Is it bad to use nickel plated steel strips to build a battery pack ?

yoshi

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So I got ripped off from aliexpress when I bought a roll of 0.15x8 mm and 0.15x5mm nickel strips. They are not pure nickel as I did a salt water test and they rusted.

I know the resistance is bad for these plated steel strip vs pure strips. What is the biggest battery pack I can use build with these before they get too hot and cause damage to the battery? I was going to build a 4S20P. Has anyone used Nickel plated steel for their battery welding ?
 
It's not ideal or my first choice, but it will work. There are other products out there like the battery hookup sheets with built in "fuses" that are also nickel plated steel.

You will have a higher resistance and voltage drop across it will be largely depended on your load. You can always consider soldering some extra buss bars to it. This would be common practice for any higher than average load and to help with uneven pack distribution.

You just have to do the math on it... you can measure the packs mV delta under load between the lead side and far side of the pack.


Also, I am curious if your product was fraud, or just advertised or listed in a way to make it harder to determine...

I usually see them say "Nickel Sheet Plate Nickel Steel Belt Strip" and some are say pure nickel strip.

Your best bet is probably to just order from 18650 Shrink vendor on ebay. Same guy that sells the kWeld, he is reputable from what I hear.
 
Nickel plated steel will work for quite a large sized pack. 8mm is pretty wide. You'll not carry so much current that the resistance of the steel will make that huge of an impact. Even on an 80p pack, it'd probably be difficult to get to the limit.

With that said, if the nickel strips are in an area where they are susceptible to moisture, you'll want to make sure they are coated (if you weld) as the exposed steel can start to rust. You'll want to cover the ends as well since cutting the strips exposes the steel.

+1 for going with 18650Shrink. He does a lot of sales for those on the forum and has a pretty good sized store now.
 
Just because of this thread... I decided I am going to test all of my nickle strip tonight. I have some AliExpress as well that I haven't used, and now im curious.

 
Korishan said:
Nickel plated steel will work for quite a large sized pack. 8mm is pretty wide. You'll not carry so much current that the resistance of the steel will make that huge of an impact. Even on an 80p pack, it'd probably be difficult to get to the limit.

With that said, if the nickel strips are in an area where they are susceptible to moisture, you'll want to make sure they are coated (if you weld) as the exposed steel can start to rust. You'll want to cover the ends as well since cutting the strips exposes the steel.

+1 for going with 18650Shrink. He does a lot of sales for those on the forum and has a pretty good sized store now.

Well that is good to hear I can use it to build my power bank with the 8mm. I was looking at the side of the strips where they cut it and it seem like rust is forming. I can remove the rust with steel wool but not too sure what the best way to keep it from rusting.

Is there a calculation somewhere of figure out what size nickel strip is good for what size of battery pack ? I notice that my spot welder comes with some 1.0mm x 5mm nickel plate strip too. Not sure if they are good for anything but really small applications.
 
The calculation is based on mm^2 surface area. There are plenty of graphs and such that shows what size wire/bar cross sectional area can carry how much current based on the type of material it is.
Now, with nickel plated, you'd base the numbers on steel, not nickel.


Using steel wool is a bad idea. That just wipes not only the rust away, it wipes away some more of the nickel. If the edges are getting rusty, then you probably should coat the entire strip. If you have a roll, might be a good idea to coat the edges with something (like clear nail polish perhaps?) and then unroll it before it fully dries.
 
Just spit balling ideas here but I think a solution worth trying would be to "tin the tip" with a soldering iron. I would flux the cut edge and apply a little solder before spot welding it on.
 
Crimp Daddy said:
Just spit balling ideas here but I think a solution worth trying would be to "tin the tip" with a soldering iron. I would flux the cut edge and apply a little solder before spot welding it on.

That could work if you could get the nickel strip hot enough long enough to apply a thin tin strip. Would definitely be tedious to do a long strip, or a coil. This is when it'd be nice to have a skillet full of liquid solder and just dip the strip in, saute on both sides for a few seconds, and hang to cool.
 
I saw some YouTube videos showing how to electroplate various metals. There isn't much equipment involved (bucket + DC source), and the materials are easy to get. The standard stuff (nickel, copper, gold?) didn't seem complicated at all, though some of the acids involved are caustic / toxic.
 
Yeah, electroplating would work. Problem is, to get the nickel acetate, you either need to buy the salt, or make it first. The process of making it is relatively easy, however, it is very easy to contaminate the solution with iron if what you are pulling the nickel from is also plated.

Here's a good guide: https://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-and-safe-Nickel-Plating/

He shows the process of making the acetate solution. But, he also bought pure nickel ingots online.
 
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