Effect of Surface Preparation and Heat Treatment on the Interfacial Resistance, Friction, and Wear of Precious-Metal Electrical-Contact Alloys

摘要

The precious metal alloy couple (Pd-Ag-Cu-Au-Pt) with (Au-Cu-Pt-Ag) finds wide application as a wiping electrical contact. Experience at this laboratory in component applications has indicated that surface preparation methods can have a substantial effect on subsequent contact performance. Additionally, investigations at Sandia have shown that the normally recommended heat treat process is in a time and temperature regime where alloy properties are rapidly changing. This can easily cause batch to batch variations in material properties such as microstructure, hardness and bulk resistance. This work investigated the effects of surface preparation and heat treatment on the contact resistance, friction and wear of the alloy couple. (ERA citation 07:054407)