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-----Alumina coating of small wire via Aluminum plating?
1999
I'm a PhD student at MIT, and we're working on a project sponsored by NASA to design and build a very small rocket engine. (about
2x1.5x0.3 cm) This engine needs an spark ignitor, and due to its small size, we're having trouble figuring out how to make the individual ignitor leads, and provide sufficient electrical insulation between the wire and body of the rocket.
What we hope to end up with is a Kovar wire (2-3mil OD) with a
1-1.5 mil layer of Aluminum Oxide around it for a total OD of 5 mils.
Is it possible to plate (or otherwise coat via CVD, etc) ~1mil of Al onto Kovar (Ni/Co/Fe) and then convert it all into Alumina through anodizing it? Is there a better way to do this? Would the alumina coating end up uniform?
Does anyone know of a shop we could contract with (preferably in New England area) that would have this capability, and be willing to work in the quantities we're interested in (~100-300 such coated wires over the next few months--we'd provide the wire)
Thanks in advance for any advice or pointers!
MIT - Cambridge, Massachusetts
An anodic coating is quite brittle, and vibrations from rocket travel may cause cracks.
How about electrocoating ( aka electrodeposition, electrophoretic deposition, electropainting)?
Like electroplating and anodizing, you should be able to control thickness to almost any tiny dimension down to atomic level, and you have your choice of anodic or cathodic, and all kinds of resins, phenolics, alkyd, epoxy, acrylics, polyesters, et al.
If you get a 1 ounce sample of a proprietary coating, you could coat enough wire for, oh, about a jillion engines. -tom
Tom Pullizzi
Falls Township, Pennsylvania
1999
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