Ecological solutions for power switching apparatus

The fight for ecological solutions is lead in every technical field. Until 30 years ago, the challenge in the field of power switching apparatus was the interrupting currents and voltages increasing. Nowadays it is important to maintain the same technical performances but to use ecological constructive solutions. In low and medium voltage (up to 36 kV) the switching in vacuum is an ecological very good solution, but it raises technical and technological difficulties. For the low voltage contactors the replacement of the Ag-CdO contact material with Ag-SnO
₂
is the recommended ecological solution. The paper presents some of the authors' results obtained in the construction of ecological low voltage interrupters and contactors.