Electrical contact bounce in medium-duty contacts

Abstract

Electrical contact bounce occurs with most types of switching contacts; it is often a major cause of wear and erosion, leading to reduced reliability in a given system. The author investigates the basic phenomena of contact bounce with the passage of current in the medium duty range (1-30 A AC and DC). An automated test system is used to evaluate contact bounce. In the evaluation, surface degradation is accounted for during endurance testing, allowing the development of empirical relations between mechanical and electrical bounce. Consideration of the experimental results presented gives an understanding of how current affects contact bounce. The current is shown to influence single separations by applying additional forces to the mechanical impact process. The constant time duration of a first bounce is reconfirmed, and surface conditions accounted for to present a complete picture of the dynamics. >