3 ms·

How long does it take?

by woah 12y ago

marcosdumay 12y ago
Let's see. Copper has valence 1, that means that one atom is deposed by each election that flows on the system. A mol of copper has 63g, thus, for each 100,000C that flows, there'll be 63g deposed. The video says it uses 100mA of power, what makes it capable of deposing 63µg/s at most. Serious galvanoplasty power supplies start at the 50A mark for a reason.
- tonyarkles 12y ago
  Doing a bit of in-my-head math... At 1A, that'd be about 50g/day. I don't remember the voltage required for electroplating using CuSO4+acid, but I remember it being low. I suppose it probably has to do with electrode spacing too. As a guesstimate, let's go for 5 volts (which I have no idea of the accuracy). If we're stepping household 120V down to 5V, we've got a factor of 60 reduction. With a (big ass) buck converter, we can in theory get 15A*60 = 900A = 900C/s out of a standard breaker. That works out to 49kg/day? That seems ridiculously large. I'd love for someone to point out what I did wrong though. I've assumed 100% efficiency everywhere, but even cutting it down to 10% still results in ~5kg/day. Edit: I'm sure it's an expensive power supply, but it's nice to see that I got in the right ballpark: http://www.americanplatingpower.com/reverse-pulse-power-axd-compact-s.php http://www.americanplatingpower.com/reverse-pulse-power-axd-...
  - mschuster91 12y ago
    > With a (big ass) buck converter, we can in theory get 15A*60 = 900A = 900C/s out of a standard breaker No way you're gonna run 900A through this little pencil - the temperatures at contact point will act like a welding machine (uncontrollably melt/vaporize)...
    - Turing_Machine 12y ago
      Indeed. You can probably run a lot more than normal if you keep the tip submerged and circulate the electrolyte, but you're not gonna run 900 amps through it. Some useful equations and numbers here: http://www.ami.ac.uk/courses/topics/0223_plate/index.html http://www.ami.ac.uk/courses/topics/0223_plate/index.html

How long does it take?

by woah 12y ago

How long does it take?

Let's see. Copper has valence 1, that means that one atom is deposed by each election that flows on the system. A mol of copper has 63g, thus, for each 100,000C that flows, there'll be 63g deposed. The video says it uses 100mA of power, what makes it capable of deposing 63µg/s at most. Serious galvanoplasty power supplies start at the 50A mark for a reason.

tonyarkles 12y ago
Doing a bit of in-my-head math... At 1A, that'd be about 50g/day. I don't remember the voltage required for electroplating using CuSO4+acid, but I remember it being low. I suppose it probably has to do with electrode spacing too. As a guesstimate, let's go for 5 volts (which I have no idea of the accuracy). If we're stepping household 120V down to 5V, we've got a factor of 60 reduction. With a (big ass) buck converter, we can in theory get 15A*60 = 900A = 900C/s out of a standard breaker. That works out to 49kg/day? That seems ridiculously large. I'd love for someone to point out what I did wrong though. I've assumed 100% efficiency everywhere, but even cutting it down to 10% still results in ~5kg/day. Edit: I'm sure it's an expensive power supply, but it's nice to see that I got in the right ballpark: http://www.americanplatingpower.com/reverse-pulse-power-axd-compact-s.php http://www.americanplatingpower.com/reverse-pulse-power-axd-...
- mschuster91 12y ago
  > With a (big ass) buck converter, we can in theory get 15A*60 = 900A = 900C/s out of a standard breaker No way you're gonna run 900A through this little pencil - the temperatures at contact point will act like a welding machine (uncontrollably melt/vaporize)...
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    Indeed. You can probably run a lot more than normal if you keep the tip submerged and circulate the electrolyte, but you're not gonna run 900 amps through it. Some useful equations and numbers here: http://www.ami.ac.uk/courses/topics/0223_plate/index.html http://www.ami.ac.uk/courses/topics/0223_plate/index.html