Is stainless steel a good conductor?

SDE

Well-known Member
My generator was missing a terminal. I took the insulators out of a different generator, but decided that it would be easier to use a 10-24 bolt with nuts to secure it. As I was finishing it, I realized that I had used a stainless steel bolt. I googled "is stainless a good conductor" and some people said yes and others said no. My guess is that it will work, but a steel bolt would have been better. So do I redo it or leave it alone?
Thank you
SDE
 
It will be just fine. Every stud top group 31 battery had stainless posts so it certainly conducts
 
stainless is a very bad conductor. I wouldn't use it. I bet if you feel that stud while the battery is charging it is so hot it burns you when you touch it from the resistance. I made a little bus bar for some intake preheaters on my diesel and it got super hot. had to re-do it with copper.
 
I worked for several years repairing parts racks in a plating plant. Parts were carried from tank to tank on large racks. The racks had large copper hooks that attached to the bus bars. However, the hooks the parts hung from were stainless steel. No problem with current draw.
 
On my top post gel cell batteries, the stainless bolt is only putting force on the terminal to hold it against a lead pad that is larger than the bolt, so no current is going through the bolt itself. The bolt could be of plastic, and it would still work. The designers where I work are not allowed to use a bolt to conduct electricity under any circumstances, neither current carrying, nor ground. I can only assume it is against code. We place a ground strap around any juncture rather than rely on the bolted connection.
 
Thermal conductivity of carbon steels and alloy steel are about 2 1/2 times that of stainless steels. All these steels will conduct heat and electricity, so you will not notice the difference. But it is there. Big difference in designing power plants. Not so much difference in tractor repairs.
 
Here you go:

http://eddy-current.com/conductivity-of-metals-sorted-by-resistivity/

If your bolt is functioning as a conductor, replace it. If your bolt is functioning as a fastener and other more conductive parts provide the conductive path, you are likely OK to leave it.

Electricity will always take the least resistive path so if that path is there, in any application, it will go that way. Said another way, if Stainless is present in a conductive path or assembly but other more conductive paths exist, it is likely a mute point. (I should point out if the SS is acting as a parallel conductor it will conduct but at a lessor amount compared to it more conductive parallel conductive partner. There is an equation for this.) A good example would be the battery post and clamp so common on auto and tractor batteries. The bolt provides a clamping function and does not participate in conduction. In that application I would not hesitate to use a SS bolt and nut if that is what I had.

Paul
 
Hook an ohm meter to a s/s steel bolt and then to a steel bolt, tell me the difference in resistance. The difference will be so small you won't be able to read it. Resistance creates a voltage drop and that creates heat, the amount of resistance difference you will see won't be any problem at all. You did good, don't worry about it. If you really wanted to get a real good conductor use GOLD it's the very best, so you see what I mean, you are just fine.
 

Stainless steel does not conduct as well as steel and steel does not conduct as well as copper. If the criterion was to select the best conductor, then one would have to use a copper (or silver) bolt. Unless it is a long, small diameter bolt under a large current load, I would think stainless is fine. As has been posted - if it is getting hot then you have a problem.

Material selection is more about the application than simply which is the best conductor. For example, mercury is not as good a conductor as stainless steel and yet it is used in switches.
 
It depends on the stainless steel - not all SS will conduct electricity - just as not all SS is "non-magnetic", and "non-coroding". It depends on the composition of the metal. MOST SS you have access to, however, WILL conduct.
 
In my area the power company requires all outdoor connections to be stainless hardware.But that is to squeeze a connection together . The stainless is for corrosion resistance though, not for great conductivity.
 
You wrote " not all SS will conduct electricity" . ALL STAINL:ESS will conduct electrcity. Go get your piece of non- conductive stainless and stick it on a hot buss in a 480 panel . If you don't get a shock then you are correct.Have at it.
 
Not saying Stuborn Dutchman is wrong but I currently (for the last 15 yrs) work in a plating shop as a electro-plater (the person doing the plating) and our racks are NOT made of the same S.S. that a run of mill bolt is made of. They are a higher grade. On some racks the point of contact (where the part is mounted) is made of titanium and the titanium is then attached to a copper bar, much like a buss bar (and then coated for protection), which in turn is the contact point that attaches to the cathode bar. The reason the hook that goes on the cathode bar is made of copper is there is much higher current draw through that contact point than the point a part is mounted. Put a part on a common S.S. hook and place the hook on a cathode bar drawing high Amps and in a few moments the S.S. hook is glowing cherry red.
The high current draw I refer to is 3 volts drawing 100 amps, 5 volts drawing 200 amps, 8-9 volts drawing 700-800 amps. Some of the plating tanks I use can and will draw 1000 Amps.
In a perfect world the entire rack would be made of copper for conductivity, however, the copper slowly dissolves when placed in some of the cleaning solutions such as hydrochloric acid and quickly/completely dissolves when placed in nitric acid. Copper will also ruin some of the other processing tank solutions.
Copper is also too malleable to hold parts securely in place for plating.

Also think about how many starters you have seen where the battery cable is connected with a larger copper contact due to high Amp draw?

That said, and knowing generators produce much lower Amps, if I were you, I would either use steel (remember to protect it from corroding), or switch connector from other generator or leave as is and maybe not use headlights too much.

Norm

(Side note to Randy, sorry if punctuation is off but spell check only helps so much ~grinz~)
 
You can always check the resistance or look for a voltage drop across the connector. Does it get warmer than the surrounding parts?
 
I agree, the differences in conductivity between metals is closer than farther form very good. However, "Silver has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals. In fact, silver defines conductivity - all other metals are compared against it. On a scale of 0 to 100, silver ranks 100, with copper at 97 and gold at 76." University of Cambridge. Jim
 

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