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LOW-ETCH ALKALINE ZINCATE COMPOSITION U.S. Patent 6,080,447. June 27, 2000 K.L. Ferroni et al., assignors to Enthone-OMI Inc., West Haven, Conn.

A method for metal plating alumi- num to provide a metal coating having thermal retention of para- magnetic properties when metal plated with a paramagnetic metal coating comprising contacting a cleaned and etched aluminum substrate for an effective time with an aqueous zincating compo- sition to form a zincate coating on the aluminum substrate, the zincate composition comprising, in g/L NaOH in an amount of about 50 to saturation; ZnO in an amount of about 5 to 50; Fe3+ in an amount of about 0.15 to 0.5; a chelator in an amount effective to chelate the Fe3+ and NaNO, in an amount of 0.01 to 10, and metal plating the zincated aluminum substrate.

CHIP-RESISTANT COMPOSITE PAINT FILM U.S. Patent 6,083,563. July 4, 2000 E. Yamanaka et al., Japan

A method of forming a chip- resistant composite paint film, which comprises applying serially on an electrodeposition coat baked onto a substrate, an anti- chip primer and an intermediate coating in the wet-on-wet method and baking the two wet coats in one step, wherein the antichip primer comprises an aqueous dis- persion of an ethylene copolymer, a water-based urethane resin, and a water-miscible organic sol- vent; and the intermediate coat-

ing is a melamine-curable polyes- ter water-based coating.

POWDER COATING U.S. Patent 6,083,627. July 4, 2000 B.D. Keeny et al., assignors to Elf Atochem North America Inc., Philadelphia

An article of manufacture com- prising a substrate selected from the group consisting of metal, glass, and ceramic coated on at least one surface thereof with coating formed from a resin com- position consisting essentially of from 0.01 to 45% by weight poly- vinylidene fluoride based poly- mer; and from greater than 55 to 99.99% polyamide polymer se- lected from the group consisting of polyamide 11 and polyamide 12.

COMPOSITE PLATING APPARATUS U.S. Patent 6,086,731. July 11, 2000 0. Ishigami et al., assignors to Honda Giken Kogyo KK, Tokyo

An apparatus for forming a com- posite plating film on an inner surface of a hollow section of a workpiece, which comprises a cy- lindrical electrode adapted to be disposed in the hollow section of the workpiece with a surrounding gap left between a surface of an outer wall of the electrode and the inner surface of the hollow sec- tion; and a plating liquid circulat- ing mechanism for supplying com- posite plating liquid, consisting of ceramic particles mixed in plating liquid, to an interior of the cylin- drical electrode, for passing the composite plating liquid through the through-holes of the outer wall of the electrode to be then jetted onto the inner surface of

the hollow section, and for collect- ing the jetted composite plating liquid from a region surrounding the cylindrical electrode.

ELECTROPLATING BATH FOR SLIDING BEARINGS U.S. Patent 6,086,742. July 11, 2000 H. U. Huhn et al., assignors to Glyco- Metall-Werke, Glyco B.V. & Co. KG, Weisbaden

A process for producing multi- layer materials for plain bearings comprising preparing a metallic backing layer; applying a bronze layer to the backing layer; elec- trodepositing a binary layer on the bronze layer selected from a group of materials consisting es- sentially of lead-based and tin- based alloys in an electroplating bath having a nonionic wetting agent and a benzene derivative anodically activating at least one surface layer of the binary layer; and electroplating a molybde- num-based running-in layer on the binary layer.

ELECTROLESS GOLD DEPOSITION U.S. Patent 6,086,946. July 11, 2000 G.L. Ballard et al., assignors to International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.

A method for electroless gold dep- osition comprising forming copper circuit features on a substrate by an additive process employing a catalyst material having palla- dium, wherein the palladium is a primary component to initiate the deposition; treating with an alka- line cleaner; rinsing; treating with sodium persulfate; rinsing; treating with diluted sulfuric acid; rinsing; immersing in a gold

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