Method for manufacturing at least one functional area on an electric contact element such as a switching contact or a plug contact

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for producing at least one functional region () on an electrical contact element () such as, for example, a switching contact or a plug type contact. The at least one functional region (), for example, a contact location or a connection region for crimping or soldering connections is limited to a partial area of the contact element. In order to prevent the high environmental burden which is disadvantageous in wet-chemical methods and to overcome the restriction to a very small number of materials caused in hot dip methods in physical technical terms, and to substantially improve the spatial possibility for selection and structuring which is insufficient in both techniques, there is provision according to the invention for at least one material coating () to be applied mechanically in a highly selective manner to the contact element in the functional region () and subsequently highly energetic thermal radiation () such as, for example, a particle beam in the form of an ion and/or electron beam, to be directed onto the at least one material coating (). The material coating () can contain new materials or material combinations which cannot be provided by previous methods. The invention further relates to a device for producing such a functional region and a contact element having such a functional region (), the contact element () being produced in accordance with the above method.