Appeal No. 2006-1079
Application No. 10/139,085
Background
Immersion plating, also known as displacement plating, is a type of electroless
plating, i.e., it does not employ an external electric current as in an electroplating process.
A known problem with immersion silver plating is that the resulting silver deposit is
typically poorly adherent as compared to silver deposited by electroplating or
conventional electroless plating. In conventional electrolytic and/or electroless silver
plating processes, the substrate to be silver plated is typically pretreated with an agent to
prevent immersion or displacement plating of silver during the electrolytic or electroless
silver plating, or else poorly adherent silver deposits may be obtained. Id. at page 2,
lines 3-6.
The present invention relates to a process which is said to improve the adhesion of
immersion deposited silver to a metal that is less electropositive than silver. The method
is also said to reduce tarnish in the immersion deposited layer of silver. The process
involves treating the metal with an azole compound, one or more chelating agents and
water prior to the immersion deposition of silver.
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