JP3158902B2 - Plating container and electroless plating method using it - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plating container and an electroless plating method using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Electroless plating is mainly used for forming a plating film on non-conductive materials such as ceramics and plastics. Conventionally, electroless plating includes a method using a jig for fixing an object to be plated and a method using a barrel.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are sectional views showing a method of using a fixing jig. The fixing jig 4a shown in FIG. 2A fixes the object 3 to be plated between the partition frames 41a, immerses the object 3 and the fixing jig 4a in a plating solution 5, and applies a plating film to the object 3. To form

A fixing jig 4b shown in FIG. 2 (b) is fixed by inserting fixing pins 41b of the fixing jig 4b into pin insertion holes (not shown) of the object 3 to be plated. The tool 4b is immersed in the plating solution 5 to form a plating film on the workpiece 3. In order to uniformly form a plating film on the surface of the workpiece 3, these fixing jigs 4a and 4b
The plating solution 5 is spread as uniformly as possible over the entire surface of the plating object 3 by a method such as shaking in the inside.

In the method using the fixing jig described above,
It has the following disadvantages. A plating film is not formed at a portion where the fixing jig contacts the object to be plated, or the thickness of the plating film becomes thin even if it is formed. In order to avoid such a problem, a complicated fixing jig is required. In the method using the fixing pins 41b shown in FIG. 2B, there is also a method of improving the turning around of the plating solution by performing processing such as providing a pin insertion hole in the object to be plated. If the pin insertion hole is machined, a defective plating portion will be locally generated.

Further, when plating with a film thickness exceeding 10 μm is performed, projection-like plating defects having a size of 25 to 50 μm occur in the plating film. Further, the gas generated by the plating reaction adheres to the object to be plated as bubbles, and the adhered portion becomes a depression without depositing a plating film. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a good plating film in order to form a plating film having a large thickness. The occurrence of such plating defects becomes remarkable as the film thickness increases.

[0007] In order to solve the above problems, there is a method of applying rotary barrel plating. FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a hexagonal horizontal rotary barrel, and FIG. 3B is an explanatory view of a method of performing electroless plating by rotating the barrel.

In this barrel plating, an object to be plated is stored in a hexagonal barrel 2 having an empty space therein, and the barrel 2 is immersed in a plating solution 5 and rotated horizontally as shown by an arrow a. After the plating is completed, the plating is taken out of the plating solution 5 as shown by an arrow b. Although not shown, a large number of holes are provided around the barrel 5 to improve the fluidity of the plating solution 5 and to allow the plating object stored in the barrel 2 to be exposed to the outside. It is sized so that it does not come out.

[0009]

However, since the barrel 2 rotates in a predetermined direction, the gap between the barrel 2 main body and the lid (not shown) of the opening of the barrel 2 through which the object to be plated is taken in and out is plated. There is a problem that the object is sandwiched and is not plated, or the object to be plated stays at the corner of the inner wall of the barrel 2 and is not plated.

In addition, the object to be plated is put into the barrel 2,
At the time of removal, the object to be plated hit the barrel 2 and the object to be plated was missing. In order to prevent this, it was considered to carry out charging and discharging in water, but it was extremely difficult due to significant remodeling of the manufacturing equipment and changes in the manufacturing process.

[0011] An object of the present invention is to provide an electroless plating method in which a plating object is prevented from being chipped when a plating object is put into and taken out of the barrel, and the plating object remains in the barrel. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electroless plating container capable of performing a plating process without an object to be plated staying at a corner of an inner wall of a barrel, and an electroless plating method using the same.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plating container for accommodating an object to be plated therein and loaded in a plating barrel, wherein the plating container is formed of a net-like bag. It is a plating container.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the net-like bag is a plating container whose surface is coated with a plating-resistant material.

[0014] The invention according to claim 3 is a plating container in which the plating-resistant material is vinyl chloride.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plating container wherein the opening ratio of the mesh bag is 60% or more.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a plating container comprising a net-like bag containing an object to be plated is loaded into a plating barrel, and the plating barrel is immersed in an electroless plating solution.
This is an electroless plating method in which a plating barrel is rotated to form an electroless plating film on the surface of an object to be plated.

The reason why the opening ratio of the net-like bag is set to 60% or more is that when the opening ratio is less than 60%, the plating solution is not sufficiently exchanged between the inside and outside of the plating container during the plating process, and This is because the concentration of the plating solution is different between the inside and the outside, and the thickness of the plating film varies. The upper limit of the opening ratio is preferably as large as possible, but is determined by the size of the opening in which the object to be plated is held in the plating container.

