Copper bus, plating with nickel for spot-welding.

[spinningmagnets]

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=98334

This "Boston Power" battery pack uses nickel plate because (like most packs) it spot-welds easily and provides great corrosion resistance. The bus collector at the two ends (positive and negative) are compressed against copper, which is cheap and conducts well.

I had hoped to do some DIY nickel-plating experiments (no time for me to try, but this is what Makita does). I know it is possible, but I just want to document resistance welding, soldering, and compression too.

Of course, the major issue would be adding resistance and voltage drop to the chain of conductors, plus possible oxidation over time, especially in humid or salty climates.

 

[BlueSwordM]

Do you want someone to try it?

I've currently made copper plating using electrolysis of copper+sulfuric acid myself after a lot of experimentation.

I can easily make a nickel sulfate solution to plate a copper sheet, and then send it to you for spot welding, if I have the time of course

 

[spinningmagnets]

I'll certainly pay for your time, postage, and materials. PM me and I'll give you the address. No rush. Do you also zinc-plate?

 

[BlueSwordM]

I haven't done zinc plating yet.

I'll do the nickel plating once I receive my pure nickel sheet arrives here, since, well, making my 1st electroplating solution used up all of my recycled nickel.

 

[BlueSwordM]

What length of copper strip would you like to have plated?

I managed to do a test strip using a nickel sulfate/chloride/glycol mixture in a membrane cell, and it plated wonderfully well.

Here's a pic of the test strip.

Would you prefer a single large sheet plated cut to your liking, or strips directly?

 

[spinningmagnets]

Do you have a paypal address?

I'd like 3mm-3.5mm wide strips of copper that have been nickel plated.

At least two inches long, then I can trim them to whatever length works. Do you already know the thickness of the unplated copper?

 

[BlueSwordM]

Yes, I do have a Paypal address.

I hope you meant 3-3,5cm rather than mm. 3-3,5mm would be awfully small, haha.

No problem for 3-4 inches each.

Thickness of the unplated copper if 0,2mm.

I'll do the plating of the strips Wednesday, so when I'll be done Wednesday, I'll be able to send it to you.

The advantages of plating copper strips locally vs buying them online is getting to choose the plating thickness on the fly, and lower costs if you have the materials to make it, along with specific sizes of strips.

 

[pullin-gs]

I have nickle plated copper .1mm ribbon....still cant spotweld it. :-(
Burns through the .03mm plating.
I can not spot-weld these strips to 18650 cells using malectric's spot welder.

 

[Headrc]

I also have .15mm nickle plated copper and have not been successful spot welding it either ...using the Kweld and its regular electrodes and going up to as much as 35J but I am getting a different power source setup and will try a lot higher setting ...the manual suggests 100J for .3mm nickel so I will try that if my new power source can provide it.

 

[Drunkskunk]

I'm not sure you would ever be able to get deposited nickel thick enough or bonded well enough to work for spot welding. The mechanical properties of Nickel deposited in the plating process and nickel that was melted, pressed, stretched, and shaped are going to be different.

What about copper plating Nickel bars?

 

[spinningmagnets]

This info might be useful. It's a new development, spot-welding a nickel-copper sandwich.

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=84680&start=175#p1470809

 

[BlueSwordM]

Anyway, I know this is an old thread, but I might actually have discovered something completely new.

Basically, we all know pure copper is quite difficult to spot weld, right?

Instead, how about we use a copper nickel alloy? To keep most of the conductivity, we can't use any of the commonly available cupronickel alloys, but a 98-99% copper + 1-2% nickel alloy should allow us to get most of the conductivity gains of going to copper.

I'll have to make some mechanical and chemical research on the subject, because it seems this is a new area of research really.