Apparatus for the galvanic treatment of articles

Abstract

An electroplating apparatus (11) has a conveying system (19), which passes the printed circuit boards on a horizontal passage path through the treatment chamber (13). They are contacted by tong-like grippers (32), which run upstream of the leading edge (63) of the circuit board and in this area engage thereon from above and below. The gripers (32) are fixed to transverse beams (29), which are guided on both sides by chains (26) and electrically contacted by contact rails (39). Thus, the circuit boards (12) are moved in a horizontal, central path and simultaneously contacted. Alternatively the circuit boards (12) can be conveyed between electrically connected contact roll pairs (21), which are conveyed by an upper and lower conveyor (20a, b) and automatically rotate in order to convey the circuit boards at high speed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.