Aluminum waveguides with twists, bends, and/or tapers were electroformed by electrodepositing aluminum on electropolished, copper-plated, cadmium-nickel-alloy mandrels, followed by melting out the cadmium-nickel alloy and dissolving out the copper in nitric acid solution. This is a new procedure for obtaining mirrorlike inner surfaces of electroformed articles. The aluminum walls (0.65 to 1.0 mm thick) were dense, strong, and ductile. The high-purity aluminum electrodeposits were as hard as 138 Knoop. The plating baths consisted of a dispersion of toluene in a toluene solution of the fusion product of ethyl pyridinium bromide and aluminum chloride with methyl t-butyl ether or another addition agent for improving the physical properties of the alunlinum electrodepositsL The baths were used for as long as 560 amp-hr/1 (44 days) and could have been used longer if necessary.
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