can…

Plating Bath Level: Evaporation, Top-Up and Water Balance Bath level is one of the simplest numbers on a plating line and one of the most informative, because it moves whenever the tank gains or loses water. Evaporation, drag-out and the top-up water added to replace them all appear as a…

Silane Treatment Before Lamination: Adhesion Control Silane treatment is the adhesion promotion step applied to inner layer copper when a conventional oxide is not wanted, and it replaces a thick brittle oxide with a thin coupling layer. The surface still has to bond to the prepreg, and it has to…

Acid Pickling Before Plating: Strength, Time and Rinse Acid pickling is the short acid dip that precedes plating, and its job is to remove the oxide, the scale and the smut that stand between the copper surface and a sound deposit. It is a cleaning step, but it is also…

Plating Drag-Out: Carryover, Recovery and Rinse Load Plating drag-out is the film of process solution that leaves a tank on the panel, the rack or the barrel and is carried into the next stage. It is the largest uncontrolled loss on most plating lines, and it is also the main…