• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.632-635
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of arc current and contact velocity on the erosion of silver-based contact materials to be used in low voltage circuit breakers. The opening velocity during breaking, which is constant, ranges between 2m/s to 6m/s in the 415V $25kA_{rms}$. Contact erosion is evaluated by measuring the mass change of the cathode and anode. The results show that the increase in opening velocity from 2m/s to 6m/s leads to a decrease in the contact erosion. It is shown that the material transfer from one electrode to another depends on the transfer charge and the opening velocity of the contacts. The contact pairs of AgWC/AgCdO are superior to $AgWC/AgSnO_2In_2O_3$ or AgWC/AgC contact pairs in the contact erosion.