Plating pH Portable Meter

This Hanna Instruments portable meter measures pH in plating baths, with an electrode that survives them.

Why it is measured

Plating baths are concentrated, often hot, and full of ions that poison an ordinary reference junction within days. The bath's pH controls deposit quality directly, so it has to be measured — with an electrode built to keep working in that chemistry.

Where it is used

• electroplating shops
• anodising lines
• metal finishing
• surface treatment baths

Electrode, meter and calibration

An electrochemical meter is three things that fail separately: the electrode, which ages and eventually dies; the meter, which rarely goes wrong; and the calibration, which is only as recent as the last time somebody did it. Almost every bad reading traces to the first or the third.

Budget for electrodes as consumables, store them wet in storage solution rather than water, and calibrate against fresh buffers at the temperature you will measure at.

Practical note

Rinse the electrode in water between the bath and the buffer; carrying bath chemistry into calibration standard ruins the standard.

Supplied as one model.