A Study on the Variation of Electric Contact Resistance Due to Change in Contact Force in a Tin-plated Connector

Abstract

In order to investigate the effect of contact load, which is one of the fretting corrosion factors affecting the electric connector, a coupled fretting corrosion specimens were prepared using a tin-plated brass coupon with a thickness of 3 μm. Electric resistance of the contact was measured during the fretting corrosion test period. There was increase in resistance with fretting cycles. The change in resistance can be classified by 3 stages. The first stage exhibited low and stable resistance. Second stage showed steady increment of the resistance and third stage showed very high and intermittent resistance.The relationship between the failure cycle (Nf) and contact force (P) can be drawn as; It is possible to draw the prediction equation for the failure cycle of the electric connector corresponding to the very high and intermittent resistance under various environment conditions through the fretting tests under various conditions such as load, displacement, temperature.