What comes to your mind first when you hear the term Gold? Do you recall the necklace you bought for your wife last year or the gold-plated car you put your money on months ago? Though we can’t be confident about your thoughts on this, we are sure that gold is not just suitable for fancy materials. Apart from coming in handy for decoration purposes, it also possesses some functional properties. For instance, most of the electronics we use today contain a little bit or more gold, for sure. Since you might wonder what the use of gold in electronic components is, we have come up with relevant details here. There are instances when circuit boards of your electronic devices come across the issue that requires gold plating. A case in point is the solder contaminated contacts or contacts that fail to meet the “minimum thickness requirement” for the proper functioning of the PCB. In that case, you must get a gold plating kit from a trusted electronic component supplier and apply a thick layer of gold on such contacts.
Are you wondering how it will help you resolve the PCB’s issue? Since printed circuit boards assembled in various mobile phones, tablets, and laptops are likely to face intense heat due to high usage, making the contacts thicker using gold plating techniques increases their resistance to heat to a great extent. It ensures that the circuit boards of your electronic devices don’t develop electricity conductivity issues after the contacts got coated with gold, resulting in flawless functioning and long life of your product. Thus, it is the main reason every PCB manufacturer or repairer must get gold plating kit from the leading electronics ecommerce site to perform PCB-related tasks perfectly.
If you still need some more reasons to get a gold plating kit then in that case, we must tell you that gold is a robust material that protects the PCB components from heat, corrosion, and wear and tear and establishes an interrupted electrical connection in the circuit boards.
With that discussed, now it’s time to dive into the technical details of gold plating. So, let’s see:
What is Gold Plating?
In simple terms, you can understand that Gold Plating is an electro-deposition process that involves using electric current to apply the gold coating on desired surfaces, usually metals. This process of depositing gold on PCB contacts, is known as Electroplating. Aside from this, another way to add multiple layers of gold on different materials, is known as Immersion Plating. The only difference between electroplating and immersion plating is that the former requires electricity usage while the latter doesn’t.
Now that you know the technical definition of gold plating, it’s time to paint an overall picture of:
How does the Gold Plating process work?
There is no doubt that the “Gold Plating Kit” is a must-have item for every PCB manufacturer and repairer out there. However, if you don’t know how the entire process of gold plating works, we are here to explain that to you.
Before anything, you need to connect the gold to the anode of the electrical circuit to coat the desired item using the electro-deposition method. If you don’t know about anode, it is the positively charged electrode required for gold plating.
Once you have done that, you need to connect the substrate to the cathode. Here, the substrate is the surface on which you want to deposit the gold, and the cathode is the negatively charged electrode. After you have done that, immerse both the materials in an electrolytic solution.
After this step, you need to supply direct current to the anode to oxidize the gold’s metal atoms, then dissolve them in the pre-mentioned solution. Just after doing this, you will notice that the dissolved ions have got reduced at the cathode. Once that happens, they will get deposited onto the substrate, i.e., the underlying substance for gold deposition. This way, your gold plating process will get completed, and you will effortlessly get a gold-plated component. Now let’s see:
What items do you get in the Best Gold Contact Plating Kit?
- Variable power supply between 3 to 9 Volts
- Nickel pen for plating over copper materials before gold coating
- Absorbent pen for cleaning the metal surfaces on which you want to perform gold plating
- 24K gold plating pen for re-plating the gold contacts when needed
- Cerium oxide 2.5oz vile for polishing purposes
- A tape roll to confirm the plating adhesion
What are some unique properties of Gold Plating?
- It is resistant to corrosion
- It protects your components from high heat
- It offers a superb reflection to UV radiation
- It helps expand the connection area
- It offers resistance to the usual wear and tear of materials
Final words
We hope you now know what gold plating is, why electronic manufacturers and repairers need gold plating kits and the benefits of gold plating. So, if you want to buy one or more gold plating kits now, please reach out to the best electronic component merchant on the internet.
