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Excellent Graphic re. Conductivity of Various Metals




I've been noodling on the design of connectors. While not the sole considertion, some degree of performance depends on the conductivity of the metal surfaces. The IACS rating describes conductivity- IACS is the abbreviation for International Annealed Copper Standard and, as an example, "28 IACS" means the stuff is 28% as the conductive as pure copper, which is considered to be 100% conductive. It shows "The lower the % IACS, the more conductive material you'd need to equal pure copper."

A couple things jump out at you, considering various materials as possible connectors. Gold is only 70IACS but is often used since it corrodes so slowly as to not appear to corrode at all. It may be the best all-around connector material.

Silver is over 100IACS but may not be a good choice due to its succeptbility to corrosion.

Brass is pretty lousy at around 28IACS, depending on the alloy composition. Rhodium is a little better at around 38IACS if perfectly pure. It's better than Nickel at 22IACS. So any ordinary sort of AC plug seems to have pretty poor conductivity.

Seen any ads for "Red Copper" plated connectors lately? I believe it's actually intended to mean BeCu- a fairly common alloy of Beryllium and Copper used to make non-sparking tools-- very strong stuff, very corrosion resistant. Unfortunately very poor conductivity- under 20IACS in basic form. So someone selling Red Copper plated RCA's may not have your best interests at heart. BeCu may be very difficult to solder and DON'T BREATHE THE FUMES.

Conductivity seems worth considering, especially when you look at what poor contacts are formed by RCA plugs, sticking in typical stock HiFi equipment sockets. Also, RCA's are a terrible design-- the way the hot makes before the ground! Who came up with RCA plugs? RCA? They autta be shot!




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Topic - Excellent Graphic re. Conductivity of Various Metals - mr.bear 01:18:31 01/9/18 (4)

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