🧵 Aluminium Wire for Metallising — Purity, Diameter, Feed & Spatter Control 🧵 मेटलाइज़िंग के लिए एल्युमिनियम वायर — शुद्धता, व्यास, फीड और स्पैटर नियंत्रण

🧵 Aluminium Wire for Metallising — Purity, Diameter, Feed & Spatter Control

📖 11-min read  ·  Metalliser consumables  ·  Operator + process

Wire is not “just aluminium.” On a metalliser it is the rate at which metal arrives at the boat. Wrong purity, diameter drift, or feed miscalibration shows up as OD swings, spatter, pinholes, and boats that die early. This post is the ops consumable view — not “why we choose aluminium as a metal” (that is a different article).

1. Purity and surface

Impurities and surface oil do not only hurt optical density. They react at the boat and accelerate ceramic wear. Demand certificates of analysis, quarantine suspect coils, and keep a simple approved-supplier list on the board.

2. Diameter and feed rate

Diameter sets how much metal arrives per revolution of the feeder. A 2% diameter drift is not “nothing” — it is a systematic OD bias. After every coil change, verify feed calibration, not only “start and hope.”

3. The spatter / pinhole walk

When metal dots or pinholes appear, walk this order before raising boat current:

1. Wire batch and surface condition
2. Feed setpoint vs last good recipe
3. Power ramp (cold shock vs stable pool)
4. Boat age and wet-out pattern
5. Vacuum trend vs baseline

4. Storage FIFO

Open coils pick up moisture and shop dust. FIFO, sealed storage, and dry handling reduce “mystery Monday OD” after weekend humidity.