Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Tsuneyo Seki

Atsushi Yamamoto

Tsutomu Okutomi

Takashi Kusano

Mikio Okawa

Tadaaki Sekiguchi

Mitsutaka Honma

Mitsutaka Homma

Hiromichi Somei

Kiyofumi Otobe

Seishi Chiba

Iwao Ohshima

Yoshinari Satoh

Kenji Watanabe

Hiroshi Watanabe

Hideo Suzuki

Makoto Kataoka

Shinzo Sugai

Kumi Uchiyama

Tadahiro Aihara

Kiyoshi Osabe

Yoshimitsu Niwa

Kazuya Tujimoto

Hiroshi Yamazoe

Yoshiko Majima

A contact material for forming a contact included in a vacuum interrupter comprises 50 to 70% by weight of a conductive material containing Cu as a principal component, an arc-proof material containing at least either TiC or VC and having a mean particle diameter of 8 &mgr;m or below, and 0.2 to 2.0% by weight of Cr on the basis of the sum of the respective amounts of Cr and Cu or 0.2 to 2/0% by weight of Zr on the basis of the sum of the respective amounts of Zr and Cu. The contact material has a hydrogen content in the range of 0.2 to 50 ppm.

Contact material for contacts for vacuum interrupter and method of manufacturing the contact

The contact material of the present invention comprises: an anti-arcing constituent consisting of at least one TiC, V and VC of which the content is 30&tilde;70 volume % and whose mean particle (grain) size is 0.1&tilde;9 &mgr;m; C whose content is 0.005&tilde;0.5 weight % with respect to the anti-arcing constituent, whose diameter is 0.01&tilde;5 &mgr;m when its shape is calculated as spherical, and which is in non-solid solution condition or condition in which it does not form a chemical compound; and a conductive constituent consisting of Cu and constituting the balance.

Contact material

A vacuum valve which has a contact material having a constituent of high electrical conductivity such as Cu and an anti-arcing constituent including Cr in which particles whose particle size is in the range 0.1.about.150 .mu.m represent at least 90 volume %, and a ratio defined by the formula (.alpha..sub.900 -.alpha..sub.50).times.100/(.alpha..sub.900) for this contact material has a value of 8-12% and is the coefficient of thermal expansion of the contact material .alpha..sub.50 is the coefficient of thermal expansion of the contact material at 50.degree. C. The formation of channels generated at the interfaces of the Cr particles and the Cu matrix after undergoing the brazing step is suppressed, enabling the static withstand-voltage, contact resistance, and the breaking performance characteristics of the vacuum valve to be stabilized.

Vacuum valve

An electrode arrangement of a vacuum circuit breaker for making and breaking electrical connection. The electrode arrangement has: a pair of contact members which are adopted for making contact to and release from each other by relatively moving to and from each other along a predetermined direction; a pair of electrically conductive bars being connected to the above pair of contact members, respectively, for providing electric conduction to the contact members; and a magnetizing device with a magnetic body for generating magnetic field parallel to the predetermined direction between the contact members. The magnetic body is composed of an iron alloy comprising 0.02 to 1.5% by weight of carbon and iron. The iron alloy may further contain at least one of manganese and silicon.

Electrode arrangement of vacuum circuit breaker with magnetic member for

A contact material for a vacuum interrupter including, a conductive component including at least Cu, and an arc-proof component including at least one selected from the group consisting of carbides of W, Zr, Hf, V and Ti. An amount of the conductive component in the contact material is 40-50 vol %, an amount of the arc-proof component in the contact material is 50-60 vol %, and a grain size of the arc-proof component is 3 .mu.m or less. A total amount of a sintering activator including at least one selected from the group consisting of Co, Fe and Ni melted in the conductive component is 0.1% or less of the amount of the conductive component.

Contact material for vacuum interrupter and method for producing the same

The contacts material of the present invention is contacts material including silver-tungsten carbide alloy containing 55-70 weight % of tungsten carbide (WC) of mean particle size 0.1-6 .mu.m wherein is included 0.005-0.2 weight % of carbon in an undissolved state or non-compound state whose equivalent diameter is 0.01-5 .mu.m. The present invention enables the current interruption characteristics of contacts material to be improved.

Contacts material

The vacuum valve contact material of the present invention is manufactured by a step of mixing an anti-arc constituent powder and a conductive constituent powder, a step of forming, and a step of sintering the formed body below the melting point of the conductive constituent, and has improved arc interruption performance.

Contact material for vacuum valve

A contact material for a vacuum valve including, a conductive constituent including at least copper, an arc-proof constituent including at least chromium and an auxiliary constituent including at least one selected from the group consisting of tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum and niobium. The contact material is manufactured by quench solidification of a composite body of the conductive constituent, the arc-proof constituent and the anxiliary constituent.

