Amphenol is offering a new RoHS compliant plating alternative to Cadmium which is a conductive and non-reflective finish approved for 500 hours salt spray endurance and is being used in the defence industry.

Black Zinc Nickel plating is offered on a number of the supplier’s connectors and accessories including proprietary MIL-DTL-38999 and MIL-C-26482. 

Despite an exemption in RoHS legislation allowing the use of cadmium in military applications, for several years now manufacturers have sought to reduce its use but have had to accept compromised performance as a consequence.  

Amphenol has installed a processing line at their Whitstable facility to enable plating with black zinc nickel; a conductive and environmentally sound surface treatment.   

Electrically, the conductivity of black zinc nickel plating ensures shell-to-shell continuity of less than 2.5mΩ, and less than 5mΩ after 500hrs salt spray exposure as specified within MIL-DTL-38999. 

The supplier has also tested the black zinc nickel plating to show no significant galvanic reaction when mated to alternatively plated legacy product such as cadmium, zinc cobalt or electroless nickel.