Anti-corrosion terminal material, anti-corrosion terminal and electric wire end structure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11661667-B2
Application number	US-201816759790-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2018
Priority date	Oct 30, 2017
Publication date	May 30, 2023
Grant date	May 30, 2023

Abstract

An anti-corrosion terminal material including a base material made of copper or copper alloy and a coating film laminated on the base material: the coating film includes: a first coating film, provided with a zinc layer made of zinc alloy and a tin layer made of tin or tin alloy which are laminated in this order, and formed at a planned core contact part; and a second coating film including the tin layer but not comprising the zinc layer, which is provided at a planned contact part being a contact part when the terminal is formed: and the zinc layer has a thickness not less than 0.1 μm and not more than 5.0 μm and zinc concentration not less than 30% by mass and not more than 95% by mass, and has any one or more of nickel, iron, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt, cadmium, lead and tin as a balance.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An anti-corrosion terminal material comprising a base material made of copper or copper alloy and a coating film laminated on the base material, wherein the coating film comprises:
a first coating film formed on a surface of a planned core contact part in which a core of an electric wire is in contact with when a terminal is formed and having a zinc layer made of zinc alloy and a tin layer made of tin or tin alloy which are laminated in this order; and
a second coating film formed on a surface of the part except for a planned core contact comprising a tin layer, of the second coating film, made of tin or tin alloy but not comprising a zinc layer, and
wherein the zinc layer, of the first coating film, has a thickness not less than 0.1 μm and not more than 5.0 μm and zinc concentration not less than 30% by mass and not more than 95% by mass, and has any one or more of nickel, iron, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt, cadmium, lead and tin as a balance.

2. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein a proportion of an area of the zinc layer, of the first coating film, to a surface after the terminal is formed is not less than 30% and not more than 80%.

3. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein a mean crystal grain size of tin or tin alloy in the tin layer of the first coating film is not less than 0.5 and not more than 8.0 μm.

4. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein at the planned core contact part, the tin layer of the first coating film has a thickness not less than 0.8 and not more than 6.0 μm and made of tin alloy having zinc concentration not less than 0.4% by mass and not more than 15% by mass.

5. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein an undercoat layer made of nickel or nickel alloy is provided between the base material and the coating film.

6. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , comprising
a carrier part having a belt-shape; and
terminal members connected with an interval therebetween along a length direction of the carrier part and provided with the planned core contact part and the planned contact part.

7. An anti-corrosion terminal formed of the anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 .

8. An electric wire end structure wherein the anti-corrosion terminal according to claim 7 is crimped to an end of an electric wire formed of aluminum wire material made of aluminum or aluminum alloy.

9. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the zinc layer, of the first coating film, is not less than 0.3 μm and not more than 2.0 μm.

10. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein the zinc concentration of the zinc layer, of the first coating film, is not less than 65% by mass.

11. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 1 , wherein a total of any one or more of nickel, iron, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt, cadmium, lead and tin contained in the zinc layer, of the first coating film, is not less than 5% by mass.

12. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 3 , wherein a mean crystal grain size of tin or tin alloy in the tin layer, of the first coating film, is not less than 1.2 and not more than 3.0 μm.

13. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 4 , wherein the zinc concentration in the tin layer, of the first coating film, is not less than 0.6% by mas and not more than 6.0% by mass.

14. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 5 , wherein the zinc concentration in the tin layer, of the first coating film, is not less than 0.6% by mas and not more than 6.0% by mass.

15. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 5 , wherein a thickness of the undercoat layer is not less than 0.1 μm and not more than 5.0 μm.

16. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 15 , wherein a thickness of the undercoat layer is not less than 0.3 μm and not more than 2.0 μm.

17. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 5 , wherein a nickel content percentage in the undercoat layer is not less than 80% by mass.

18. The anti-corrosion terminal material according to claim 17 , wherein the nickel content percentage is not less than 90% by mass.

19. The anti-corrosion terminal according to claim 7 , provided with:
a core-crimping part to which a core of an electric wire is crimped, a cover-crimping part to which a cover part of the electric wire is crimped, and a coupling part to which another terminal is connected.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Materials Corp

Inventors

• Kubota Kenji
• Tarutani Yoshie
• Tamagawa Takashi
• Nakaya Kiyotaka

Classifications

• C25D5/12

  at least one layer being of nickel or chromium · CPC title

• C25D5/10 Primary

  Electroplating with more than one layer of the same or of different metals (for bearings C25D7/10) · CPC title

• H01R13/03

  characterised by the material, e.g. plating, or coating materials · CPC title

• C25D5/617 Primary

  Crystalline layers · CPC title

• C25D3/22

  of zinc · CPC title