Silver foam coats electrical contacts for longer life.(Surface Engineering)

Advanced Materials & Processes,  July, 2004  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Silver foams for metallic contacts that enable an increase in service life and a reduction in costs have reportedly been produced by AMC-ETEC, France. Called EcoContact, the foams are produced by the evaporation of pure silver in a vacuum. The foams enable an increase of service life of high-amperage (above 1000 amps) by slowing down contact surface degradation, and by restoring good conductivity to worn connections.

They have a honeycomb structure, and provide good porosity and malleability. The honeycomb structure provides "thousands of micron-size contact points," up ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.