Manufacturing process and microstructure of copper-coated aluminum wires

Copper-coated aluminum wires exhibit good electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity, low contact resistance of copper and low density, and provide economic advantages over aluminum. However, there are some problems in the manufacturing processes of hot-dip copper-coated aluminum wires, such as the difficulties in controlling coating process. In this work, the hot-dip copper-coating method of aluminum wires was investigated for producing copper-coated aluminum wire composites. The interface microstructure between the aluminum wire and the copper coating layer was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). Five different fluxing agents were tested. Experimental results show that appropriate conditions for the hot-dip process are determined as the liquid copper temperature of 1085℃ and the treatment time less than 1 s. A success in hot-dip copper-coated aluminum wires is achieved by hot-dipping a low-melting-point metal into a high-melting-point metal liquid, which is significant for the further development and application of copper-coated aluminum wire composites.