Experimental study on damage analysis of sliding contact surface by using shadow image processing technique

The quantitative observation of contact surface is one of the most important subjects for the analysis of contact phenomena, because the surface damage of the electrical sliding contact is a main cause of failure in the sliding contact. In this study, in order to make clear the relationship between the contact phenomena and the damage of contact surface, a digital image measuring system (DIMS) was developed, and for quantitative analysis of the damage on the surface, the shadow image processing technique (SIFT) was applied. By using both DIMS and SIFT, the damage on the contact surface could be successfully observed as a 3-D graphic image, and the relationship between the electrical contact resistance and the damage on the sliding contact surface was discussed.