On the application of W/Cu material in the fields of power engineering and plasma technology

This paper reports on application of W/Cu material in the fields of power engineering and plasma technology. Due to their special combination of properties, materials on the basis of W/Cu are widely applicable as contacts and electrode materials in power engineering and plasma technology. By means of varying microstructure and tungsten content, as well as by introducing suitable additives, it is possible to optimize the material for quite a number of specialized tasks. The ways to influence the switching properties or the discharge behavior, respectively, are demonstrated with the aid of experimental results obtained in various applications of copper-tungsten materials.