Today’s mailbag question asks: “Does indium stick to copper? I want to put the indium between a nickel and a copper surface. I want to stick to one and slide on the other - any recommendation on how to achieve this?”
If you’ve ever worked with indium before, you’ll recall it’s almost “gummy.” It sticks to many surfaces, especially with some agitation (which breaks it’s self-passivating oxide skin).
We have several customers who require that their indium preforms come in contact with many surfaces without sticking to them over time, and we have a solution: aluminum-coated indium preforms. Aluminum-coated preforms offer the lower contact resistance of indium on one side, and the high insertion/wear resistance of aluminum on the other side. With this product, you can have a thermal interface that sticks to one surface and slides over the other.
For more product info (or to order these preforms), please send your request to AskUs@indium.com.