In this paper, the influence of contact materials on late discharges in vacuum switching devices was investigated. Experimental results show that the HV withstand capability of contact materials has a strong influence on the frequency of late discharges in vacuum switching devices. The addition of a small amount of W and Co into the CuCr alloy increases the voltage withstand significantly, resulting in a reduction of the frequency of late discharges by as much as 50%. Therefore, an efficient approach to decrease the frequency of late discharges is to increase the HV withstand of the contact materials
Published in:
Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, IEEE Transactions on
(Volume:6
,
Issue:
6
)
Date of Publication: Dec 1999