Fault
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Possible cause
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Corrective action
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No plating at all.
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Electricity not flowing in the plating circuit indicated by a red light at the bottom of the display on the MultiPlater. |
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Check all electrical contacts and clean if necessary. |
No plating. Item looks damaged on removal from plating process.
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Leads connected wrongly. |
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Check that the black connection from the MultiPlater is connected to the work piece and the red connection to the Beaker Ring. |
Plating dull or matt
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Plating on to porous surface
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Polish the article you are trying to plate. |
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Lack of Silver Tank Brightener HS |
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Add 1ml of Silver Tank Plating Brightener per litre of plating solution (to maximum 5ml per litre) until brightness is restored. |
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Temperature too low.
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Increase temperature to within operating range (see Tech Specs). |
Low conductivity. |
Check the plating circuit for electrical faults. |
Organic contamination. |
Treat with Carbon Powder (see shop). |
Burnt deposit especially on corners and edges. Powdery in extreme cases
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Amp setting too high.
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Decrease the amp setting. |
Article too close to the anode. |
Move the item in the beaker or rearrange the anodes.
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Too little agitation. |
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Increase agitation.
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Temperature too low. |
Increase temperature to within operating range. |
Incorrect estimation of surface area |
Recheck area calculation and use Silver Tank HS Calculator. |
Plating but not to correct thickness.
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Incorrect amp or time settings. |
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The vast majority of failures to plate to thickness are due to
wrong estimation of surface area. Double check your estimation of surface area
paying special attention to the units which should be in square centimetres.
Then input this together with your desired thickness into our online Silver Tank
HS Calculator. |
Plating hazy solution turning a yellow shade
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Silver electrodes worn beyond limit. |
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Check electrodes and renew. |
Deposit bright but rough.
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Particulate contamination especially in small installations without continuous filtration. |
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Filter solution into a clean beaker/container or consider using
a filter pump intermittently or continually for convenience. |
Pitting of deposit.
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Particulate matter in solution. |
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Filter as outlined above. |
Grease or oil contamination in solution. |
Treat with Carbon Powder as above. |
Micropores on underlying surface. |
Cut back (linishing/grinding) and polish. |
Un-plated areas.
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Improper cleaning. |
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Check cleaning cycle especially for water breaks (see Online Manual) |
Surface porous or deeply scratch brushed. |
Polish our the pores. It is not advisable to plate onto deeply
scratch-brushed surfaces due the the cavities at the bottom of the scratch
retaining contaminants such as oils and other debris. |
Trying to plate a difficult-to-plate metal like stainless or
Inconel. |
Look under the Process Sequences tab for more information on
preparing different substrates. |
Vertical tide marks especially evident on thin, flat articles when using a
stirrer for solution agitation.
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Coalescence of gas bubbles forming around the eddies produced
by the stirring action of the stirrer. |
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Consider using a stirrer with reversing action in order to make
the agitation more turbulent. If only plating for a short period, consider
agitating the article by hand in a way as not to produce permanent eddies. |
Plating blistering/bubbling up most commonly seen when plating on reactive
metals such as aluminium or zinc.
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Inclusions in basis metal which have trapped
acidic/alkaline components of the process solutions. The inclusions have been
plated over and the basis metal has reacted with the retained solution producing small amounts of hydrogen. Because this cannot escape it causes the plate to blister or bubble up. |
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Abrade and/or polish out the inclusions. In some cases of deep
inclusions, you may risk distorting the profile of the article. |
Deposit peels from basis metal.
In the case of multi-plated layers, check which layer is failing. This can be done a lot more easily if the base metal or plated layers are of different colour: for example, copper plated over brass then silver plated.
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Improper cleaning or surface preparation. |
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Check the cleaning cycle for the metal. |
Trying to plate a difficult-to-plate metal like stainless or Inconel. |
Look under the Process Sequences tab for more information on
preparing different substrates. |
Plated a too thick layer of silver. Silver plated from Silver Tank Plating Solution HS is of low – medium stress. Plating much over 10 microns can result in stress cracking and in extreme cases, peeling. |
Reduce the thickness of silver plated. Consult our online Silver
Tank Plating Calculator for recommended amp and time settings for your work. |