[AR] Re: Electroforming Experiment
- From: Ed LeBouthillier <codemonky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 12:28:22 -0700
On Sun, 2019-07-14 at 14:58 -0400, Norman Yarvin wrote:
On Sun, Jul 14, 2019 at 02:48:06PM +0100, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
Mechanically strong enough for a
combustion chamber?
The copper layer can be fairly strong at room temperature, but it
contains phosphorus, which destroys the high-temperature properties
of
the copper, making it totally unsuitable for a chamber.
There's no phosphorus in this particular formulation. (The list of
ingredients is at 5:15 in the video.)
One weakness to the electroless technique is that there is no
sacrificial anode to supply the copper ions. Thus, every amount of
copper must come from the solution. The solution becomes more dilute
over time unless it is resupplied. You likely need to continuously
resupply and that is a problem in itself. This doesn't even address the
mechanical properties.
The usual technique is to use electroless methods to create an initial
conductive layer and then go to an electrical process. For example, I
worked at a plastic plumbing manufacturer and we used to send out our
showerheads for chrome plating. It was a two-step process of first
using electroless copper to place an initial conducting layer on the
plastic. Then the copper-plated parts were chrome plated using the
usual electrical process.
Mechanical properties are significant as Peter has mentioned. Even
electrical plating processes can produce substandard coatings if
they're not done properly. I've never heard of using electroless
techniques for plating 10's of thousandths of inches of copper.
I don't know the precise reason it's not done, but I think it's
probably not as effective as an electrical process.
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