Summary for tin plated copper wire dusting Discussion
Tin plated copper wire dusting is the issue here: Hitendra Mahajan asked why electroplated copper wire, after being drawn to finer sizes with natural diamond dies, leaves tin dust on the lay plate and eyelet during bunching or braiding, and how to stop it. The reply explains that tin is much softer than copper, so the plating can be easily damaged, even though tin plated copper is commonly drawn and stranded successfully. The likely causes listed are excessive tin thickness, large grain size in the tin plating, poorly shaped drawing dies, poor lubrication during drawing, excessive pressure on guides, and rough guides or other mechanical damage. The practical takeaway is that the dust is probably coming from mechanical or plating-condition problems rather than from the basic use of tin plated copper itself, so the process should be checked for coating thickness, grain structure, die condition, lubrication, and guide wear.
Q. Dear Sir,
We are doing Electroplating on Copper wire and drawing the same to further fine sizes using natural diamond dies.
But we observe the tin dust when we use this fine drawn wire in bunching / Braiding process.
We observed this dust on lay plate and on eyelet of braiding machine. Our customer wants no dust to be generated while running the tin plated copper in their machine.
What could be reasons of this dust generation?
How can we get rid of this problem?
Please suggest.
Hitendra Mahajan
– REWA, MP, INDIA
December 24, 2011
Tin is much softer than copper, so it is easy to damage the tin plating. However, there are millions of feet of tin plated copper drawn and bunched or stranded every day.
Possible causes of your problem are –
Excessive tin thickness.
Large grain size of the tin plating.
Poorly shaped drawing dies.
Poor lubrication during drawing.
Excessive pressure over guides.
Rough guides and other mechanical damage.
Jeffrey Holmes, CEF
Spartanburg, South Carolina
December 27, 2011
Hi Hitendra,
Softer metals like tin have a nasty habit of building up on your wire dies. Check your dies with a 20X loop for tin build up on the dies. The Tin build up on the dies could cause dusting, heating, chattering or breakage of the wire. Periodic cleaning of the diamond dies is very helpful. For larger dies, put the die in a lathe and use a pointed wooden dowel dipped in wax and fine emery powder to clean the spinning dies. On small diameter dies use a string dipped in wax and coated with fine emery powder, spin the die and pull the string back and forth to clean the die. This will keep your dies clean by removing the tin build up.
Good Luck & Best regards,
Jim Sivertsen
Refining & Alloys – Alden, New York, USA