Thinner plating caused problems with increased corrosion on USB connectors as gold coating thickness decreased with escalating gold prices.

A major company in the U.S. found that by using SuperCORR A it was able to prevent galling corrosion due to vibration on printed circuit leads and connectors.

They found that because of the advances in gold plating technology the plating thickness was being reduced over the base substrate metal of the connectors. The thickness of the gold plating became thinner and thinner over time. This thinner coating saved a lot of money as gold was and is becoming increasingly expensive. However the resulting reduced thickness of gold plating also resulted in failures caused by corrosion. Minute irregularities in the surface of the connectors base metal caused irregular or uneven wear of the connector causing the “high spots” on the connector to wear through the gold plating.

Using SuperCORR A prevented or delayed the corrosion and subsequent failures. However it must be recognized that
SuperCORR A is a lubricant with corrosion preventive compounds, and as is the case with all “lubricants” they will be worn off over time. Having said that, the Company also had SuperCORR A tested to see what the “life” of the lubricant was in a “rub test”. The typical test is 20,000 cycles, i.e. unplug, plug in is one cycle. The test results demonstrated that after 20,000 cycles there were no failures. It was decided to take it one more step and run the same tests for 200,000 cycles. The results again showed no indications of galling or scoring on the USB connectors at all. In fact they commented that the USB connector looked as good as new.

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