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Copper-clad Aluminum Wire chemical formula and processing needed

2006

Good day,

I'm a graduate fresh from university. Me and a good friend of mine are being assigned by a company we worked for to find information regarding Copper-Clad Aluminium Wire. Now, as much as we would like to impress our boss, the information regarding the process of making one is not as easy as it seems. We may be 'green' in this subject, but we are certainly not 'yellow'!

So if anyone out there please please can help me out a little bit, it would be much appreciated !

My boss would like to know the information are:

1. How large should the tank be

2. What and how much chemicals for the Cathode

3. What and how much chemicals for the Anode

4. Approximately running speed of the machine when coating

5. The Ampere and voltage required

6. Diameter of the wire 0.5 mm can be drawn to 0.12 mm

Much thanks to people out there trying to help ~!

Andrew Susanto
Wire - Jakarta, Indonesia

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Impress your boss by locating the right consultant, or at least an experienced plating process vendor, Andrew. There is far more than one tank ("the tank"), probably more like a dozen. This is a major industrial installation rather than a cut & try one-off tank. You'll need steps for cleaning, acid activation, zincate, zincate stripping, re-zincating, cyanide copper plating, and acid copper plating, with rinses in between. An alternative is a stannate process in lieu of the zincate. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2006

Why are you plating? Worked for Texas Instruments in Wire Div. for 35 years and CommScope Wire for 5 Years before retiring. You should look at other alternatives.

Bob Beauregard
- Lincoln, Rhode Island, USA
2007

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Hi Bob. Briefly mentioning those alternatives (cladding?) would probably help us.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
September 2013