Sustainable High-Speed Hard Gold Plating

High-speed hard gold plating has long been standard practice in electroplating. However, this usually involves combining gold with alloy partners that are at least questionable.

Conventional hard gold alloys often contain cobalt or nickel. This brings increasingly complex tasks for environmental, health and safety (EHS) departments, as stricter regulatory measures regarding these metals are to be expected. Nevertheless, the use of hard gold alloys in technical areas remains indispensable.

Hard gold alloys remain indispensable for technical applications despite challenges

With AURUNA^® 8000, we have now developed a gold-iron high-speed electrolyte that demonstrates that sustainable hard gold plating in high-speed systems and for brush applications no longer requires any compromises. On the contrary: it is now possible to combine highest process speed, excellent plating quality, and metals that are safe in every way in a single hard gold process.

The electrolyte is therefore the ideal solution for companies that want to reconcile speed, quality, and sustainability.

The electolyte can easily handle the high current densities in high-speed systems and shows impressive long-term performance. As a result, AURUNA^® 8000 delivers low-porosity, exceptionally wear-resistant hard gold layers that are characterized by the following properties:

The plated components can also be used in demanding areas such as defense technology, as their purity and hardness, reliable functionality and durability enable them to meet the strict ASTM standard.

ASTM Standard B 488-01 Typ I, Code C

AURUNA^® 8000 fits seamlessly into the existing hard gold portfolio without replacing established systems. AURUNA^® 8100 (gold-cobalt) and AURUNA® 8400 (gold-nickel) remain fully available – many customers have been using them successfully for years in connectors, contact surfaces, precision electrical components and wherever reliability and performance are crucial.

Thanks to nearly identical process windows and handling, switching to AURUNA^® 8000 is easy. The use of AURUNA^® Inhibitor 2, which enables gold savings of up to 15% in selective applications by minimizing the run-off zone, is also still possible as an option.

Of course, users who have previously used competing products can also switch to this more sustainable process immediately – without having to fundamentally change existing process landscapes.