Pantograph contact strips of iron-based sintered alloy have been widely used for the Shinkansen electric vehicles. With trains traveling at even higher speeds, it is expected that wear rates of contact strips will increase significantly because of such factors as the larger electric current and the greater number of arc discharge occurring at a loss of contact. The authors have prepared iron-based sintered alloy which is added metal particles with high melting point and other kind of solid lubricants used in existing materials, and have investigated the wear properties of the developed materials. The developed materials proved a decrease of the wear rate of the strip as a result of laboratory wear tests.

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