Electrical behavior of periodically microstructured Sn/CuSn4 contact models under fretting conditions

Fretting corrosion caused by vibration of electrical contacts is one of the main causes of failure of the electrical systems used in the automotive industry. The number of electrical contacts in automotive applications increases steadily. An improvement of electrical connectors can be achieved by microstructuring of the coating by interfering laser beams. The evolution of the electrical contact resistance and the friction coefficient in fretting tests are studied and the slip–stick regimes are analyzed. The changes in the electrical behavior after interference irradiation are explained on the base of cross section studies of vibrated contact models after different numbers of fretting cycles. The study is completed by SEM and EDX investigations.