Contact Resistance Characteristics of Elastomeric Complex Structure Contacts for Gold and Tin Printed Circuit Board
Characteristics of conductive elastomer which is composed of silicone rubber and dispersed carbon black particles shows conductive and elastic properties in one simple material. This material has been widely applied to contacts of switches and connectors of a liquid crystal panels. However, since surface state of the contact is very soft, it is difficult to remove contaminant films of contaminated opposite side contact surface and to obtain low contact resistance owing to break the film. This study has been conducted to clear structures of the elastomer which indicates removal characteristics for contaminant films and low contact resistance. As specimens, six different types of the elastomer contacts composed by different type of dispersed such materials as carbon and metal fibers, metal mesh, and plated surfaces were used. The opposite contacts were Au and Sn plated contact surface on a printed circuit board (PCB). The elastomeric contacts contained hard materials showed lower contact resistance than only dispersed carbon particles in the elastomer matrix for both contaminated PCB contact surfaces.
Carbon Blacks for Highly Conductive Rubber
Abstract The mechanism of the conductance of the electric current through a carbon black dispersion is still a problem which has not been completely solved. Rubber is an insulator and forms a homogeneous liquid phase, while carbon black is a semi-conductor and forms a dispersible solid phase. Mixtures of these two show electrical properties ranging from a near insulator to a near semiconductor. The picture which has been generally accepted for the mechanism of conductivity in rubber-carbon black compounds is one based on through-going paths of carbon black particles. These through-going paths are formed by carbon black particles either touching or situated so close to adjoining carbon black particles that the electrons have a reasonable chance to jump across the gap. This concept implies that each carbon particle must practically touch its neighbor or else the continuous chain will be broken. The definition of “touching” is not given in this concept. The number of conducting or through-going paths will be...
Evaluation of buckling load and dynamic performance of steel shear wall retrofitted with strips made of shape memory alloy
One of the most imperfections of the steel shear wall is out of plane displacements that cause severe damage in both structural and non-structural elements. In this paper, the effects of shape-memory alloys on steel shear walls are investigated. First, a numerical analysis using the finite element method in ABAQUS software has been carried out according to an experimental test. The results of the numerical analysis have been verified with experimental results. Next, shape-memory alloy fibers have been added vertically and horizontally to various parts of the steel shear wall. The results show that retrofitting with the shape-memory alloy reduces the out-of-plane displacement of the steel shear wall under both cyclic and seismic loadings. Besides, the buckling load in the steel shear wall increases when it is retrofitted with the shape-memory alloy. Also, the total out-of-plane movement (accumulated absolute displacements) of the steel shear wall and non-structural damage are controlled by the characteristic of a shape-memory alloy material called “super-elastic”.