Degradation phenomenon of electrical contacts by using a micro-sliding mechanism

Authors have studied the degradation phenomenon on contact resistance under the influences of an external micro-oscillation. They have developed a hammering oscillating mech-anism (HOM) or a micro-sliding mechanism 1 (MSM1) which provides micro-oscillations for electrical contacts. It is shown that each mechanism is able to simulate an actual degradation phenomenon on electrical contacts. And they have also developed the third mechanism, namely another micro-sliding mechanism 2 (MSM2) which provides micro-sliding driven by a piezo-electric actuator and elastic hinges, which has more precise sliding performance, less thermal drift on the sliding, and smaller sized system constituted of commercial parts.