Wear Modes of Contact Wire and Contact Strip under Electric Current Condition

Abstract

To suggest measures for reducing wear of current collecting materials such as contact wires and contact strips, it is necessary to understand actual phenomena generated at the point of electric contact. For this study on classification of wear modes and transition conditions between hard drawn copper contact wire and iron-based sintered alloy contact strips, a linear wear testing method was newly introduced. As a result, it was found that the contact temperature which was estimated from the contact voltage depended on electric current and contact load. Consequently it was possible to classify wear modes of the current collecting materials under electric current conditions into three types depending on the maximum contact temperature.