Author(s)

C. Roussos, J. Swingler

Abstract

Electrical contact is an important parameter for the reliability of electrical devices. Due to the limitation of optical imaging, methods available for the contact measurement characteristics are only suitable for open or transparent systems. For most of the practical situations that require contact measurement characteristics in non-transparent or enclosed systems, the traditional methods are not effective. Based upon these requirements, a method suitable for the electrical contact characteristics in non-transparent systems is developed by using X-ray computer tomography (CT). The main advantage of this visualisation method is the ability to acquire three-dimensional (3D) views of systems keeping the features intact. In this work, the method is demonstrated by measuring the contact area and the average contact angle in each contact spot which is held between the conductors of 16A AC single pole switch after two different current tests (0 and 16A AC). The distances between the contact spots are also calculated.

Keywords

X-ray CT, contact angle distribution, contact area distribution, distance distribution