February 10, 2005

How does one determine what current can be carried by electrical connector contacts to determine capability to carry about 80 AMPs (RMS), low freq AC, or DC.

We have an application that uses a carbon steel base metal pin contact.  The contact is given a nickel flash, followed by a copper plating (to fill in small voids), followed by another nickel flash, followed by silver plating.  Does one calculate current capacity from just the carbon steel base metal, or does one need to take the plating into account?  What formula or chart is used to support the calculation?  If the nickel flash thickness is increased, will it impact current capacity?  If plating is changed to gold, does that impact current 
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capacity?