Because of the different ways in which contact materials work, the basic requirements for silver metal oxide contact materials are different. They are anti-welded and anti-erosion when closed, anti-erosion when broken, and arc easily moved and have smaller contact resistance. In this paper, La2O3 is used as a stable oxide in contact material to replace CdO. A new type of Ag/SnO2-La2O3-Bi2O3 contact material is first obtained through using powder metallurgical method. Then electrical contact material parameter tester is used to test the electrical contact performance of the contact material. Through experiments, the arcing voltage and current curves, arcing energy curves, fusion power curves while broken and contact resistance while closed were obtained. Analysis of the results showed that the addition of La2O3 makes the contact material have the following advantages: smaller electrical wear, smaller arc energy, smaller contact resistance and arc is more easily extinguished.
