Medical Device Gold Plating | Electroplating Solutions

Various stents can call for Gold plating to facilitate radiopacity, especially in specific micro-features that traditional marker bands were once impossible or very difficult to install. Examples of different stents manufacturing that can require radiolucency are laser slotted hypotubes, super-elastic or shape-memory Nitinol, athermal laser machining, wire braiding or knitting, laser sheet cutting, and laser tube cutting of medical stents. ProPlate® has pioneered an electroplating innovation, Vizi-Band®, for coating RO markers on a diverse assortment of medical stents. 

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Manufacturing pacemakers to help regulate a patient&#;s heart requires the utilization of Gold plating for specific components for many of the benefits listed in the previous section, such as electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance.

Gold plating&#;s attractive appearance, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility make it an excellent finish for dental and orthodontic components. ProPlate® regularly electroplates dental brackets and archwires with Gold for customers and has custom processes to maintain quality standards of aesthetics and performance for its dental and orthodontics manufacturing customers. Gold plating medical devices and dental implants can be helpful where minimizing the risk of infection or toxic reaction to the patient are critical.

Gold plating is often used in the production of high-tech lasers, including medical lasers that can be used for imaging and even closing wounds through cauterization. Battery casing is another application for Gold electroplating. For example, ProPlate® developed a selective plating process for an insulin pump battery casing for a large medical device OEM. The need for Gold plating the battery casing was for corrosion resistance. Palladium and Nickel under layers were plated before the Gold final layer. The solution developed by ProPlate® reduced the overall cost of plating by 40%, compared to the previous plating supplier, and provided a production environment to meet quantity demands.

The joining of dissimilar materials is also made possible through Gold plating. Another example of an innovation pioneered by ProPlate® is Nitinol fused to dissimilar materials, such as stainless steel. Ni-Ti and stainless steel are very difficult to weld together due to Nitinol oxidizing naturally, making it not adhere properly. If micro-welded without the addition of plating, they can have poor tensile strength. Through electroplating both ends of each material with Gold (SS and Nickel-Titanium), the materials can be successfully welded or soldered together. This is possible because ProPlate® has developed processes to electroplate both materials, and Gold is an excellent metal for solderability. This can grant substantial cost savings to make a component with less Nitinol because of its high cost.

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Medical braided catheters and guidewires can also benefit from Gold electroplating. As mentioned before, Gold is biocompatible and a dense radiopaque metal. ProPlate® has developed a proprietary process named, Vizi-Band®, which allows medical device manufacturers to accurately coat customized RO markers onto these components. Catheter braids with complex geometries can have a marker coated directly to them without crimping, and because it is atomically bonded, there is no risk for marker dislodgment. Also, guidewire bright tips can be Gold plated on for radiopacity where it is difficult for traditional markers to be installed. The more complex the geometry of a component, the more difficult or impossible it is for traditional markers to be installed, and with the need for miniaturization of microcatheters coatings, a marker band can allow for a lower profile compared to a machined band. Medical suture rings used for arterial, femoral, and venous cannulae introduction can require a radiopaque coating of Gold.

Gold plating of plastics has many medical device component applications as well. ProPlate® has developed a proprietary process for electroplating polymers selectively that meets the stringent toxicity and biocompatibility requirements. Traditional plating on plastic processes requires toxic chromic acid etches to get adhesion to the substrate. However, through Meta-Poly®, selective metal coating onto polymers, ProPlate® can successfully adhere metal to plastic without toxic etchants. This Gold plating on polymer substrates can be used for radiopaque markers in catheter devices like extruded tubing, balloon catheters, stents, and catheter tips. It can also be used for electrical circuits through plating selectively and creating current-conducting paths onto a polymer.

Gold metal plating is required to manufacture medical contacts for electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance. One example of an application for Gold plating in which ProPlate® helped a manufacturer cut costs and maintain high-quality standards was for hearing aid battery contacts. The fabrication of the battery contacts was performed through progressive die stamping of beryllium copper, which would be Nickel-plated before Gold. Due to the small and fragile nature of the contact, and the damage caused by barrel plating techniques, ProPlate® suggested &#;rack plating&#; for the contacts and had the OEM change the stamp to a strip. With a custom fabricated rack, the parts were Gold plated at high volumes without damaging them, which gave them the electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance they needed while saving the supplier defect and damage costs of the battery contacts.

Thoracotomy surgical instrument handles such as scissors, tweezers, graspers, forceps, and needle holders can require medical-grade Gold plating for identification purposes. The Gold plating function also adds corrosion resistance and an aesthetic appeal while remaining bio-compatible.

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