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Copper chloride / oxide residue inside plated electrical contact pins

We recently purchased some contact pins to install into connector shells and noticed some blue/green "stuff" inside the pins. We are fairly certain it is copper chloride and copper oxide. The question is this corrosive and will it adversely affect the reliability?

Ken Loree
Quality Manager - Alabama
2007

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First of two simultaneous responses --

Ken, The question and answer, both are in your statement.Yes.The product seems to have problems and it will adversely affect quality of your product.Please speak to the supplier.There are many reasons to have this problem such as porosity, low thickness of platings,base metal not of quality, insufficient pre treatments, etc. Kindly have a look at Ltr.No 45479 & Ltr. No. 45708 in the same forum

T.K. Mohan
plating process supplier - Mumbai, India
2007

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

Send the connector shells back to the supplier ! With time, temperature, and humidity cycling the copper compound will corrode the connector from the inside out, some corrosion will get on the contact surface, failure is bound to happen. Send them back.

Robert H Probert
Robert H Probert Technical Services

Garner, North Carolina

2007