™ electroformed barrels: there’s almost nothing to them !But fine pitch test probe barrels are just too delicate to be manhandled by machines like that. And it’s almost impossible to get good gold plating on the inside wall of a machined barrel when the diameters are so small.
e-barrel™ electroformed barrels are manufactured in a completely different way. These barrels are plated up on a thin stainless steel wire until the desired ID and OD of a barrel take shape. Then the stainless steel wire is extracted.
A typical e-barrel™ electroformed barrel has an OD of 0.1mm (.004”) and a wall thickness of 0.013mm (.0005”). The wall of the barrel is so thin, that there’s almost nothing to it. That’s a big deal in fine-pitch spring probe designs, because the internal compression springs need as much space as possible to deliver the desired forces and plunger travels.
Most of the plated material in an e-barrel™ electroformed barrel is nickel, but the first layer plated on the stainless steel wire is pure gold. When the stainless steel wire is removed, the resulting ID of the barrel has a smooth, thick layer of gold. That’s just what is needed for low contact resistance and high durability.
That’s really something !
