Tin Plating (General)

Varland has two types of tin plating finishes that can meet your barrel tin plating needs:

Matte stannate tin plating
Bright acid tin plating

In some cases, plating specifications are not specific regarding the type of tin plating that can applied to parts. In other cases, plating specifications explicitly require that one of these two finishes be applied. No matter what your barrel tin plating requirements are, we can help. A more detailed description of our tin plating capabilities can be found below.

The beneficial properties of tin include:

Excellent solderability (especially with a copper base coat)
Excellent electrical conductivity
Excellent ductility and lubricity
Corrosion protection (at sufficient thicknesses)

Matte Stannate Tin Plating

As the name suggests, a matte stannate tin deposit has a matte (non-bright) finish. The advantage of this type of bath chemistry is that the deposited tin is in a very pure form due to the absence of organics in the plating bath. Because of this, if the ultimate in solderability is required, matte stannate tin is the (tin) plating of choice. Typically, a copper base coat is required if part solderability is a requirement. Matte stannate tin plating has excellent plating coverage ability and excellent ductility. At sufficient thicknesses, especially if copper is added as a base coat, matte stannate tin will provide some corrosion protection when plated over steel parts.

Bright Acid Tin Plating

Due to type of plating bath chemistry used for bright acid tin, these deposits are brighter than matte stannate tin. This is one advantage bright acid tin plating has over matte stannate tin. Bright acid tin is used to help prevent the galling of base metals in high friction applications, and due its anti-corrosion properties is suitable for indoor environments where a versatile, bright finish is desired.

Tin Plating Capabilities

Varland Metal Service has extensive capabilities and advantages when it comes to barrel tin plating. We have the ability to tin plate over ferrous alloys including low and high carbon steels (including heat treated/case hardened steels), stainless steel, etc. We also have years of experience matte stannate tin plating on copper alloys including brass, copper, and phosphorous bronze.

Excellent Adhesion
Our experience combined with our computerized process control allows us to tin plate with extremely high reliability and quality. Our barrel tin plating processes provide excellent adhesion and have the ability to pass even the toughest adhesion tests.
Delicate & Threaded Parts
Our plating process control and engineered material handling solutions allow us to barrel plate externally threaded and dimensionally-critical parts with excellent success.

Note: to achieve good results, raw parts must be properly engineered to allow for plating build-up

Contact Varland today to find out more about our tin plating capabilities and how we can help you with your tin plating needs.