ABSTRACT

This chapter provides some performance information relating the materials to electrical loads and specific applications. It shows how to measure metallographic parameters of the structure of composite refractory metal systems. The chapter describes the contact metal and metal oxide combinations. It reviews some of the more common options in manufacturing technology for powder metallurgical silver metal oxide contacts. The chapter discusses the most popular additives for silver–tin oxide materials: indium oxide, bismuth oxide, copper oxide, tellurium oxide, and tungsten oxide. It also provides an interesting example that shows how many times the results of materials research is limited in scope as a result of how the material was manufactured, how the material was tested, and other variables involved in the research work. The chapter outlines some different kinds of dynamic welding will be discussed on the basis of experimentation using some model switches.