Enhancing connector reliability using conducting polymer materials for minimising fretting on electrical contact interfaces
Enhancing connector reliability using conducting polymer materials for minimising fretting on electrical contact interfaces
A typical luxury car has in excess of 400 electrical connectors with over 3000 individual terminals. Tin plated terminals are still widely used because of particular technical and commercial advantages, but this type of plating is susceptible to fretting corrosion leading to intermittent high contact resistance. This phenomenon is well known to be the main failure mechanism impairing electrical system reliability.
Novel contact materials, such as conducting polymers, are investigated in this study as a possible replacement for tin plated terminals used in the automotive wiring harness. The design concept behind using a polymer contact is to minimise any fretting motion between two contacting components by the polymer flexing or bending. Fretting studies are conducted on the polymer–tin interface showing the improved mechanical and electrical behaviour of this novel interface. A mechanical model of the polymer interface is developed showing its behaviour under fretting conditions. To achieve a “zero fretting” condition, the elastic force opposing the fretting action of the deflected polymer must be lower than the frictional force at the contact
3935-3942
Swingler, J.
c6e2a49e-fadd-4f38-99f7-0ee1e2c92fac
December 2009
Swingler, J.
c6e2a49e-fadd-4f38-99f7-0ee1e2c92fac
Swingler, J.
(2009)
Enhancing connector reliability using conducting polymer materials for minimising fretting on electrical contact interfaces.
Materials & Design, 30 (10), .
(doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2009.06.004).
Abstract
A typical luxury car has in excess of 400 electrical connectors with over 3000 individual terminals. Tin plated terminals are still widely used because of particular technical and commercial advantages, but this type of plating is susceptible to fretting corrosion leading to intermittent high contact resistance. This phenomenon is well known to be the main failure mechanism impairing electrical system reliability.
Novel contact materials, such as conducting polymers, are investigated in this study as a possible replacement for tin plated terminals used in the automotive wiring harness. The design concept behind using a polymer contact is to minimise any fretting motion between two contacting components by the polymer flexing or bending. Fretting studies are conducted on the polymer–tin interface showing the improved mechanical and electrical behaviour of this novel interface. A mechanical model of the polymer interface is developed showing its behaviour under fretting conditions. To achieve a “zero fretting” condition, the elastic force opposing the fretting action of the deflected polymer must be lower than the frictional force at the contact
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Submitted date: December 2009
Published date: December 2009
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 71787
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/71787
ISSN: 0261-3069
PURE UUID: bcb85b16-61ab-4015-9a3e-72a8ad4e74e5
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 07 Jan 2010
Last modified: 13 Mar 2024 20:45
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
J. Swingler
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics