Research On Preparation And Properties Of Cu/Ti₃SiC₂ Vacuum Contact Material

As core part of vacuum contact device applied in the electric circuit control system widely,The performance of the vacuum contact immediately influence reliability, stability of conduction system.At present in the vacuum contact device,the commonly used WC-Ag,WC-Cu or W-Cu do not meet needs,therefore the development for higher qualified new vacuum contact material has the very vital practical significance.The ternary compound Ti₃SiC₂ has been lay more emphasize as new compound materials.Compared with WC which is commonly used as the enhancement:part of the electrical contact materials,Ti₃SiC₂ has similar electrical resistance,better thermal conductibility and higher melting point.Its elasticity modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion are more adjacent to metal,and it has lower specific gravity,its self-lubrication and anti-oxidation properties are better.Because of these advantages,it is hopeful to be utilized as new electrical contact materials with high properties.On the basis of high pure Ti₃SiC₂ powder's preparation,we prepared Cu/Ti₃SiC₂ composites through hot-press process.We test its density,electric conductivity,flexural strength and so on,and we study the composites through XRD,SEM.we studied the influence of sintering temperature,soaking time and material combination proportion on the material performance,and explore the good craft used to prepare the Cu/Ti₃SiC₂compound materials.Using corresponding craft,we processed three pair of vacuum contacts and produced their vacuum interrupter chambers.Finally we tested and studied three vacuum interrupter chambers performance:chopping current level,current breaking ability,pressure resistance value,anti-ablation.The test result indicated that 1000℃is the best sintering temperature for the Cu/Ti₃SiC₂ compound materials,and 120min is the best soaking time.When sintering temperature is lower than or higher than 1000℃and soaking time is lower than or higher than 120min,the material performance The material performance reduce;to apply 50vol%-60vol%Cu in the sintering temperature 1000℃,pressure 30MPa with soaking time 120min vacuum condition,we prepared the Cu/Ti₃SiC₂ contact material whose electronic resistivity is lower than 0.184μΩ·m,and whose flexural strength is higer than 1100MPa.The electrical pick-offtesting show that the chopping current level of Cu/Ti₃SiC₂ contact material is lower than 1.84A and better than Cu-W contact material.Compared with Cu-W contact material the breaking capacity of Cu/Ti₃SiC₂ contact material is higher,the anti-ablative performance is outstanding.