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Copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools

a technology of electronic and electric machinery and parts, applied in the direction of coupling contact members, transportation and packaging, contacts, etc., can solve the problems of inability to meet the requirements of cu-zn alloys, cu-fe alloys and cu-sn alloys, and the inability of cu-zn alloys to be used for a long period of time, and achieve the effect of maintaining mechanical strength and elasticity, improving bending properties, and improving bending properties

Inactive Publication Date: 2002-09-12
FURUKAWA ELECTRIC CO LTD
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0114] The copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools of the present invention is particularly improved in bending property and stress relaxation property while being excellent in essential characteristics such as mechanical property, electric conductivity, and adhesion property of the tin plating layer. Consequently, the copper alloy material of the present invention is able to sufficiently cope with the requirements of miniaturization of parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools such as terminals, connectors, switches and relays. In addition, some embodiments of the copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools of the present invention can sufficiently match the required plating characteristics. Accordingly, the present invention can preferably cope with recent requirements in miniaturization, high performance, and high reliability, of any types of electronic and electric machinery and tools.
[0115] Having described our invention as related to the present embodiments, it is our intention that the invention not be limited by any of the details of the description, unless otherwise specified, but rather be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as set out in the accompanying claims.

Problems solved by technology

While inexpensive Cu--Zn alloys have been used frequently, for example, in automobiles, the Cu--Zn alloys as well as Cu--Fe alloys and Cu--Sn alloys have been unable to currently cope with the requirements for the automobile, since recent trends urgently require the terminals and connectors to be small size, and they are mostly used under severe conditions (high temperature and corrosive environment) in an engine room and the like.
The materials are also required to be excellent in stress relaxation property, and the conventional Cu--Ni--Si alloys cannot be used for a long period of time, due to increased stress load on the material and high temperatures in the working environments.
Although improvements of bending property have been investigated in ways, it has been difficult to improve the bending property while maintaining the mechanical strength and elasticity.
When unevenness (roughness) of the material surface is larger than the thickness of the plating layer, the plating is repelled from convex portions without being plated to make it impossible to uniformly plate.
While Au is generally plated on the Ni underlayer plating in the terminals or connectors for the electronic and electric appliances such as mobile terminal devices and personal computers, deterioration of the plating layer such as peeling of the plating layer as described above is also caused due to roughness of the surface of the material even when the surface is composed of the Au plating layer and the underlayer is composed of the Ni plating layer.

Method used

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  • Copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools

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first embodiment

[0055] the present invention will be described hereinafter.

[0056] In the first embodiment of the present invention, bending property and stress relaxation property are particularly improved, without compromising essential characteristics such as mechanical property, heat and electric conductivity, and plating property, by allowing the alloy elements in the above copper alloy material such as Ni, Si, Mg, Sn and Zn to contain in appropriate quantities while suppressing the content of S in a trace amount, and by defining the crystal grain diameter and the shape of the crystal grain.

[0057] In the first embodiment of the present invention, the crystal grain diameter is defined to be from more than 0.001 mm to 0.025 mm. This is because the recrystallized texture tends to be a mixed grain texture to decrease bending property and stress relaxation property when the crystal grain diameter is 0.001 mm or less, while, when the crystal grain diameter exceeds 0.025 mm, bending property decreases...

second embodiment

[0062] the present invention will be then described.

[0063] The second embodiment of the present invention is the copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools that can be used in the preset invention as described in the above, in which the surface roughness of the alloy is defined so that the surface becomes smooth, particularly property of plating of Sn and the like is improved. The inventors of the present invention have been able to realize practically excellent materials for the parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools by precisely defining the contents of the components of the alloy material and the surface roughness of the alloy material.

[0064] Since the components in the copper alloy material are the same as those in the first embodiment, the reason of restricting the surface roughness will be described hereinafter.

[0065] The surface roughness is used as an index representing the surface state of the material.

[0066] Ra defined in t...

example

[0080] The present invention is described in more detail with reference to the following examples, but the present invention is by no means restricted to these examples.

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Abstract

A copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools contains 1.0 to 3.0 mass % of Ni, 0.2 to 0.7 mass % of Si, 0.01 to 0.2 mass % of Mg, 0.05 to 1.5 mass % of Sn, 0.2 to 1.5 mass % of Zn, and less than 0.005 mass % (including 0 mass %) of S, with the balance being Cu and inevitable impurities, wherein the copper alloy material has: (1) a specific crystal grain diameter, and a specific ratio between the longer diameters of a crystal grain on a cross section parallel or perpendicular to a direction of final plastic working; and / or (2) a specific surface roughness after the final plastic working.

Description

[0001] This is a continuation of PCT Application PCT / JP01 / 04351, filed May 24, 2001. The prior PCT application was not published in English under PCT Article 21(2).TECHNICAL FIELD[0002] The present invention relates to a copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools, in particular to the copper alloy material for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools, which is excellent in bending property and stress relaxation property, and which can sufficiently cope with miniaturization of parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools, such as terminals, connectors, switches and relays.BACKGROUND ART[0003] Hitherto, copper alloys, such as Cu--Zn alloys, Cu--Fe-alloys that are excellent in heat resistance, and Cu--Sn alloys, have been frequently used for parts of electronic and electric machinery and tools. While inexpensive Cu--Zn alloys have been used frequently, for example, in automobiles, the Cu--Zn alloys as well as Cu--Fe alloys and Cu-...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): B32B15/01B32B15/20C22C9/02C22C9/04C22C9/06H01H1/025H01R13/03
CPCC22C9/02C22C9/04C22C9/06Y10T428/12889Y10T428/12993Y10T428/12715
Inventor USAMI, TAKAYUKIHIRAI, TAKAO
Owner FURUKAWA ELECTRIC CO LTD
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