Cold spray additive manufacturing of multi-material electrical contacts
AssigneeEaton Intelligent Power Limited
InventorsMichael Lee Killian, Jacob A. Kallivayalil, Yong Liu, Darron Robert Mohr
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Abstract
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to multi-material electrical contacts, and methods of making multi-material electrical contact comprising a functionally graded monolithic structure, having a first metal and a second metal, an amount of the second metal as compared to an amount of the first metal increases with distance in the structure from a first surface to a second opposing surface of the structure such that the second metal content increases continuously or incrementally throughout the height of the electrical contact.
Claims6
A method of forming an electrical contact, the method comprising:
- operating a material feeder on a friction stir additive device to release a feed of a first metal and a second metal onto a substrate while each of the metals is in a solid state, yielding a material column,
- wherein the material feeder comprises a receiver defined by a rotatable shoulder, and
- wherein operating the material feeder on the friction stir additive device to release the feed of the first and second metals onto a substrate comprises:
- applying pressure to the first and second metals in the receiver, and
- rotating the material feeder shoulder around the first and second metals, the material feeder shoulder contacting the substrate to frictionally heat the substrate, to form a solid state bond between the first and second metals, and subsequently releasing the metals onto the substrate while maintaining the material column at a temperature that is below the melting temperature of both the first and second metals, thereby yielding an electrical contact.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.