siliconmike wrote:

Peter Fairbrother wrote:

First impression, get it done rather than do it yourself. You
can probably buy gold plated copper foil anyway. But I expect it's a bit more
complex than that ...

This article is used as a leaf-spring with a mild spring action (nickel
induced) to make a weak electrical contact with a moving gold plated part

Convince me it has to be made from copper. Convince me it has to be made by
edm rather than eg pressing. Then convince me it can't be made by edm of
spring steel.

Why not use eg beryllium copper? That's springy. Though I expect spring
steel is the actual appropriate material.




What you are asking will almost certainly cost more than a properly designed
part - at least ten to a hundred times more - if you do it that way.



Have you thought about eg the cost of fixing the parts in a frame so they
can be nickel plated? That costs, a whole lot, each part has to have a good
electrical contact too, and your local platers will either charge a whole
lot extra for the care involved to do it properly, or they will bend the
workpieces.

The alternative is barrel plating, where the pieces are put in a revolving
rubber lined barrel and make electrical contact by touching each other from
time to time while the barrel revolves, and touching either an electrode
with a rubber stem or the outside of the barrel, depending on process.

That's cheap, less than a hundredth of the price, closer to a thousandth or
even a ten-thousandth for something your size - but your soft copper pieces
will get damaged - but spring steel ones won't.





There may be considerations that I am unaware of, as I do not know all the
details of the part and it's intended use, but my simple advice is:

- what you are asking for can be done, and yes I can tell you how to do it,
but it would be expensive. Very expensive. Horrendously expensive,
outrageously expensive, no-one would even consider doing it that way if they
had an alternative

- can you change your requirements a bit? Why does it have to be copper?


--
Peter Fairbrother