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Old 07-26-2012, 04:09 PM   #26 (permalink)
Daox
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland View Post
I forgot all about the dissimilar metals like copper and aluminum, they should not be in contact with each other! aluminum oxide is also not conductive, so I'd get something like a scouring pad, to clean up your contacts then grease them with dielectric grease or conductive aluminum never seize on the aluminum side and copper never seize on the copper side.
I posed this question to the local makerspace and got some interesting answers.

1) Aluminum oxidizes pretty much immediately.

2) The battery manufacturer knows this and likely plated the aluminum with something that doesn't oxidize. This doesn't help my spacers though. So I'm still trying to figure out what to do there. I'm still not even sure that the very thin layer of aluminum oxide will create that much resistance.


Also, I think I mentioned it, but the copper lead is plated with something. I'm not sure what. My first guess would be tin, but it might also be zinc. However, zinc is much farther up on the galvanic series than tin...
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