Properties of vacuum cast CuCr25 and CuCr25Te contact material

The CuCr25 and CuCr25Te contact materials were manufactured by vacuum casting process. The microstructures of two alloys were observed by metallographic microscope, the electrical conductivity, density and hardness were measured. The tensile test was done by universal testing machine while the fractography was observed by SEM, the breaking current tests were carried out in Weil Synthetic Circuit with arc-igniting branch in Xi'an Jiaotong University. The results show that the microstructures and physical parameters change after adding Te element. The tensile strength decreases and the toughness turns bad, which is propitious to improve the anti-welding property. But the breaking current capacity of CuCr25Te alloy is inferior to CuCr25 alloy. Thus, adding Te element has both advantages and disadvantages on main properties of CuCr contact material.