[0018]

According to the plating container of the present invention, the object to be plated moves freely in the plating container. Further, since the object to be plated is placed in the bag-shaped plating container, it is possible to prevent the object to be plated from being chipped by being charged into or taken out of the barrel.

According to the electroless plating method of the present invention, the object to be plated moves freely in the plating container, and the object to be plated does not stay at the corners of the inner wall of the barrel. Can be eliminated. Further, since the plating container has an appropriate opening ratio, the plating solution flows through the opening of the plating container, and a uniform plating film is formed on the surface of the object to be plated. Moreover, since the object to be plated is placed in the bag, the object to be plated can be easily replaced.

[0020]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. About the part equivalent to the above-mentioned conventional technology,
The description is given with the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a plating container. The plating container 1 has a mesh shape (not shown in the drawing in a mesh shape), and has an opening 1a for loading and unloading the object 3 to be plated, and a lid 1b for closing the opening 1a. Although the plating container 1 is shown in a cylindrical shape, the barrel 2
This shows a state in which the barrel 2 is rotating while the barrel 2 is rotating, and does not usually have such a shape when the barrel 2 is stationary.

The plating container 1 is formed into a net-like cloth (having a cloth opening ratio of 60% or more) by using a fiber (a wire diameter of 0.7 mm) coated with vinyl chloride on a polyester fiber so that a plating film does not adhere. Then, the dough is sewn in a bag shape so as to fit inside the barrel and form a self-supporting cylindrical shape along the barrel when the barrel is rotated. When the plating container 1 is used for the barrel 2 shown in FIG.
The size that fits in the barrel 2 and the height h of the barrel 2
The height dimension h2 of the barrel container 1 is 90% of h1 with respect to 1.
The length is set to be slightly shorter than the length L2 of the barrel container 1 with respect to the length L1 of the barrel size 2.

FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view of the barrel and the plating container showing a state in the barrel when the plating container is put in the barrel and the barrel is rotating. Plating container 1
Then, the object to be plated 3 is charged, the plating container 1 is charged into the barrel 2, and when the barrel 2 rotates, the plating container 1 also becomes independent along the barrel 2, and rotates along with the rotation of the barrel 2. Also rotate. Therefore, the object 3 to be plated therein also moves with the rotation of the plating container 1.

When electroless barrel plating is performed using this plating container, the chipping of the object to be plated is reduced by 90% as compared with the conventional plating, and the object to be plated is extremely thin or has no plating film. Was greatly reduced.

[0025]

According to the plating container of the present invention, the object to be plated moves in the plating container, the object to be plated does not stay at the corner of the inner wall in the barrel, and the plating film thickness is prevented from being varied. Can be. In addition, since an object to be plated is placed in a bag-shaped plating container and is charged into and taken out of the barrel, the impact between the object to be plated and the barrel can be prevented, and chipping of the object to be plated can be reduced. Furthermore, when the object to be plated is replaced, the object to be plated can be put into and taken out of the container at a time. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the object to be plated from remaining in the barrel and to prevent the mixing of different types.

Further, according to the electroless plating method of the present invention, the object to be plated moves in the plating container, and the variation in the plating film thickness can be reduced. In addition, since the object to be plated is placed in the plating container, it is possible to prevent the object to be plated from being chipped by being put into or taken out of the barrel.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 (a) is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a plating container of the present invention, and FIG. 1 (b) shows a plating container when a plating container of the present invention is loaded in a barrel and the barrel is rotated. It is sectional drawing which shows the state of a to-be-plated object.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional jig for fixing electroless plating, wherein (a) shows a jig for fixing an object to be plated in a gap, (b)
Is a jig for inserting and fixing a pin to an object to be plated.

FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a hexagonal horizontal rotary barrel, and FIG. 3B is an explanatory view of a method of performing electroless plating by rotating the barrel.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plating container 2 Barrel 3 Plated object

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-61-94573 (JP, A) JP-A-5-171451 (JP, A) JP-A-2-228478 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int) .Cl. ⁷ , DB name) C23C 18/00-18/54

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plating container containing an object to be plated therein and loaded in a plating barrel, wherein the plating container comprises a net-like bag. 2. The plating container according to claim 1, wherein a surface of the net-like bag is coated with a plating-resistant material. 3. The plating container according to claim 2, wherein the plating-resistant material is vinyl chloride. 4. The plating container according to claim 1, wherein the mesh bag has an opening ratio of 60% or more. 5. A plating container comprising a net-like bag containing an object to be plated is loaded into a plating barrel, the plating barrel is immersed in an electroless plating solution, and the plating barrel is rotated by rotating the plating barrel. An electroless plating method comprising forming an electroless plating film on the surface of a product.