Nickel plated steel strip for li-ion Battery pack - Purpose of Nickel Plating?

[maarten_almighty]

I have a question regarding the purpose of the nickel coating found on 'nickel coated steel strip' which is used for welding 18650 batteries together to build li-ion battery packs.

Is the nickel plating's purpose merely to stop the steel strip from rusting/corroding? Or does the nickel aid in the welding process as well?

Thank you!

 

[Voltron]

It's better conductivity. That's what you don't really want to use If you can avoid it... Pure nickel is better. More conductive, no rust (the plated steel rusts thru from thin spots in the plating in wet conditions), less overheated strips melting thru the heatshrink on the cells.

 

[john61ct]

nickel-plated copper is better though right?

 

[spinningmagnets]

Nickel-plated copper is great for the series connections.

For the parallel "cell equalizing" connections, some resistance is a good thing. The parallel connections should be either pure nickel or nickel-plated steel. Also, the parallel "strip" can be very thin and narrow.