Study on the wear properties of conductive terminals with different coatings at low temperatures

In this paper, the electrical contact sliding wear and tribology properties of three kinds of surface coating (gold, silver, and tin) terminals at low temperature (-20 & DEG;C) were studied by a reciprocating current-carrying friction tester. By comparing the wear performance response of different conductive terminals under different current conditions, it was found that an increase in current leads to large fluctuations in the coefficient of friction and increases the wear degree on the terminal surface. The electrical contact resistance also increases with increasing current. The surface gold-coating terminals mainly experience adhesive wear in the wear test, the surface of silver-coating terminals mainly experience abrasive wear during the friction test, and the tin-coating terminals mainly experience adhesive wear and a small amount of abrasive wear.