Battery Clip design (spring steel)

[deadrise]

I am designing a battery clips for a AA size battery using .020 thick spring steel. I would like to fabricate (bend) some prototypes for testing purposes. Is the material formed to it's shape and then heat treated to a spring temper or can I bend the spring temper material?

 

[NickE]

Well that depends upon the SS that is used for the clip. I think that 301 is pretty common. 301 like others of the 3xx series are not heat treatable. If you get a spring temper(rolled) .020" you might get about a 5-7t bend radius. Any of the heat treatable stainless steels are more expensive than 301 (i think). other grades to try are: 17-4 or 17-7, 420 etc...

Steel has a relatively low conductivity. You might wnat to look into NiBryl Alloy 360 from BrushWellman. a Ni-based alloy that is Age hardenable and can be formed then hardened to a UTS of ~300ksi. Also has a conductivity approximately 3x that of 17-7PH.



Nick
I love materials science!

 

[sreid]

If there is any chance that procuring these vs. designing your own makes any sense, Keystone is a major supplier of electronic hardware.