Nickel Plate on brass lamp socket - need to solder wire to this

[mkalavitz]

Thank you for reviewing my question(s).

We have just designed a new lamp socket that is essentially an 1156 lamp socket that
is to be deep drawn from brass and fits into our housing. The base material will be brass. Our supplier is suggesting a nickel plate for protection.

This product is going to be exposed to environmental conditions. It could be 0F - 100F temp ranges, rain, moisture, snow, etc. We don't expect that the life of the product will exceed 2 years.

We have designed this socket with a small tab on the bottom for soldering a ground wire. Is this nickel plate going to cause problems for soldering to the base material?
Is this nickel plate the best for corrosion resistance and still allow to solder? If not, what plating material is recommended for such an application. We need to make the
process as simple as possible since is will be a production part/process.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Sincerely,
Mike K.

[lcaswell]

I would mask off the tab with lacquer, then plate the rest of the part.