Abstract

Electroplating has, over recent decades, evolved from an art to an exact science. This development is seen as responsible for the ever-increasing number and widening types of applications of this branch of practical science and engineering. Some of the technological areas in which means and methods of electroplating constitute an essential component are all aspects of electronics: macro and micro, optics, opto-electronics, and sensors of most types, to name only a few. In addition a number of key industries such as the automobile industry (that uses, for example, chrome plating to enhance the corrosion resistance of metal parts) adopt the methods even where other methods, such as evaporation, sputtering, chemical vapor deposition (cvd) and the like are an option. That is so for reasons of economy and convenience. By way of illustration it should be noted that modern electroplating equips the practitioner with the ability to predesign the properties of surfaces and in the case of electroforming those of the whole part. Furthermore, the ability to deposit very thin multilayers (less than a millionth of a cm) via electroplating represents yet a new avenue of producing new materials.

A brief historical discussion, the process of electroplating, preparatory (cleaning) steps required, bath formulations, operation conditions as well as the properties of deposits are presented. Recent key changes in the electroplating industry receive special emphasis.