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Cleaning of copper wire

November 24, 2009

Hello Friends,
I have copper wire drawing industry; while annealing the copper wire turned black, I need to know is there a chemical that I can use to regain the original colour and shine of copper?

Your help will be very highly appreciated

Vedant Choudhary
- Mumbai, India

It depends on how bad it is, but I would start experimenting with a few acids to see what you can get. Citric, phosphoric, maybe oxalic. Sodium persulphate might do it too.

Ray Kremer
Stellar Solutions, Inc.

McHenry, Illinois

December 7, 2009

Hello Mr.Vedant Choudhary.

Better use the phosphoric acid for removing the scale, after that use the Anti-tarnish solution to retain the original copper colour.
This type of antitarnish solution you may get from Electro plating chemical suppliers like G&W or Atotech, etc.

But after using this Anti-tarnish also it is not possible to eliminate all the problems. At least you are able to increase the tarnish time after using the Anti tarnish.
And packing is very important (use VCI packing for this type of parts)

Kannan Boopathi
- Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
December 22, 2009

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