Electrical contact bounce in medium duty contacts

Author

McBride, J.W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Southampton Univ., UK

fYear

1988

fDate

26-29 Sept. 1988

Firstpage

141

Lastpage

149

Abstract

The basic phenomena of electrical contact bounce with the passage of current, in the medium duty range (1 to 30 A AC and DC), are investigated. Experimental results presented show that by considering individual impacts, an understanding of how current affects contact bounce is achieved. An automated test system is used to evaluate contact bounce. The surface degradation is evaluated by endurance testing, allowing the development of empirical relations between mechanical and electrical bounce. With this understanding it is shown how arc energy dissipation can be reduced by the designed reduction of impact kinetic energy, leading to prolonged contact life.<>

Keywords

design engineering; electrical contacts; life testing; 1 to 30 A; AC currents; DC currents; arc energy dissipation; automated test system; current affected contact bounce; electrical bounce; electrical contact bounce; endurance testing; mechanical bounce; medium duty contacts; medium duty range; phenomena; prolonged contact life; reduction of impact kinetic energy; surface degradation; Breakdown voltage; Capacitive sensors; Contacts; Electric breakdown; Equations; Extrapolation; Kinetic theory; Plastics; Solids; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Contacts, 1988., Proceedings of the Thirty Fourth Meeting of the IEEE Holm Conference on

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA, USA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOLM.1988.16110

Filename

16110