The Effect of Electrical Switch Structure to the Contact Voltage-Drop and Temperature Variations

Abstract

Due to the continuing renovation of the modern technology and the demand for the better consumer products, electricity has become one of the important factors that affect people’s life. The electrical switch is an important element of the electrical device and has been used intensively in industry and transportation devices, such as electrical bicycle, electrical motorcycle, winch etc. As the increasing usage of the electrical switch, the switch quality requirement increases as well. The important factors are contact point mass transferring loss, electric arc energy and contact point resistance and loss. Once the contact point fails to function, the whole electrical device ceases to function. However, regarding the electrical efficiency, in addition to the effect of the contact point materials, the structure is an important factor. In this study the structure of the electrical switch is studied and the effects of spring stiffness, guiding pin and ring to the switch lifespan are discussed. Taguchi method was used to design the experiment. L9(34) Orthogonal Array table was used to perform and discuss the effect of four factors to the desired characteristics; that is to minimize both the contact voltage-drop and the contact temperature increase. Four factors chosen are guiding pin material, compression spring, contact spring and buckle. Test results show that contact spring has the most effectiveness to the contact voltage-drop and temperature increase and is followed by compression spring. Guiding pin and ring type have minimum influence.