OEM automotive wiring connectors mainly include hardware shrapnel, terminals, rivets, bolts, high strength bolts, welding rods, pivots (pins), etc. Commonly used materials are: copper, brass, tin-phosphor bronze, beryllium bronze, copper alloy, steel, gold, nickel, etc.
As a pretty valuable metal material, copper is soft and easy to be bended. Using copper as a round terminal connector will have high electrical and thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance and excellent operability.
Brass, alloy of copper and zinc, which contains 60-96% of copper, is a good elastic material. Auto terminals made by brass will have acceptable electrical conductivity, very good workability and easy to be welded.
Tin-phosphor bronze, alloy of copper and tin, is also a good elastic material. Its elastic is between brass and beryllium bronze, and it has less conductive than brass but not sensitive to stress corrosion. However, its price is 1.4 times of brass.
Beryllium bronze, which is 5 times more expensive than brass, cover the advantages of best elasticity, good fatigue strength, corrosion resistant and wear resistant. Copper alloy, also named copper-nickel-zinc alloy (Cu 65%,Ni12%,Zn23), looks silvery white. Its conductivity closes to brass, and it has corrosion resistance and strong voltage resistance,
Steel looks grey. The application temperature of steel can reach 250 degrees. Even if metal connections made by steel have poor electrical conductivity, its elasticity and resistance to wear and tear is very strong.
Nickel, looks silver-white, is a more expensive and hard metal. It has smooth surface but poor electrical conductivity. Nickel often used for metal plating of the bottom layer. Due to its poor weldability, nickel plating is usually applied to the common steel connections(must first copper plating as base). Copper with nickel plating can withstand temperatures of 340 degrees, but at the same time brass and bronze are just up to 250 degrees.
Post time: Oct-14-2022