Wiring harness construction technique question

[Nic van der Walt]

> Sorry to knit pick, but gold plating is used because it is the least 
> corrosive material in the galvanic series next to platinum.  
> This means it 
> will not corrode or will corrode extremely slowly no matter 
> what it is in 
> contact with when speaking of car applications where galvanic 
> corrosion is 
> dominate.

Yes, the gold won't corrode, but whatever material is in contact with it
will corrode more than it would have when mated to itself.

On a typical connector that has a current source path and a return path 
one terminal will be unaffected and the other will corrode badly when
the
current flows for the majority of the connectors (short) life. In an
application where current flow is intermittent you get corrosion on
all terminals.

When mating tin to gold you are worse of than when you mate tin to tin.

Here is a good description of the problem:
http://www.stabilant.com/appnt21h.htm
http://chl.wes.army.mil/library/publications/chetn/pdf/cetn-vi19.pdf

Have fun,
N.
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