Indium rod is essentially very thick indium wire, so we don’t end up talking about it often specifically. I guess we take it for granted – but we do provide indium rod to our customers. What differentiates a rod from a wire? There are a few different opinions in the soldering industry.
One opinion is that wire becomes rod at some arbitrary diameter, maybe set at 6mm (for instance). Another view is that a rod is called a wire based on length - another arbitrary threshold. This could be set at 1 meter, as an example. Longer lengths would be wire, and shorter lengths are rod.
The most popular view, in my experience, is that a wire is spooled and a rod is sold in straight lengths. This may be a result of convenient packaging for the customer, or perhaps the wire diameter and alloy brittleness prevent it from being coiled. This is really a combination of the first two opinions into a more utilitarian version, because a wire that is too thick or short to be coiled is realistically restricted in length due to packaging.
Regardless of how you distinguish a rod from a wire – you have come to the right place. At Indium Corporation we provide solder in all forms. In fact, we produce custom rod (including indium rod) in various sizes, purities, quantities, and packaging. Let us know what you need, our team of Application Engineers and Sales Specialists will be glad to help you.
~Jim