Copper coating on drawn wire

Am involved in co2 wire production as a technical supervisor and would like to know if there is any material that can be used in copper coating the drawn wire instead of sulfuric acid! I mean during the copper coating process which is normally applied to the drawn and pickled wire ,using temperature of course . How I can coat effectively without the necessity of H2SO4 and what is the replacing material or idea .

When you say that you don't want to use sulfuric acid, but you don't say why, it is hard to recommend a substitute. Fluoboric acid should work, but it is more hazardous.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

You can use next solution (instead copper sulphate ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] / sulfuric acid solution):

60 gms copper sulphate
60 gms ammonia ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] (25%)
65 gms tartaric acid ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link]

pH must be slightly acidic! First dissolve sulphate, then add ammonia and then acid.

Good luck!

Thanks for the answers for both Mr. Ted and Mr. Goran ....

Mr. Goran ,,,I appreciate your prescription , but what you need to know is that I work on big tanks and say 2000 ltrs and another with about 1000 ltrs. and temperature reaches 35 -40 deg.cent. am afraid the ammonia will produce a very pungent odor and harmful too to the workers as may the tartaric would do! Did you work out this with a similar process ? How can we avoid the odor and harmness of the material ? is there a vigorous chemical reaction expected in such a case ?

Many thanks and waiting your response .

Your problem is not so simple-I think that sulfuric acid/copper sulphate process is best for you (7,5-15 gm copper sulphate,4-8 ml.sulfuric acid,1 lit water). Maybe you can use citric or tartaric acid ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil link] process but it is much more expensive solution. Also you can try to find proprietary product. Hope it helps and good luck.