Interruption Phenomena for Various Contact Materials in Vacuum

It is important to understand the interruption phenomena for contact materials in order to adapt them for use in high voltage. Accordingly, we have carried out measurements of the arc energy and anode surface temperature and observed the vacuum arc in a vacuum chamber. We have used three kinds of contact materials in this investigation, namely, Cu, CuCr, and AgWC. In addition, it is effective to develop a new contact material as the means of application to high voltage of vacuum circuit breaker. Therefore, we made a prototype of new contacts, based on the tests results, for adaptation to high-voltage vacuum circuit breakers. In addition, we carried out interruption tests using these contact materials.