Arc erosion characteristics of nanocrystalline CuCr contact material

The objective of this paper is to investigate vacuum arc erosion characteristics of a nanocrystalline CuCr (Cr 50 wt%) contact material. The vacuum contact simulation device was used to conduct contact materials arc erosion tests, and voltage waveforms of make and break arcs between the electrodes were recorded with LabVIEW. Using electricity-ray analytical balance and scanning electron microscopy, the mass loss and the surface structure of CuCr contact materials were obtained. Experiments indicate that the average break arc duration and the cathode contact mass loss of nanocrystalline CuCr50 material were higher than those of two microcrystalline CuCr50 materials. The eroded contact surface structure showed a clear difference: the cathode contact surface of nanocrystalline CuCr50 contact material was uniform, while each cathode contact surface of two microcrystalline CuCr50 materials had an obvious arc erosion pit.