Changes

The highest reliability and electrical life of electromechanical components and switching devices can only be achieved if both, the material selection and the design of the actual contact parts, are optimized. Of course, economic considerations must also be applied when selecting the most suitable contact material and its way of application as an electrical contact. In the following (<xr id="tab:Material Selection and Contact Component Design"/><!--Table 6.1-->) recommendations are made for selected application examples for contact materials and contact shape or configuration.

(<xr id="tab:Material Selection and Contact Component Design"/><!--Table 6.1-->) is meant to give suggestions for the use of contact materials for the specified devices. For most of the contact materials, we deliberately did not indicate the exact composition and, as for Ag/SnO₂ and AgZnO, did also not include specific additives. The final material composition depends on specific design parameters of the electrical device. Advise on the special properties of specific contact materials can be found in chapter 2 [[Contact Materials for Electrical Engineering| Contact Materials for Electrical Engineering ]].

A multitude of technologies is available and used for the actual manufacturing of contact components (see chapter 3 [[Manufacturing Technologies for Contact Parts|Manufacturing Technologies for Contact Parts]]). The desired contact shape however, requires specific material properties like formability and weldability, which cannot be fulfilled by all materials in the same way. In addition, the design of the contact part must be compatible with the stresses and requirements of each switching device. The following (<xr id="tab:Design Technologies for Contacts"/><!--table 6.2-->) combines contact design, contact material and specific applications.

[[File:Contact-resistance-of-crossed-rods.jpg|leftright|thumb|Figure 2: Contact resistance of crossed rods as a function of the contact force for gold, silver and silver-palladium alloys]]