Project Team
Students
Zachary Vandervort
Mechanical Engineering
Penn State DuBois
Faculty Mentors
Daudi Waryoba
Penn State DuBois
Engineering
Ramakrishnan Rajagopalan
Penn State University Park
Materials Research Institute
Project
https://sites.psu.edu/mcreu/files/formidable/2/Poster.pdf
Project Video
Project Abstract
Many applications require electric currents to be passed from stationary to moving parts, such as the brushes in an electric motor. Sliding electrical contacts are used in these types of applications. They are required to be conductive, yet also resistant to wear. In high voltage, low current density applications all-carbon or all-graphite contacts can be used. However, when dealing with low voltages or high current densities metal-graphite composites, such as copper-graphite, are commonly used. Copper is a very conductive material, and graphite is a solid lubricant which makes it resistant to wear. This combination of properties is ideal for sliding electrical contacts. Due to copper and graphite being mutually insoluble these parts are primarily made by powder metallurgy. This project examines the fabrication of copper-graphite parts using equal channel angular processing (ECAP), a method of severe plastic deformation, to enhance bonding between copper and graphite. The results showed that ECAP produced parts have a better distribution of copper throughout the part, along with stronger bonds between the copper and graphite when compared to parts made using the conventional press and sinter (CPS) method. Additionally, it was shown that ECAP parts sintered for 30 minutes did not provide any advantages compared to a sinter time of only 6 minutes.
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