Factors Influencing the Fretting Corrosion of Tin Plated Contacts

In recent years, there have been ever-increasing demands to miniaturize automotive connectors. However, because the contact force decreases as connectors are miniaturized further, fretting corrosion, which is a typical problem occurring with low-force electric contacts, is expected to become a more...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inElectrical Contacts - 2006. Proceedings of the 52nd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts pp. 267 - 272
Main Authors Ito, Tetsuya, Matsushima, Masato, Takata, Kensaku, Hattori, Yasuhiro
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.09.2006
Subjects
Automotive engineering
Connectors
Contact resistance
Control factors
Corrosion
Degradation
Electrical resistance measurement
Frequency
Fretting
Humidity
plating thickness
Surface resistance
Tin
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Summary:In recent years, there have been ever-increasing demands to miniaturize automotive connectors. However, because the contact force decreases as connectors are miniaturized further, fretting corrosion, which is a typical problem occurring with low-force electric contacts, is expected to become a more serious problem in the future. This time we developed a new experimental device capable of controlling the contact load, fretting amplitude, fretting frequency, contact part temperature and humidity. In this report, we used the design of experiments, and quantitatively evaluated the extent of the influence of the expected factor (in terms of load, amplitude, and plating thickness, etc.) on the fretting phenomenon, which occurs in the tin plating of the connector terminal. Moreover, based on SEM examination, we analyzed the surface and cross section of the contact parts when degradation occurs, and considered the mechanism of the degradation.
ISBN:1424405815
9781424405817
ISSN:1062-6808
2158-9992
DOI:10.1109/HOLM.2006.284098