Evaluation of Fretting Wear Damage of Electronic Connectors for the Automotive

Fretting is a kind of surface degradation mechanism observed in mechanical components and structures. When two pieces of materials, pressed together by an external static load, are subjected to a transverse cyclic loading or various vibrations, so that one contacting face is relatively displaced cyclically parallel to the other face, wear of the mating surfaces occurs. These fretting damages may be observed in electrical connectors for automotive components, where there are special environments and various vibration conditions. This study aims to evaluate the usefulness of fretting test equipment that was developed for reliability test of electrical connector. Fretting tests were carried out using tin coated connectors and friction force, contact resistance, contact area and roughness of contact region were investigated. The following results that will be helpful to understand the fretting wear mechanism, increase process the contact resistance and contact area were obtained. (1) In the same frequency and slip amplitude, the friction force, roughness and contact area increased rapidly until about $10^3$ cycles, after which it was slightly changed. (2) In the various frequency and slip amplitude, the contact area increased with slip amplitude and cyclic numbers, but it did not depend on cyclic frequency. (3) The surface roughness of contact region did not depend on the cyclic frequency. From these results, the applicability of the fretting wear test equipment and reliability of connector were discussed.

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