Abstract
Abstract
Electroplating process energy and material costs are very important considerations in product manufacturing. The most important plating criteria, however, are quality and plated uniformity of the deposited metals. Simulation tools can help to obtain better plating results. New plating simulation tools are now available that will run on PC/Windows computers and can point the way to optimizing many common electroplating processes. Software packages are available that are versatile and user friendly. These tools have been designed to optimize electroplating cells and racks. An accurate analysis is required to determine the distribution of deposited thickness, current densities and electrode potentials. A good plating simulation tool can help an engineering team find the most reliable rack configuration based on the geometrical description of the rack, the parts to be plated and from calculation of the electrochemical properties of the process being studied.