Since I started this thread as a quest, the response has been simlpy marvelous, and truly informative to me, and I am certain to many here on the forum.
the reason for my initial post, is that I was seeking a suitable material as a "bridge" between to fuse positions on a fusebox design that I've working on. The distance is short..less than one inch, carrying a maximum 40 amps at start-up for a period of 4-5 seconds for fan motors, fuel pumps. The goal is to rid my car.. 400i Ser. 1, of those "blessed" german type fuses and the spring type contacts that weaken with time, and also corrode. The ATC and ATO fuses are the proper way to go. So..the decision is to install the stainless steel bridges on the prototype and throw the juice to it and let 'er buck. We'll soon see. Thank you all again.Jq.Want more information on is stainless steel conductive? Feel free to contact us.
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Not saying Stuborn Dutchman is wrong but I currently (for the last 15 yrs) work in a plating shop as a electro-plater (the person doing the plating) and our racks are NOT made of the same S.S. that a run of mill bolt is made of. They are a higher grade. On some racks the point of contact (where the part is mounted) is made of titanium and the titanium is then attached to a copper bar, much like a buss bar (and then coated for protection), which in turn is the contact point that attaches to the cathode bar. The reason the hook that goes on the cathode bar is made of copper is there is much higher current draw through that contact point than the point a part is mounted. Put a part on a common S.S. hook and place the hook on a cathode bar drawing high Amps and in a few moments the S.S. hook is glowing cherry red.
The high current draw I refer to is 3 volts drawing 100 amps, 5 volts drawing 200 amps, 8-9 volts drawing 700-800 amps. Some of the plating tanks I use can and will draw Amps.
In a perfect world the entire rack would be made of copper for conductivity, however, the copper slowly dissolves when placed in some of the cleaning solutions such as hydrochloric acid and quickly/completely dissolves when placed in nitric acid. Copper will also ruin some of the other processing tank solutions.
Copper is also too malleable to hold parts securely in place for plating.
Also think about how many starters you have seen where the battery cable is connected with a larger copper contact due to high Amp draw?
That said, and knowing generators produce much lower Amps, if I were you, I would either use steel (remember to protect it from corroding), or switch connector from other generator or leave as is and maybe not use headlights too much.
Norm
(Side note to Randy, sorry if punctuation is off but spell check only helps so much ~grinz~)
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