Method of making electrical contacts

Abstract

A method of making electrical contacts of the type having a pair of disk-shaped contacts of precious metal secured to an electrically conductive base member. In this method, continuous flat silver strip is first preformed in a punch press to provide a series of disks left connected to one another at their opposite peripheral edges to afford sufficient stiffness for handling. A pair of these strips are then fed, while maintaining registration therebetween, concurrently with a continuous base member into a brazing or welding machine and are secured to one surface of the base member adjacent opposite edges thereof to form a continuous subassembly strip. This subassembly strip is then fed into a cut-off device with accurate registration so as to make cuts through the connection exactly between adjacent disks of directly opposite pairs thereof and through the base member to provide two round contacts spaced apart on a rectangular base member. These round contacts of diameter X require substantially less silver than square contacts having a side dimension X while providing an electrical life the same as the larger area square contacts. This method combines the advantages of the continuous attachment process with the economy of discrete contacts.