A mathematical model of the copper plating process in restoration of road transport equipment parts

Abstract

Introduction. The use of restored parts of motor vehicles makes it possible to reduce the financial costs of repairing equipment. The cost of the restored parts should not exceed 50% of the cost of the new part. Increasing the productivity (deposition rate) of an electrolytic copper coating during the restoration of parts of motor vehicles requires taking into account the technological and economic aspects of the restoration process. The study of the factors (deposition conditions) that most affect the deposition process of the copper coating, the analysis of the experimental results and its statistical processing made it possible to optimize the technology of restoration of copper parts to create the most appropriate deposition modes with maximum productivity, thus reducing the cost of restoration of parts of motor vehicles. The purpose of the research is to develop a mathematical model of the effect of deposition conditions (electrolyte temperature, cathode current density) and electrolyte composition (concentration of copper sulfate and sulfuric acid) on the performance of the deposition process of copper coating, for further development of the most productive technology for restoring collectors of electric motors of motor vehicles.Materials and methods. The studies on equipment that allows obtaining the necessary data with the required accuracy were carried out. Mathematical processing using modern statistical data processing tools that excluded possible errors, providing to obtain the dependence of factors with the necessary accuracy was carried out.Results. In the course of studies of copper sulfate electrolytes to obtain an electrolytic copper coating, with the further development of technology for the restoration of automotive parts, it became necessary to determine the effect of deposition conditions – “factors” (cathode current density, electrolyte temperature, copper sulfate concentration, sulfuric acid concentration) on the deposition rate – “response”. It was found that the factor “cathode current density” and the combination of factors “cathode current density” and “sulfuric acid concentration” are the most significant. The deposition conditions in order to obtain the most productive technology for restoring collectors of electric motors of motor vehicles by depositing a copper coating have been optimized. According to the obtained model, the optimal values of the deposition conditions for obtaining the maximum deposition rate are the electrolyte temperature of 35...40 ° C, the cathode current density of more than 5 A/Dm2, the concentration of copper sulfate 200...250 g/l, the concentration of sulfuric acid 40...70 g/l.