Toyota Motor Corporation has developed new plating technology that reduces the environmental impact of the process as used in the manufacture of electronic parts.

With the new system, metal ions pass through a polymer membrane (solid electrolyte membrane) to apply plating like a stamp, exclusively to those areas that require plating.

The technology is used in the plating process for applying copper, nickel, and other metal coatings on substrates.

The new stamping-type plating machine eliminates the dipping process currently used by the most common plating techniques, whereby parts have to be immersed in multiple baths of plating solution.

Toyota’s new process dramatically reduces the waste solution to about one-thirtieth and CO2 emissions to about one-third of previous levels — and plating time is cut.

The environmental benefits prompted Toyota to start marketing the new stamping-type plating machine and expand its use beyond its automotive manufacturing partners to many other companies in a range of industries.

For example, Toyota is supporting vacuum press manufacturer Mikado Technos with patents and expertise, and this company is now developing and manufacturing a stamping-type plating machine that will be sold via Kanematsu.

Toyota says that over the next two to three years, it hopes to market this new equipment for use as a test machine for verification and evaluation purposes, and subsequently expand its sales to encourage its more widespread use as a full production machine.