Surface physics and chemistry of electrical contact phenomena
Abstract
Rotating electrical contacts have been characterized with respect to friction, wear electrical contact resistance, current carrying capacity, and the elemental chemical composition of the surfaces of the slip ring, brush wire ends, and wear particles. Previous work in which both the slip ring and the brush wire were made of Cu was extended to Ag wire brushes running on a Cu slip ring. The transfer of metal from brush to slip ring and vice versa as well as to the wear particles was studied for contacts lubricated by 1 atm of humidified CO2 as a function of current. The results are embodied in 6 papers attached to this report. The most interesting results were the observation that wear occurred chiefly on the harder Cu component and that the "molecular ball bearing' hypothesis for lubrication by H2O-CO2 molecules could be applied to both Cu-Cu and Ag-Cu sliding contacts.
- Publication:
-
Final Report
- Pub Date:
- September 1982
- Bibcode:
- 1982syra.rept.....V
- Keywords:
-
- Brushes (Electrical Contacts);
- Electric Contacts;
- Lubrication;
- Sliding Friction;
- Surface Reactions;
- Wear;
- Carbon Dioxide;
- Copper;
- Debris;
- Electron Microscopy;
- Microstructure;
- Silver;
- X Ray Spectroscopy;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering