Abstract
Graphite-silver (AgC) composite materials are widely used in outdoor high-voltage electrical switchgear due to their combining properties of excellent conductivity and outstanding arc-suppressing performance. However, the methods for fabricating AgC composite materials still have some limitations. In this study, the cold spray technique was adopted to deposit AgC composite coatings with the optimized parameters on the copper substrate. Then, AgC coatings were annealed in the furnace and treated by laser scanning, respectively, to further improve the arc erosion resistance performance of the coatings. The results show that the phase structure and electrical resistance of AgC coatings were not influenced by the post-treatment process. Furthermore, excellent hydrophobic performance was obtained after surface laser scanning treatment. The laser scanning treatment exhibited favorable advantages in enhancing the arc erosion resistance of AgC coatings, which indicated the lowest arc erosion rate compared with the cold-sprayed and annealed coatings.
Highlights
Silver-based composites have been widely used as electrical contact materials for several decades due to their outstanding electric properties [1,2]
The surface morphologies, wettability, microstructure and arc erosion properties of cold-sprayed AgC composite coatings with and without post-treatment were investigated cold-sprayed AgC composite coatings with and without post-treatment were investigated in this paper
The results showed that AgC coating by the cold spraying process exhibited in this paper
Summary
Silver-based composites have been widely used as electrical contact materials for several decades due to their outstanding electric properties [1,2]. Cold spray was originally developed as an environmental coating technique for solid material deposition in the 1980s [9] During this process, powder materials impact the substrate at an ultra-high speed and form a homogenous coating by plastic deformation. As a new surface modification technology, laser scanning shows the effects of both annealing and arraying the surface morphologies, which could possibly be used to improve the electric performance of the cold-spray coatings [16,17,18]. The results showed that the laser scanning treatment could improve the arc erosion-resistance of the cold-spray coating, while thermal annealing was harmful for the erosion-resistance performance. The obtained results in this research may provide a possible approach with eco-friendly and large-scale capability to fabricate arc erosion resistant AgC composite coatings for application in electric switching contact
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