Method for crimping terminal to aluminum electric wire

1. A method for crimping a terminal to an aluminum electric wire, comprising:

preparing a terminal having an electric connecting portion which is configured to be connected with a mating terminal at a front end side thereof, and a conductor crimping portion which is configured to crimped to a conductor of an electric wire configured to be connected therewith by bent inward to be crimped at a rear end side thereof, wherein at least an inner surface of the conductor crimping portion is plated with a metal whose hardness is lower than a hardness of a metal of a terminal base material;

preparing an aluminum electric wire having a conductor made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy as the electric wire configured to be connected with the conductor crimping portion; and

crimping the conductor crimping portion to the conductor of the aluminum electric wire by bending the conductor crimping portion inwards in a state that the conductor of the aluminum electric wire is inserted into an interior of the conductor crimping portion of the crimp terminal,

wherein a thickness of the metal applied to plate the inner surface of the conductor crimping portion is thicker than a thickness of the metal applied to plate an inner surface of the electric connecting portion, and

wherein the thickness of the metal applied to plate the inner surface of the conductor crimping portion is set to be in a range from 2.1 μm to 5.0 μm.

2. The method for crimping the terminal to the aluminum electric wire as

set forth in claim 1 , wherein

the terminal base material is made of copper or a copper alloy, and a metal with which the terminal base material is plated is tin.

3. The method for crimping the terminal to the aluminum electric wire as set forth in claim 1 , wherein

the conductor crimping portion of the crimp terminal has a bottom plate part and a pair of conductor crimping pieces which extend upwards from both side edges of the bottom plate part and which are configured to be bent inwards so as to embrace the conductor of the aluminum electric wire to thereby crimp the conductor so as to be in close contact with an upper surface of the bottom plate part,

the conductor crimping portion is formed to have a substantially U-shaped section, and

in the crimping, the pair of conductor crimping pieces are bent inwards so as to be crimped to the conductor in such a state that the conductor is placed on the bottom plate part of the crimp terminal.

4. The method for crimping the terminal to the aluminum electric wire as

set forth in claim 2 , wherein

the conductor crimping portion of the crimp terminal has a bottom plate part and a pair of conductor crimping pieces which extend upwards from both side edges of the bottom plate part and which are configured to be bent inwards so as to embrace the conductor of the aluminum electric wire to thereby crimp the conductor so as to be in close contact with an upper surface of the bottom plate part,

the conductor crimping portion is formed to have a substantially U-shaped section, and

in the crimping, the pair of conductor crimping pieces are bent inwards so as to be crimped to the conductor in such a state that the conductor is placed on the bottom plate part of the crimp terminal.

5. The method for crimping the terminal to the aluminum electric as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the preparing of the terminal includes:

submerging the conductor crimping portion in a plating liquid while exposing the electric connecting portion above the plating liquid; and

moving the terminal horizontally in a state where the conductor crimping portion is submerged in the plating liquid.

6. The method for crimping the terminal to the aluminum electric wire as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the preparing of the terminal includes:

submerging the terminal in a plating liquid in a state where the electric connecting portion is oriented upwards and the conductor crimping portion is oriented downwards; and

moving the terminal obliquely from inside to outside of the plating liquid so that a time when the conductor crimping portion stays in the plating liquid is longer than a time when the electric connecting portion stays in the plating liquid.

7. The method for crimping the terminal to the aluminum electric wire as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the preparing of the terminal includes:

applying a masking on the conductor crimping portion; and

plating the terminal in a state where the masking is applied on the conductor crimping portion.

8. The method for crimping the terminal to the aluminum electric wire as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the inner surface of the conductor crimping portion includes serrations extending in the left-right direction of the terminal, and the metal enters into the serrations by the crimping.