Metallurgical characteristics of copper-tungsten material used in the field of power engineering

Copper-tungsten materials are used in many applications in power engineering. One of these is the electrical contacts of circuit breakers. Like other utilities, Hydro-Quebec makes wide use of these devices and is currently involved in developing its own expertise in the materials used for electrical contacts. The first part of the paper reviews the pertinent literature on copper-tungsten materials for high-power applications. The second part presents a microstructural analysis of copper-tungsten contact parts commonly used in different types of circuit breakers