Can anyone direct me to a materials chart for referencing materials for electrical contacts?(Providing something like that exists).
I've had no luck with Google, and since I'll need to make contacts for several projects I'm trying to get a good idea about what material/s I should get. Specifically materials that will be handling the power outputs of normal computer power supplies.
Thanks a lot.
Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.
You will need to say a little more than you have if you expect some meaningful help.
Tom
The word you're looking for may be "connector". Googling ( PC power supply connector ) turned up the following:
-- Joe
There is nothing else.
Like I said I want to make contacts. And all I'll need to determine is the material and the thickness I will make each contact. Which is why I asked if there was in existence a chart for referencing purposes.
Darren Harris Staten Island, New York
No, not connectors.
I want to make electrical contacts.
Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.
--How much power and how much arcing do you anticipate? Also how fast do you want to make contact and how often do you need to do it? These variables need to be pinned down before you decide on a material.
-- "Steamboat Ed" Haas : Don't forget to spay and Hacking the Trailing Edge! : neuter your politicians...
You aren't understanding from the other responses that you have said nothing about: environment, mechanical robustness, conductivity, and a slew of other imaginable things that kind of have to be known before any self-respecting engineer here can specify anything.
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest you look at brass, phosphor bronze or beryllium bronze stock. These metals are springy, easy to work, and reasonably conductive (being alloys, they are quite a bit more resistive than pure copper, but not so bad as like...iron).
Relay contacts are typically copper or brass rails with silver contacts. The silver may be alloyed with cadmium, etc., for weld resistance, or mercury (the term being amalgamated rather than alloyed) for low level contacts (audio switching, for instance). Tungsten is the king of refractory metals, but not the greatest in atmosphere, and not the greatest conductor either. It can be bonded with copper, making a very hard, conductive, refractory contact material. Copper filled graphite is used for high quality motor brushes.
In adverse environments, stainless steel, titanium, etc. may be more useful than copper alloys, despite the low conductivity. Or even clad materials (pricey) to get the best of both worlds.
Ya know, I find it hard to believe you can't just find "phosphor bronze" on Google. You must not be trying in the right direction. I don't happen to know offhand of any sort of conclusive contact chart, although I can imagine people in the business don't really need one anyway, hence your problem...
Tim
-- Deep Fryer: A very philosophical monk. Website @
I think there is a big convention of Electrical Contractors up near you in the Convention Center every year. This would be an excellent place to make some Electrical Contacts.
-- There certainly is! For starters, before you can choose the optimum material for the job you\'ll need to know how much current the contacts will be expected to carry, the voltage they\'ll need to break, the temperature they must not exceed, how much (make and break) bounce you can tolerate, how tightly they must be pressed together, the environment they must live in while resisting corrosion, and on and on...
See here for more info about contacts.
John is correct, but only if you want to go into production on the thing. If all you want is something for hobby use, the last time I had to make contacts I bought a junk silver dime, a dime produced prior to ?? 1960 something. I then used a turret punch to punch out small 1/8" diameter pieces of the dime, soldered a wire to one side and used the other side for the contact. All in all, you can get about 5 sets of contacts out of a dime for a cost of about two bits apiece.
Jim
All of those connectors are standard, just buy them. The cost of the tooling will bury you.
Ok. One person took a wrong turn and everyone else followed.(I knew this was going to happen).
The first paragraph in the first post of this thread was the only question I was seeking an answer for.
Making, breaking, speed of, wiping, arcing, corrosion resistance, wear, electrical conductivity and resistance, thickness and flexibility, bounce, size, shape, ect., ect. are things I will be deciding on for the various projects.
I did say that I'd be dealing with materials that will be handling the power outputs of normal computer power supplies.
But I didn't want to get into all of the specifics here for each and every project. It was just a simple request for a reference chart if one existed. From there I'd be able to determine all the parameters myself. But obviously no such chart exists.
Thanks anyway.
Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.
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