Electrolytic Gold-plated Surface P-Flex® PI Samples Now Available

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Elephantech Inc. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Shinya Shimizu, hereinafter “Elephantech”) is pleased to announce that it has begun offering samples of P-Flex® PI with electrolytic gold plating surface treatment.

Elephantech mass-produces P-Flex®, a Flex PCB based on inkjet printing technology which has the advantages of low environmental impact, flexible prototyping and mass production, and high cost competitiveness. We have been offering two types of surface treatment for P-Flex®: electroless gold plating and antioxidant treatment. While the thin surface film thickness of electroless gold plating and antioxidant treatment can reduce production costs with regards to the recent rise in metal prices, they have the disadvantage of being inferior in wear resistance. In response to many customers’ requests, we are now offering samples of P-Flex® PI with electrolytic gold plating surface treatment.
While electroless gold plating requires a gold thickness of 0.03µm or more, electrolytic gold plating enables a thickness of 0.3µm or more, a 10-fold increase.
This is expected to improve the abrasion resistance of the gold plating layer when connectors are inserted and removed, and improve corrosion resistance by reducing exposure of the underlying nickel layer and copper foil.

P-Flex® specifications per surface treatment

We are constantly working on increasing our product lineup so that P-Flex® PI can be used by an ever increasing number of customers, so please feel free to contact our P-Flex Sales Department or our distributors for more information or clarification on upcoming products.
With a mission to “Making the world sustainable with new manufacturing technologies”, we spare no effort in our attempts to make any little contribution to the development of the electronics industry, and we are truly grateful for the continued support and interest we receive as none of this would be possible without it.