What are the future development trends of the electroplating industry under the epidemic?

During the Spring Festival, which was originally the period with the lowest economic production capacity in China

During the Spring Festival, which was originally the period with the lowest economic production capacity in China, most of the inventory consumed was from before the year. The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus undoubtedly makes the economy worse. Not to mention the manufacturing industry, last year's trade war has left many companies on the brink of death. Now that the epidemic is becoming increasingly severe, companies are delaying resumption of work, and the losses incurred must have made many companies anxious.
Nowadays, many companies are no longer considering whether to make money or not, but whether to make less loss or whether they can persist. As the backbone of the Chinese economy, small and medium-sized enterprises ensure employment for over 80% of urban labor, and now they are struggling to survive under normal circumstances.
Under the cover of the nest, how can there be a complete egg? If the epidemic cannot be effectively contained during the resumption of work period in the future, a series of problems such as increased enterprise costs, delayed delivery, customer loss, and loan defaults will result in a domino effect, and practitioners will face even more severe unemployment risks.
Next, in addition to hoping that the central government will take certain mitigation measures, practitioners can also deeply consider the future development direction of the industry. We will start analyzing the future development trends of the electroplating industry under the epidemic.
The demand for high-end emerging markets is constantly growing. From a traditional perspective, the application areas of electroplating are mainly concentrated in the fields of machinery and light industry. With the advancement of electroplating technology and the growth of demand in other industries, electroplating technology has gradually developed towards industries such as electronics, microelectromechanical systems, and steel in recent years. This has higher requirements for electroplating, which has also promoted the development of the electroplating industry towards intensification and scale, and promoted continuous technological progress in the electroplating industry.
For example, the application of electroplating in the field of integrated circuits (ICs) is becoming increasingly widespread, and the requirements for copper interconnects are also increasing. The emergence of the dual Damascus process based on electroplating technology has solved the problem of copper interconnection and promoted the development of IC technology to this day. Currently, with the increasing demand for 3D chips, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and the Internet of Things, the electroplating industry will play a more prominent role in these new high-end fields in the future.
The industry is accelerating its upgrading and promoting continuous progress in process technology. The application prospects of the electroplating industry are still broad, but the hot areas have changed. With the increasingly stringent environmental policies, enterprises are facing a more severe situation of survival of the fittest, and the number of electroplating enterprises will decrease accordingly. However, the surviving enterprises will have stronger strength, and the overall output value and profit may not necessarily decrease. Advanced manufacturing will inevitably promote the development of advanced electroplating industry.
For example, the hardware electroplating industry is gradually moving towards high value-added fields, the market prospects for automotive functional and decorative electroplating are still bright, electronic electroplating is also maintaining continuous growth, and new environmentally friendly electroplating products are gradually becoming popular.
IoT technology drives the industry towards comprehensive digitization
Electroplating is a continuous production process, and digitalization is the necessary path for the industry to move towards modernization. The importance of big data in controlling the electroplating process is self-evident.
In electroplating production, the application of the Internet of Things can save labor costs, improve management efficiency, and record real-time data of various processes including current density, temperature, pH, stirring, electroplating time, power waveform, etc., replacing employees' meter reading and job inspection. Through IoT technology, users can obtain production data to guide the electroplating process from rough control to precise control, and display the real-time status of electroplating production equipment, production process, electroplating solution, and production process in the form of simulated animations and flowcharts. At the same time, real-time images can accurately grasp the on-site production status in a timely manner. Further adjust the production process and optimize manufacturing costs.
New environmentally friendly processes continue to become a hot spot in the electroplating market competition
At the end of 2019, China's Economic and Trade Commission formulated regulations to phase out cyanide electroplating within a specified period of time. The European Union has also proposed the Vehicle Scrap Regulation (ELVD), which stipulates that each car contains less than 2g of Cr6+. Its purpose is to protect the increasingly polluted human living environment and safeguard the sustainable development of the global economy.
As is well known, the pollution in the electroplating industry is mainly caused by heavy metal ions, especially hexavalent chromium, which is a serious source of pollution. Countries around the world have successively carried out work to replace hexavalent chromium.
At present, there are three main types of hexavalent chromium electroplating technologies that are widely researched and applied: one is low-cost chromium (i.e. trivalent chromium) electroplating technology; The second is the alloy chromium plating technology; The third is the technology of composite electroplating coating to replace chromium.
