COPPER ALLOY MATERIALS AS BASE MATERIALS FOR COMPONENTS IN ELECTRICAL-ENGINEERING AND ELECTRONICS

Against the background of increasing numbers of electrical and electronic components in the consumer goods industry, copper materials are used as semifinished products for the most different applications. Particularly in the automotive industry, the requirements include not only functional aspects, but also aspects of suitability for automated processes, miniaturization, service life, increased current carrying capacity and heat dissipation. In the combination of their properties, well-known materials - such as brasses or bronzes - are not always ideal candidates. This is why the semifinished products industry has been trying for several years also to offer special materials on an industrial scale which would be available as alternatives to conventional alloys. The range of these materials is presented on the basis of their major properties, such as conductivity, strength, relaxation, plasticity. The contact materials of these products are usually surface coatings as tin, nickel, silver and gold alloys.