Experimental research on the non-uniform wear of the carbon strip of the metro pantograph

The present study simulated the actual contact conditions between the catenary and pantograph of a metro line using high-speed ring block current that carried friction and wear testers, from which the uneven wear of the pantograph carbon strip under different working conditions was studied. The results show that the arc power, friction coefficient, and wear amount will change correspondingly with increasing current and normal load. Additionally, all carbon strips showed non-uniform wear after the test, and the edge erosion and wear depth of the carbon strip perpendicular to the moving direction were higher than those in the middle part. The ablation of the back end of the carbon strip running with the catenary was higher than that of the front end.