Abstract
The control of internal stress is extremely important in electroforming because of the deliberately low adhesion between the electro form and the mandrel. Excessive tensile or compressive stress can cause distortion, separation problem, curling, peeling or separation of electroform prematurely from the mandrel, buckling and blistering. Nickel sulfamate bath has been widely used in electroforming because of its low internal stress and moderate hardness. In this study, real-time stress sensor has been used for stress control in chloride-free nickel sulfamate bath for 400 mm x 300 mm x 500 ㎛ nickel electroform. It was found that compressive stress found at low current density indicated the contamination of electrolyte, which is very useful in procuring buckling and peeling of electroform. No compressive stress is allowed for plate electroform. The real-time stress can also be used for accurate stress control of nickel electroform. The tensile stress was found to be increased slightly with increase in nickel electroform thickness, i.e., from initial 1.47 ksi to 2.02 ksi at 320 ㎛.