Effect of Material Combination of Metallic Contact Strip and Contact Wire on Wear Characteristics
Sumihisa AOKI,
Metallic materials group, Material Technology Development Div., Technological Development Dept.
Kunio FUKUHARA,
Workshop & Design Center, Technical Support Div.
Several different metallic materials are combined to fabricate contact wire and contact strip, meeting the recent speedup demand of vehicles. To study the effect of different material combinations on wear characteristics of contact wire and contact strip, bench tests were carried out with 9 different material combinations.
Materials chosen were hard-drawn copper, precipitation hardened copper alloy and mild steel for contact wire; and Cu-base sintered alloy, Fe-base sintered alloy and mild steel for contact strip. Results are investigated mainly from a standpoint of shedding light on wear characteristics under combinations of these Cu-base and Fe-base materials, with emphasis on the effect of arc current and adhesion.