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Products

Electrical Contact Rivets and Contact Assemblies

Electrical contacts consist of soft, high-conductivity, oxidation-resistant materials used as the makeup of electrical components. They are the materials in a system through which an electrical current flows; such as:

  • Circuit breakers
  • Relays
  • Switches
  • Timers
  • Controls
  • Thermostats

Electrical contact rivets come in a variety of sizes.  You can find options both small to extremely large, depending on your voltage requirements and usage.

Electrical Contact Materials

Electrical contacts are typically made from any metal with high electrical conductivity.  However, in applications such as high-power equipment where mechanical wear is expected, a conductive metal may be used.

Common electrical contact materials include:

  • Silver
  • Copper
  • Gold
  • Platinum
  • Palladium
  • Brass

Electrical Contact Material Properties

When choosing the best electrical contact for your application, it is important to keep in mind the six most important properties:

  1. Conductivity
  2. Corrosion Resistance
  3. Hardness
  4. Current Load
  5. Cycle Life
  6. Size

Electrical Contact Conductivity

Conductivity refers to the measure of a material’s ability to conduct or carry an electric current.  You will see this as a percent of a copper standard (ex: 100% International Annealed Copper Standard or IACS)  Silver, which has the highest conductivity, has an IACS of 105.

Corrosion Resistance

Corrosion resistance of electrical contacts refers to a material’s ability to resist chemical decay.  Any material with little corrosion resistance will decay faster than ones with high resistance.

Hardness

This measures how resistant materials are to various kinds of permanent deformations from an applied force.  It is dependent on five factors:

  1. Ductility
  2. Elasticity
  3. Plasticity
  4. Tensile Strength
  5. Toughness

Current Load

This property refers to the maximum recommended current load that the material is capable of handling.

Form

As the name suggests, it refers to the shape an electrical material must fit in order to carry out its operation.

Size

The size relates to the thickness, length, and width or outer diameter of the form a material takes.

Norstan, Premier Electrical Contact Manufacturer

Norstan uses a variety of precious metals and metal alloys for our cold-formed parts and electrical contacts.  Our team works with each and every customer to sure that you’re kept in the loop on project status, schedule, and deliverables are clearly defined, and all your technical and business requirements are met.

The cold heading and cold forming process have numerous advantages :

  • low manufacturing cost
  • part-to-part consistency
  • efficient material usage
  • good surface quality
  • capable of achieving 3 CPK and greater.

Precision electrical contacts and rivets from silver, gold, palladium, copper, brass, and many other materials – with less waste than screw-machined parts.

  • Bimetallic machine composite contacts and rivets manufactured from precious metals and OFHC copper reduces the electrical contact cost.
  • Electrical contact assemblies include contact rivets, contact tape, brazed contact, or welded contacts.

Contact us today to learn how we can help your electrical contact assembles!

3 Things You
Should Know About Us

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Continually focused on reducing our customers’ costs

We allocate manpower, budgets, and all resources for maximum cost effectiveness.

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Committed to the best quality and continuous improvement

We continually audit and review our processes to consistently improve, as well as mitigate risks.

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We care about our
environment

We are proud of our environment-conscious manufacturing practices. We are conflict mineral and RoHs compliant.

Our Promise

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100% Customer Satisfaction

Every customer is an "A" customer… Always! We are committed to eliminate errors at every stage of the product design, development and manufacturing process.

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Innovation

Continuously seek new technologies and new ways to improve processes. Our team members are rewarded for innovative ideas.

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Knowledgeable & Responsive Team

Our team of members love working at Norstan. Most of our team has worked at Norstan for 15+ years.

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Continuous Waste Reduction

We are proud of our environment-conscious manufacturing practices, energy usage and waste reduction.

Metal Fabricator Experts

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