<caption>'''Table 7.1: Overview of Important Properties of Electroplated Coatings and their Applications'''</caption>

For thin coatings starting from the liquid phase two processes are used differentiated by the metallic deposition being performed either with or withoutthe use of an external electrical current source. The first one is electroplating while the second one is a chemical deposition process.

<caption>'''Table 7.6: Characteristics of the Most Important PVD Processes'''</caption>

The individual deposition processes have in part different performance characteristics. For each end application the optimal process has to be chosenconsidering all technical and economical factors. The main selection criteria should be based on the electrical and mechanical requirements for the contact layer and on the design characteristics of the contact component. <xr id="tab:Comparison of different coating processes"/> Table 7.7 gives some indications for a comparative evaluation of the different coating processes.

<caption>'''Table 7.7: Comparison of different coating processes'''</caption>

The main differences between the coating processes are found in the coating materials and thickness. While mechanical cladding and sputtering allow theuse of almost any alloy material, electroplating processes are limited to metals and selected alloys such as for example high-carat gold alloys with up to .3 wt% Co or Ni. Electroplated and sputtered surface layers have a technological and economical upper thickness limit of about 10μm. While mechanical cladding has a minimum thickness of approx. 1 μm, electroplating and sputtering can also be easily applied in very thin layers down to the range of 0.1 μm.