Contact material for vacuum valve and method of manufacturing the same

A contact electrode for a vacuum interrupter including a conductive component having at least one selected from the group consisting of copper and silver, and an arc-proof component with a melting temperature of more than 1500.degree. C. In the contact electrode, a gradient A/X of a quantity of a composition component of the contact electrode on a surface or the contact electrode is 0.2-12 volume %/mm. Where, X1 is one point on the line of any radius R1 on the surface of the contact electrode, X2 is another point on the line of the radius R1 on the surface of the contact electrode, and X is a gap between the one point X1 and the another point X2 measured by mm, where X=X2-X1, and X2&gt;X1 .gtoreq.0. A1 is a quantity of the composition component measured by volume % in the contact electrode at the one point X1, A2 is a quantity of the composition component measured by volume % in the contact electrode at the another point X2 and A is a difference between the quantities A1 and A2 of the composition component measured by volume %, where A=A2-A1.

Contact electrode for vacuum interrupter

A contact material for a vacuum valve including, a conductive constituent including at least copper, an arc-proof constituent including at least chromium and an auxiliary constituent including at least one selected from the group consisting of tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum and niobium. The contact material is manufactured by quench solidification of a composite body of the conductive constituent, the arc-proof constituent and the auxiliary constituent.

A method for manufacturing a vacuum interrupter including, a vacuum enclosure composed of an insulating tube sealed by metal flanges, a pair of electrodes in the vacuum enclosure which are able to make and break contact, and a pair of conducting shafts. The method includes the steps of preparing a fixed-side assembly composed of a fixed electrode, a fixed-side conducting shaft and a fixed-side flange jointed as one unit, preparing a movable-side subassembly composed of a movable electrode, a movable-side conducting shaft and a movable-side flange jointed as one unit, preparing an insulating tube subassembly composed of the insulating tube, preparing an assembly such that the movable-side, insulating tube, and fixed-side subassemblies are superimposed with first solders for gas-tight sealing being inserted between the movable-side and fixed-side subassemblies and end surfaces of the insulating tube subassembly and with a second solder for contact soldering being inserted between the contact and the electrode, and heating and evacuating the assembly in a vacuum furnace to evacuate inside the vacuum enclosure and to solder by the first solders and the second solder, thereby to obtain the vacuum interrupter. Whereby gas-tight soldering and soldering of the contact and the electrode are carried out simultaneously in the heating and evacuating step.

Method of manufacturing a vacuum interrupter

A contacts material for a vacuum valve including an arc-proof constituent including at least one selected from the group of chromium, titanium, zirconium, vanadium and yttrium, an auxiliary constituent including at least one selected from the group of tantalum, niobium, tungsten and molybdenum and a conductive constituent including at least one selected from the group of copper and silver. In the contacts material, an amount of the arc-proof constituent is from 10% to 70% by volume, a total amount of the arc-proof constituent together with the auxiliary constituent is not more than 75% by volume and an amount of the conductive constituent is the balance.

Contacts material for vacuum valve

A contact material for a vacuum interrupter includes: (a) from 25 to 70% by volume of a highly conductive component selected from the group consisting of Ag, Cu and combinations thereof, and (b) from 30 to 75% by volume of an arc-proof component comprising a carbide of an element selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W and combinations thereof, wherein the average grain size of the said arc-proof component is from 0.3 to 3 micrometers and the average grain distance of the arc-proof component is within the range of 0.1 to 1 micrometer. Contacts for a vacuum interrupter obtained from the contact material have improved wear resistance, large current interruption characteristic, wear resistance, and chopping characteristic, and low temperature rise characteristic.

Contact material for a vacuum interrupter

A contacts material for a vacuum valve including an arc-proof constituent having at least one component selected from the group consisting of tantalum, niobium, tungsten and molybdenum and an auxiliary constituent having at least one component selected from the group consisting of chromium, titanium, yttrium, zirconium, cobalt and vanadium. The contact material further includes a conductive constituent having at least one component selected from the group consisting of copper and silver. The amount of the arc-proof constituent is from 25% to 75% by volume. The total amount of the arc-proof constituent together with the auxiliary constituent is no more than 75% by volume. The amount of the conductive constituent is the balance.

Disclosed is a manufacturing process of an alloy material comprising a chromium component and a base component which comprises at least one element selected from tile group consisting of copper and silver, the manufacturing process comprising steps of: subjecting a chromium material with a carbon material to heat treatment; and manufacturing the alloy material using the chromium material treated at the heat treatment subjecting step and a raw material for tile base component. At the heat treatment subjecting step, the chromium material, mixed with 50 ppm to 5,000 ppm of the carbon material, is heated to a temperature within the range of 800.degree. C. to 1,400.degree. C. in a non-oxidizing atmosphere. According to this manufacturing process, the level of oxygen content in the alloy material are decreased to be not more than 200 ppm. The obtained alloy material can be used as a contact material for vacuum circuit breakers.

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Tokyo, Japan

Tsuneyo Seki