Method of manufacturing tin-plated copper terminal material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10301737-B2
Application number	US-201615778336-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2016
Priority date	Dec 15, 2015
Publication date	May 28, 2019
Grant date	May 28, 2019

Abstract

A method of manufacturing tin-plated copper terminal material as a terminal crimped to a terminal end of an electric wire made of an aluminum wire material, using a base member of copper or copper alloy in which galvanic corrosion is not easy to occur and an adhesiveness of a tin layer is excellent, the method includes: a zinc-nickel alloy layer forming step forming a zinc-nickel alloy layer having a nickel content of 5 mass % to 50 mass % inclusive and a thickness of 0.1 μm to 5.0 μm inclusive on a base member made of copper or copper alloy; and a tin-plating step forming a tin layer by tin plating on the zinc-nickel alloy layer; more preferably, following the tin-plating step, the method includes a diffusion treatment step diffusing zinc from the zinc-nickel alloy layer to the tin layer by maintaining at 40° C. to 160° C. inclusive for 30 minutes or longer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing a tin-plated copper terminal material comprising steps of:
a zinc-nickel alloy layer forming step forming a zinc-nickel alloy layer having a nickel content of 5 mass % to 20 mass % inclusive and a thickness of 0.1 μm to 5.0 μm inclusive on a base member made of copper or copper alloy;
a tin-plating step forming a tin layer by tin plating on the zinc-nickel alloy layer; and
a diffusion treatment step diffusing zinc from the zinc-nickel alloy layer into the tin layer by maintaining at 40° C. to 160° C. inclusive for 30 minutes to 60 minutes inclusive to form a metal layer at an outer surface of the tin layer following the tin-plating step, wherein the metal layer comprises zinc having a zinc concentration of 5 at % to 40 at % inclusive; and
wherein a crystalline structure of the zinc-nickel alloy layer is a single phase of a γ phase.

2. The method of manufacturing the tin-plated copper terminal material according to claim 1 , further comprising a ground-layer forming step forming a ground layer made of nickel or nickel alloy on a surface of the base member previous to the zinc-nickel alloy layer forming step, the ground layer having a nickel content of 80 mass % or greater and a thickness of 0.1 μm to 5.0 μm inclusive.

3. The method of manufacturing the tin-plated copper terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein
the base member is formed into a hoop material by previous press working to have a belt-plate shape, and
a plurality of terminal parts to be formed into terminals are connected to a carrier part along a longitudinal direction of the belt-plate shape, with spacing each other along a longitudinal direction of the carrier part.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Materials Corp

Inventors

• Kubota Kenji
• Tarutani Yoshie
• Nakaya Kiyotaka

Classifications

• H01B13/0036

  Details · CPC title

• H01R4/62

  Connections between conductors of different materials; Connections between or with aluminium or steel-core aluminium conductors (H01R4/68 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B32B2457/00

  Electrical equipment · CPC title

• C25D5/505 Primary

  of electroplated tin coatings, e.g. by melting · CPC title

• C25D3/562

  containing more than 50% by weight of iron or nickel or cobalt · CPC title