Crimpable electrical connector
AssigneeBrush Wellman Inc.
InventorMelrex A. Ordillas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrical connector made from a Be-Cu alloy can be crimped at room temperature without localized annealing of the crimp section first. Sufficient ductility and tensile strength are imparted to the alloy by cold working the alloy, after final solution annealing, by at least 40% in terms of area reduction and then overaging the alloy during age hardening.
Claims13
An electrical device having a spring section capable of maintaining a desired spring normal force after repeated matings and a crimp section capable of being joined to a wire or other component by crack-free crimping without localized annealing of the crimp section before crimping, the device being formed from an alloy comprising 0.15 to 0.5 wt. % Be, 0.4 to 1.40 wt. % Ni or Co or both, 0.2 to 1.0 wt. % Pb, up to 0.50 wt. % Zn, the balance being copper and incidental impurities, wherein the device after final solution annealing is cold worked by 40 to 80% and is overaged during age-hardening so that the alloy forming the device achieves a final 0.2% yield strength between about 60 and 80 ksi.
An electrical device having a spring section capable of maintaining a desired spring normal force after repeated matings and a crimp section capable of being joined to a wire or other component by crack-free crimping without localized annealing of the crimp section before crimping, the device being formed from an alloy comprising 0.20 to 0.40 wt. % Be, 0.50 to 1.25 wt. % Ni or Co or both, 0.20 to 0.60 wt. % Pb, up to 0.50 wt. % total of one or more of Fe, Al, Si, Cr, Sn, Zn, Ag, Mn, Zr, Ti and Mg, and other incidental impurities, the balance being copper, wherein the device after final solution annealing is cold worked by 40 to 80% and is overaged during age-hardening so that the alloy forming the device achieves a final 0.2% yield strength between about 60 and 80 ksi.
A room temperature crimpable electrical connector having a spring section capable of maintaining a desired spring normal force after repeated matings and a crimp section capable of being joined to a wire or other component by crack-free crimping without localized annealing of the crimp section before crimping, the electrical connector being formed by:
- (a) extruding, optionally intermediate annealing, and cold drawing a Be-Cu alloy comprising 0.15 to 0.50 wt. % Be, 0.40 to 1.40 wt. % Ni or Co or both, 0.20 to 1.0 wt. % Pb, up to 0.50 wt. % total of one or more of Fe, Al, Si, Cr, Sn, Zn, Ag, Mn, Zr, Ti and Mg, the balance being copper and incidental impurities, into a wire having a ready to finish diameter,
- (b) final solution annealing the wire,
- (c) cold working the wire by about 40 to 80% in terms of area reduction, and
- (d) age hardening the wire by overaging the wire such that the 0.2 yield strength of the alloy forming the wire is between about 60 and 80 ksi and the ultimate tensile strength of the alloy forming the wire is less than 95% of the maximum ultimate tensile strength of the alloy when peak aged.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.