Although trivalent chromium electroplating technology has become relatively mature and has largely replaced hexavalent chromium electroplating. However, the thickness of the trivalent chromium plating layer currently used in production cannot exceed 3 μ and can only be used for decorative chrome plating; The coating has a black light and a slight blue color without a hexavalent chromium layer; Due to the multivalent nature of chromium, Cr3+in the plating solution is easily oxidized during the production process, leading to the production of Cr6+and poisoning of the plating solution. Therefore, stability needs to be improved; The plating solution is sensitive to impurities and requires strict management and maintenance. It is necessary to use specialized anodes, which results in high production costs.
The above drawbacks limit its large-scale promotion and application. Moreover, the trivalent chromium electroplating process has not completely eliminated chromium pollution. From the perspective of sustainable development, trivalent chromium electroplating technology is only a transitional technology and will gradually be phased out.
The era of 5G intelligence places higher demands on industry technology
With the advent of the intelligent era, electronic products are becoming increasingly lightweight and miniaturized, and the application of portable electronic products is becoming more and more widespread, including wearable electronic products and various micro products with built-in chips. This has also posed many new challenges for modern manufacturing, requiring new technological support for everything from materials to surface treatment.
The development of 5G technology has driven hardware development, and the metallization of dielectric materials, signal integrity of interconnect lines, and welding reliability in high-frequency, high-speed, and highly integrated application scenarios have increasingly important impacts on surface engineering technology and electronic electroplating technology.
Electroplating simulation technology brings higher cost-effectiveness. Nowadays, the industry's quality requirements for industrial products are becoming increasingly stringent, and the exploration of new processes is becoming more urgent. However, currently domestic electroplating products face common technical challenges in the design, research and development, and production processes. For example, in the optimization design of production lines, the design of hanging fixtures, the use of auxiliary tools (auxiliary anodes, auxiliary cathodes, and electric field shielding), and the setting of process parameters, it still relies on experience and trial production to correct errors, which has a certain degree of blindness and can cause great waste of resources.
Electroplating simulation software can greatly alleviate these problems by introducing computer simulation technology into the design of electroplating processes, fixtures, and product structures at various stages. This technology has been widely applied in many countries in Europe and North America, and has brought significant economic benefits. The application of this technology in our country still needs to be developed.
Nanotechnology will bring new processes and performance coatings
More and more people in the industry are paying attention to the application of nanotechnology in the fields of electroplating and coating. When the diameter of material particles drops to the nanometer level, the number of atoms on the particle surface will increase, and the particle surface will have unsaturation, which is easy to combine with other atoms and stabilize, showing great activity.
Nanoparticles also exhibit many specific physical and chemical properties, for example, electrodes several nanometers long can increase the operating speed of chips by tens of thousands of times; Metals made from nanomaterials have a strength that is more than ten times higher than ordinary metals, and they are as elastic as rubber; Nanoceramics retain the high temperature resistance and high strength characteristics of ceramics while exhibiting plasticity. In short, people have high expectations for nanotechnology. It has high hardness, strong corrosion resistance, and good wear resistance, making it suitable for industries such as environmental protection, national defense, aviation, automotive, and nuclear industry.
The cyanide free process has a long way to go. In addition to the hexavalent chromium pollution problem mentioned in the previous article, cyanide, as a ligand in the coordination compound electroplating solution, is also an important raw material in the electroplating industry. However, it is highly toxic and also one of the main sources of pollution.
The comprehensive promotion and use of cyanide free processes is the main means to solve the problem. In this context, new electroplating additives or intermediates are gradually entering the market, effectively improving the quality of cyanide free processes and making new progress in previously difficult cyanide free processes such as alkaline cyanide free copper plating.
At present, the most mature cyanide free processes include cyanide free zinc plating and cyanide free copper plating, and other cyanide free electroplating processes such as zinc copper alloy are also under development. I believe that in the near future, mature cyanide free processes will gradually replace traditional high pollution cyanide containing processes.
Composite surface engineering technology meets more complex needs. Currently, a single surface treatment technology is far from meeting market demand. The clever combination of multiple processes brings a new look to surface engineering technology, such as composite surface engineering technology, including the combination of metal and non-metal coatings, chemical plating and electroplating, physical plating and electroplating, electroplating and oxidation or conversion film, and multi-layer electroplating.
The key factors that determine the overall development of the electroplating industry include processes, equipment, and management. It is believed that with the overall development of the manufacturing industry and the increase in external exchanges, the electroplating industry will achieve better development and progress, and the impact of the epidemic will soon pass.