Experiments were carried out at several voltages to clarify the influence of the voltage on various characteristics, i.e. arc duration, contact resistance, arc energy, and the change in electrode mass. The voltage was varied from DC100 V to 160 V, the load current was fixed at 5 A constant, and the electromagnetic contactor was operated continuously up to 100,000 times. The experiments were carried out under the three operation modes which are classified by the arc discharge. As a result, the relation between the operation mode and contact resistance was clarified. When only a make arc was generated, the contact resistance was smallest. In addition, the contact resistance was not affected by the source voltage.

Recently, photovoltaic power systems and electric vehicles have been commonly used. Therefore, the importance of DC (direct current) switching is expected to increase in the near future. The authors have been examining a method of evaluating the electrode loss of AgNi contacts for an electromagnetic contactor with a medium DC load current at a resistive circuit. In this study, the arc energy and electrode mass changes were investigated in more detail. We carried out experiments of 100,000 operations for an electromagnetic contactor at a load current of 5 A constant with a source voltage change from 100 to 160 V. The arc duration, contact resistance, arc energy, and electrode mass changes were measured. As a result, the arc duration was found out increase with the source voltage. In addition, the stationary cathode mass change (loss) increased proportion only to the total arc energy. However, the stationary cathode loss per unit arc energy decreased at the highest source voltage.