The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 08, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 27, 2000
Akira Sugawara, Toyooka-mura, JP;
Yoshitake Hana, Toyooka-mura, JP;
Takayoshi Endo, Haibara-cho, JP;
Other;
Abstract
Wear resistant copper or a wear resistant copper base alloy having formed on the outermost surface thereof an oxide layer having a thickness of 10-1000 nm and a layer of an intermetallic compound primarily comprising Cu—Sn having a thickness of 0.1-10 &mgr;m under the oxide film layer is provided; a method of preparing the above-described wear resistant copper or copper base alloy by coating base material copper or a copper base alloy with Sn, preferably performing reflow treatment and then conducting heat treatment is provided; and an electrical part comprising the above-described wear resistant copper or copper base alloy is provided. A terminal made of the alloy according to the present invention which has an appropriate oxide film layer by performing heat treatment can greatly decrease a terminal-insertion force compared with that made of an ordinary copper base alloy which is not subjected to the heat treatment. The wear resistant copper or copper base alloy according to the present invention has a large surface hardness, an excellent slipping property, small contact resistance, an excellent electrical characteristic, as well as the small terminal-insertion force so that it can advantageously be used in an electrical part such as a connector or the like for use in an automobile, a charging socket or the like for use in an electric automobile.