| Chemetall GmbH, Germany, a surface treatment specialist, has recently enhanced its proven Gardobond� CU process that is designed for currentless copper-plating and is particularly suitable for the manufacture of welding wire, mattress wire and tyre insert wire. The new Gardobond� CU 7602 is a liquid product for bath make-up and replenishment which does not require the traditional preliminary work associated with the use of granules, combined with a particularly accurate and economical automatic volume control. Granules or powders must be weighed, dissolved in sulphuric water and added manually for bath make-up and replenishment. There is little automation potential with these processes. Many customers dissolve the powders in water to replenish the bath automatically by means of a pump. With the manual procedure it is not easy to ensure sufficient freezing and thawing stability and to achieve an optimum balance between adequate copper concentration and economical bath make-up.
Users of Gardobond� CU 7602 are no longer concerned with all these issues. The product is supplied in an accurately specified liquid form. It can be handled safely and easily because its pH value is slightly in the alkaline range. In addition, it can be added to the sulphuric make-up water by a pump, without any further preliminary treatment. The copper plating results are comparable with those achieved with solid products. Latest findings even indicate that the useful life of the treated components is longer than normal. This is the result of the reduced dependency of the thickness of the copper layer on the iron ion concentration of the copper plating solution.
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