Hauchvergoldung auf Relaiskontakten

Gold Flashing on Relay Contacts. It is not the colour but the resistance of contacts which determines their efficiency. Since, however, it is an expensive and time-wasting procedure to measure the resistance of every contact, many costomers reject relays whose silver contacts show a brownish-black discolouration, complaining that they have been kept too long in stock. This problem was believed to have been solved by the introduction of gold-flashing as a temporary coating while the contacts are kept in stock. Now the German Post Office's Telecommunications Head Quarters (Fernmeldetechnisches Zentralamt der Deutschen Bundespost) in Darmstadt have found indications which raise some suspecions as to the damaging side-effects of gold-flashing. For this reason, a working committee of the VDE (Association of German Electrical Engineers), group 1.6?Contact behaviour and switching processes”?, undertook its own investigations. The results were revealed during a platform-discussion on the 3rd October, 1973 in the Technical College at Karlsruhe and are given here in the form of edited speeches and a summary of the discussion.