Silver-based contact material, use of such a contact material, in switchgear for power engineering applications and method of manufacturing the contact material

Abstract

Contact material based on silver, use of such a contact material in a switching device in power engineering, and process for preparing the contact material. For contact pieces in low-voltage switches, in particular, substitute materials based on silver-iron oxide are proposed for the silver-nickel hitherto often used in practice. According to the invention, such a material contains, as a further effective component, an oxide of a metal of the third sub-group, yttrium oxide (Y.sub.2 O.sub.3) being especially designed for this purpose. For example, a material of the composition Ag/Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3 10/Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 1 meets, with its favourable temperature behaviour, the properties required with respect to the contact property spectrum. In addition, at least one metal oxide which contains elements of the sixth sub-group of the Periodic Table of the Elements, preferably iron tungstate (FeWO.sub.4), can be present. In particular, a material of the composition Ag/Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3 9/Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 1/FeWO.sub.4 0.5 has shown good utility owing to its additionally improved welding and short-circuit behaviour.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.