[Hallicrafters] Tube Socket Connection

[David C. Hallam]

Glen,

I'm sure what you say is true.  When you're making millions of sockets, I
guess price is an issue.  It's like the old adage, "Any engineer can design
a water pump for a Rolls Royce, but it takes a team of good engineers to
design a water pump for a Ford".

However, my field is, or was before retirement, metallurgical engineering.
I spent about 8 years working for a firm that made contact materials for a
lot of different uses.  We made contacts from all types of materials.  The
simplest for electrical conductors were formed from cold rolled cartridge
brass.  The next step up was phosphorous deoxidized tin bronze.  The top of
the line for electrical connectors were the spinodal alloys which were
copper nickel tin alloys.  They were the best for high strength and good
heat resistance.  Also, I'm sure you are experienced enough to know that
connectors are not gold plated because gold is a good conductor.  Actually
it's not as good a copper.  Connectors are gold plated because gold doesn't
tarnish or corrode under any ordinary conditions.  Try to tell that to the
audiophools.



David
KC2JD

-----Original Message-----
From: Glen Zook [mailto:gzook at yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:52 AM
To: dhallam at rapidsys.com; Hallicrafters List
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Tube Socket Connection


Remember that the equipment was not originally
intended to be still in use decades after manufacture.
 The fact that equipment that is over 40 years old is
still working today is a tribute to the original
designers who were really looking at a lifespan of
less than 10 years.

Glen, K9STH

--- "David C. Hallam" <dhallam at rapidsys.com> wrote:

I guess tin plated cold rolled brass is a lot cheaper
than using something that would hold up under the heat
and repeated removal and reinsertion of the tubes.

Glen, K9STH

Web sites

http://home.comcast.net/~k9sth
http://home.comcast.net/~zcomco




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