Contact Resistance and Temperature Distribution of Insulation Piercing Connector with Various Operation Conditions

The contact resistance of the insulation piercing contactor is prone to lead to the temperature ascension problem, limiting the current carrying capacity and the service life. In this paper, the structure of the insulation piercing connector is analyzed and the influence factors of contact resistance are given. The contact resistances under different installation torque, angle and the number of thermal cycles were measured. Finally, the influence of the contact resistance and the load current on temperature distribution is obtained by finite element simulation (FEM). The experimental result shows that the contact resistance increases with the decrease of installation torque, the increased blade temperature and the times of thermal cycles. In addition, different installation angle has little effect on the contact resistance. In simulation, it is indicated that the load current and the contact resistance is prone to cause the temperature ascension problem, which should be pay attention to the installation and the operation.