Silver-graphene tungsten material electrical contact tips of a low voltage circuit breaker

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11114254-B2
Application number	US-202016785086-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 7, 2020
Priority date	Feb 7, 2020
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

A circuit breaker including at least two contact tip that comprise an electrical contact material comprising silver (Ag) and tungsten (W). The contact tip further comprises a graphene material (Gr) additively mixed in Ag as being denoted as AgGr0.3% or AgGr0.5% which is mixed with tungsten (W) to form (AgGr0.3)W50 or (AgGr0.5)W50 called a silver-graphene tungsten composite material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A contact tip of a circuit breaker, the contact tip comprising:
an electrical contact material comprising silver (Ag) and tungsten (W); and
a graphene material (Gr) in a range of 0.1% to 1.0% additively mixed in Ag as being denoted as AgGr0.3% (Ag 99.7% and Gr0.3% in weight) which is mixed with tungsten (W) to form (AgGr0.3)W50 ((AgGr0.3)50% and W50% in weight) called a silver-graphene tungsten composite material,
wherein a (AgGr)50W50 based contact tip structure exhibited a total mass loss of 3.8% in a testing process.

2. The contact tip of claim 1 , wherein a unique 2-D graphene structure has been inherited by a silver-graphene composite material (AgGr) where AgGr can be replaced with different electrical contact materials such as including AgC, AgWC, AgMo, AgNi, AgCu, AgCdO, AgSnO, AgNiO, and AgZnO whereas AgW having a variation of percentages such as AgW30, AgW60, AgW75 instead of AgW50.

3. The contact tip of claim 1 , wherein a (AgGr)50W50 microstructure has uniform mixing while tungsten (W) distributes in a silver-graphene matrix.

4. The contact tip of claim 1 , wherein the contact tip is produced utilizing a PM process (press, sinter, and re-press).

5. The contact tip of claim 1 , wherein arcing energy was reduced by 27.1% and 7.4% when testing at 5 kA and 65 kA respectively in a functional testing process.

6. A contact tip of a circuit breaker, the contact tip comprising:
an electrical contact material comprising silver (Ag) and tungsten (W); and
a graphene material (Gr) in a range of 0.1% to 1.0% additively mixed in Ag as being denoted as AgGr0.5% (Ag 99.5% and Gr 0.5% in weight) which is mixed with tungsten (W) to form (AgGr0.5)W50 ((AgGr0.5) 50% and W50% in weight) called a silver-graphene tungsten composite material,
wherein arcing energy was reduced by 27.1% and 7.4% when testing at 5 kA and 65 kA respectively in a functional testing process.

7. The contact tip of claim 6 , wherein a unique 2-D graphene structure has been inherited by a silver-graphene composite material (AgGr) where AgGr can be replaced with different electrical contact materials such as including AgC, AgWC, AgMo, AgNi, AgCu, AgCdO, AgSnO, AgNiO, and AgZnO whereas AgW having a variation of percentages such as AgW30, AgW60, AgW75 instead of AgW50.

8. The contact tip of claim 6 , wherein a (AgGr)50W50 microstructure has uniform mixing while tungsten (W) distributes in a silver-graphene matrix.

9. The contact tip of claim 6 , wherein the contact tip is produced utilizing a PM process (press, sinter, and re-press).

10. The contact tip of claim 6 , wherein a (AgGr)50W50 based contact tip structure exhibited a total mass loss of 3.8% in a testing process.

11. A circuit breaker, comprising:
a first contact tip comprising:
a first electrical contact material comprising silver (Ag) and tungsten (W); and
a first graphene material (Gr) having a range of 0.3% to 0.5% additively mixed in Ag with silver to form (AgGr)50W50 called a first silver-graphene tungsten composite material; and
a second contact tip comprising:
a second electrical contact material comprising silver (Ag) and tungsten (W); and
a second graphene material (Gr) having a range of 0.3% to 0.5% additively mixed in Ag with silver to form (AgGr)50W50 called a second silver-graphene tungsten composite material,
wherein a unique 2-D graphene structure has been inherited by a first silver-graphene composite material (AgGr) and a second silver-graphene composite material (AgGr).

12. The circuit breaker of claim 11 , wherein a (AgGr)50W50 microstructure has uniform mixing while tungsten (W) distributes in a silver-graphene matrix.

13. The circuit breaker of claim 11 , wherein the first contact tip and the second contact tip are produced utilizing a PM process (press, sinter, and re-press).

14. The circuit breaker of claim 11 , wherein a (AgGr)50W50 based contact tip structure exhibited a total mass loss of 3.8% in a testing process.

15. The circuit breaker of claim 11 , wherein arcing energy was reduced by 27.1% and 7.4% when testing at 5 kA and 65 kA respectively in a functional testing process.

Assignees

• Siemens Industry Inc

Inventors

• Chen Hai
• Hernandez Jesus

Classifications

• H01H2300/036

  Application nanoparticles, e.g. nanotubes, integrated in switch components, e.g. contacts, the switch itself being clearly of a different scale, e.g. greater than nanoscale · CPC title

• H01H11/048

  by powder-metallurgical processes · CPC title

• H01H1/027

  containing carbon particles or fibres · CPC title

• H01H1/02376

  containing as major component SnO2 · CPC title

• H01H1/02374

  containing as major component CdO · CPC title