Measured Dissipated-Energy in Switching-off by Electric Contacts

The measurement of the dissipated energy in switching-off has been attempted to make clear the function of spark on electric contacts, which may unfortunately cause the combustible gas, such as propane gas etc, to catch fire and result in fire accidents. By utilizing the "Memoriscope" has been the meaurement carried out and the feature of this method is to provide the information on not only the amount of dissipated energy involved in one action but also on the trace of its instantaneous power which can affect catching fire delicately. Presented in this paper are the discussion of this measuring method and the measured results which are obtained experimentally in order to investigate the dependence of the energy dissipation on variety of contacts, contacts' deterioration and circuit arrangements.