Observations of electrical contact surface in Cu-Ag/Ni couple with make/break

Author

Honda, Fumihiro ; Imada, Y. ; Okumura, K. ; Nakajima, Koichi

Author_Institution

Toyota Technol. Inst., Nagoya, Japan

Volume

14

Issue

3

fYear

1991

fDate

9/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

597

Lastpage

601

Abstract

A mechanism of erosion (wear) and material transfer occurring on electrical contact surface during make/break was investigated with Cu-Ag/Ni couples. It was found that the state of contact surface depends largely on the duration of anodic arc discharge and that the formation of a thin film of Cu₂O on the surface plays an important role in controlling the erosion and material transfer to be generated on the contact surface. On the basis of the experimental results, a model for explaining the configurational and compositional change in electrical contact surface has been proposed, which is composed of four kinds of stages per make/break cycle

Keywords

copper alloys; electrical contacts; nickel; silver alloys; wear testing; Cu₂O film formation; CuAg alloy; CuAg-Ni; compositional change; duration of anodic arc discharge; electrical contact surface; erosion mechanism; experimental results; four stage erosion; make/break cycle; material transfer; model; state of contact surface; wear mechanism; Adhesives; Arc discharges; Contact resistance; Delamination; Frequency; Oxidation; Surface cracks; Surface discharges; Surface resistance; Welding;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Components, Hybrids, and Manufacturing Technology, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0148-6411

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/33.83950

Filename

83950