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Soldering of Nickel?

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Patrick

Sat Feb 23 2013, 12:53AM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

is it possible for nickel wire to be solder to copper SMT pads?

i have really small foot print gyro and accels in SMT packages, and several mile of fine nicle wire.

So given the following:
Nickel wire 0.005 dia, 99.86% pure nickle.
smt pads are mostly copper, (what ever alloy solderable pads are normally made of.)
Ill be using a rosin no clean flux with 60/40 SnPb.

if not, ill use silver epoxy and hope my fat fingers can do it right.

Ash Small

Sat Feb 23 2013, 01:11AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42768644,d.d2k&fp=1171a 4d66e4f66d1&biw=1366&bih=663

It looks like it is possible, but you need an agressive flux.

EDIT: "Pure nickel and such alloys as Monel, K Monel, Permanickel, and Duranickel are solderable with inorganic fluxes."

Dr. Slack

Sun Feb 24 2013, 06:18AM

Registered Member #72 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:29AM
Location: UK St. Albans
Posts: 1659

I've soldered to nickel using ordinary 60/40 multicore solder. The nickel in question was electroplate on alli, with unknown alloy composition. I made sure the plate was scrupulously clean, placed pre-forms of cored solder onto the plate, and reflowed it in an oven.

I would expect that having pure(ish) nickel would be an advantage.

I would strongly recommend first tinning the pads and tinning the wire seperately, then soldering the tinned regions together with a further application of fresh solder.

Always do this when you have likely 'difficult' materials to solder. It allows you more control over the temperature of the wire when the flux becomes active than you would have if trying to make a whole joint.

Carl A. Willis

Sun Feb 24 2013, 07:12AM

Registered Member #9640 Joined: Wed Jan 16 2013, 07:53AM
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Posts: 26

Nickel can be frustrating to solder because of its protective oxide coating.

I usually resort to tinning nickel with the aid of LACO N-3 liquid acid flux, sold in some local plumbing and welding stores (check their website). In the case of fine wire, you would probably have good results simply by dipping the wire in the flux and then tinning with solder like you normally would a copper wire. The solder should flow right on in the presence of even a tiny amount of the N-3 flux. Make sure ALL traces of this flux are washed from the wire after tinning it. After tinning, you can solder to pads using rosin-core solder as you normally would any other wire.

-Carl

Conundrum

Sun Feb 24 2013, 01:13PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Had success soldering nickel to tinned LFP cans, using "lead free" solder based on Sn99Cu1.
Seems to work fairly well, if that helps.

-A

Patrick

Sun Feb 24 2013, 05:36PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

Ok thank you all, ill try what you have suggested...

ConKbot of Doom

Mon Feb 25 2013, 12:32PM

Registered Member #509 Joined: Sat Feb 10 2007, 07:02AM
Location:
Posts: 329

You can solder nickel (Ive done nickel strips in battery pack building) and you can even use plain 63/37 tin lead, RMA. But if you get any surface oxide from heating it without flux on it, youre done. I could scrape/sand it off the strip, but with .005 wire, youre hosed if it decides it doesnt want to play nice and you dont have aggressive flux.

teravolt

Tue Feb 26 2013, 05:21PM

Registered Member #195 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 08:27PM
Location: Berkeley, ca.
Posts: 1111

hi Patrick it may be a little late but hear is flux for steal that we use at work

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Thu Feb 28 2013, 04:25AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

A lot of the Vacuum hardware is stainless, and I had to solder it. I tried the Flouride flux, not even close, would not work. I tried silver bearing solder, the stainless just laughed.
But then I dug out an old time secret to soldering Nickle alloys, the Flux, it's all in the flux!!!!

Phosphoric Acid.

This worked beautifully, now... where the hell do I get Phosphoric acid... the hardware store of course!

Look on the back of a trigger spray bottle of "The Must For Rust", it will say WARNING!!! heh "Contains Phosphoric Acid" blah blah blah...

Anyway, try it out on a piece of scrap to get some practice first, but that should do the trick.
I would heavily rinse in DI water afterward since this is part of a telemetry package, don't want the acid eating up your electronics!

Worked for my Vacuum Ice trap, hope it works for you, and If it doesn't work out, well.. we always could use some rust remover for the pliers.

Patrick

Thu Feb 28 2013, 05:11AM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

the chemistry for aircraft and spacecraft, is always poisonous it seems.

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