Electrical Contacts for Automotive Applications: A Review

Zhuan-Ke CHEN; Gerald J. WITTER

Electrical Contacts for Automotive Applications: A Review

Zhuan-Ke CHEN, Gerald J. WITTER

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The three major failures of electrical contacts for automotive relay applications are: contact welding (or contact sticking), high contact resistance and severe contact erosion due to switching arcing. With the demand of high power and multiple functions of automotive vehicles, the switching current has be dramatically increased, it results in higher failing rate, in particular for contact welding. On the other hand, the miniaturization of electromechanical relays has lead to the reduction of mechanical spring force. This not only results in the earlier contact welding but also makes the relay more susceptible to the contact resistance and arc erosion failures. This paper is a review of most recent studies on these three failure aspects. It describes the progress in the understanding of contact welding caused by short arcing and high contact resistance due to contamination of particles and films in relay manufacturing process and also it review the material transfer due to switching arcing. At the end, the brief considerations of electromechanical relays used in 42 volts have also been given.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics Vol.E87-C No.8 pp.1248-1254

Publication Date: 2004/08/01

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Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on IS-EMD2003--Recent Technical Trend of Electro-Mechanical Devices)

Category: New Technology and Automotive Applications

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Zhuan-Ke CHEN, Gerald J. WITTER, "Electrical Contacts for Automotive Applications: A Review" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics, vol. E87-C, no. 8, pp. 1248-1254, August 2004, doi: .
Abstract: The three major failures of electrical contacts for automotive relay applications are: contact welding (or contact sticking), high contact resistance and severe contact erosion due to switching arcing. With the demand of high power and multiple functions of automotive vehicles, the switching current has be dramatically increased, it results in higher failing rate, in particular for contact welding. On the other hand, the miniaturization of electromechanical relays has lead to the reduction of mechanical spring force. This not only results in the earlier contact welding but also makes the relay more susceptible to the contact resistance and arc erosion failures. This paper is a review of most recent studies on these three failure aspects. It describes the progress in the understanding of contact welding caused by short arcing and high contact resistance due to contamination of particles and films in relay manufacturing process and also it review the material transfer due to switching arcing. At the end, the brief considerations of electromechanical relays used in 42 volts have also been given.
URL: https://globals.ieice.org/en_transactions/electronics/10.1587/e87-c_8_1248/_p

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@ARTICLE{e87-c_8_1248,
author={Zhuan-Ke CHEN, Gerald J. WITTER, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics},
title={Electrical Contacts for Automotive Applications: A Review},
year={2004},
volume={E87-C},
number={8},
pages={1248-1254},
abstract={The three major failures of electrical contacts for automotive relay applications are: contact welding (or contact sticking), high contact resistance and severe contact erosion due to switching arcing. With the demand of high power and multiple functions of automotive vehicles, the switching current has be dramatically increased, it results in higher failing rate, in particular for contact welding. On the other hand, the miniaturization of electromechanical relays has lead to the reduction of mechanical spring force. This not only results in the earlier contact welding but also makes the relay more susceptible to the contact resistance and arc erosion failures. This paper is a review of most recent studies on these three failure aspects. It describes the progress in the understanding of contact welding caused by short arcing and high contact resistance due to contamination of particles and films in relay manufacturing process and also it review the material transfer due to switching arcing. At the end, the brief considerations of electromechanical relays used in 42 volts have also been given.},
keywords={},
doi={},
ISSN={},
month={August},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - Electrical Contacts for Automotive Applications: A Review
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
SP - 1248
EP - 1254
AU - Zhuan-Ke CHEN
AU - Gerald J. WITTER
PY - 2004
DO -
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
SN -
VL - E87-C
IS - 8
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
Y1 - August 2004
AB - The three major failures of electrical contacts for automotive relay applications are: contact welding (or contact sticking), high contact resistance and severe contact erosion due to switching arcing. With the demand of high power and multiple functions of automotive vehicles, the switching current has be dramatically increased, it results in higher failing rate, in particular for contact welding. On the other hand, the miniaturization of electromechanical relays has lead to the reduction of mechanical spring force. This not only results in the earlier contact welding but also makes the relay more susceptible to the contact resistance and arc erosion failures. This paper is a review of most recent studies on these three failure aspects. It describes the progress in the understanding of contact welding caused by short arcing and high contact resistance due to contamination of particles and films in relay manufacturing process and also it review the material transfer due to switching arcing. At the end, the brief considerations of electromechanical relays used in 42 volts have also been given.
ER -