Development of new electrical contacts for high voltage applications

In this study, the development of new electrical contacts technology for high voltage (HV) applications, especially circuit breakers, is described. A new type of arcing contact material, based on carbon/copper composite (C-Cu), has been compared with a more common one, based on tungsten/copper W-Cu material. It could be seen that carbon/copper composite materials could behave reasonably well. In particular, their erosion during switching tests was not too high compared to those of W-Cu contacts. In addition, it could be seen that, in some case, the erosion of the nozzle regarding the arc was lower than the one obtained with copper/tungsten composites. In parallel, the plasma composition calculations showed that, depending on the conditions, graphite formation within the arcing chamber could be avoided. Hence, such carbon/copper composite could represent a promising technology.