Research on Degradation Modeling of Pick-up Time

for Aerospace Electromagnetic Relay in Long-Term

Stockpile
1,2 1
Zhaobin Wang , Shang Shang2 , Xiaoyi Huang3 ,Guofu Zhai4 , Wenhua Chen
1
Post-Doctoral Research Center, School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation
Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
Hangzhou, China
2
School of Electronics and Information
Jiangsu University of Science and Technology
Zhenjiang, China
3
Beijing Institute of Information Technology
Beijing, China
4
School of Electrical Engineering and Automation
Harbin Institute of Technology
Harbin, China
E-mail: wangzb@just.edu.cn

Abstract
The storage degradation test system for aerospace
electromagnetic relay (EMR) is designed, which uses FPGA
and ARM SCM architecture as system’s hardware core. The
degradation data rule of pick-up time parameters for
aerospace EMR is tested. And the variation law of pick-up
time changing with time is obtained. The change of pick-up
time is analyzed and verified, which is mainly caused by
reeds reaction occurred relaxation. Then, pick-up time and
reed reaction exists the approximate linear relationship was
found. So, the pick-up time can characterize the degradation
of reed relaxation. The storage degradation model of pick-up
time is estimated through regression theory. The research
results in this paper provide the necessary theoretical method
and basis for studying storage reliability and life prediction
of the aerospace EMR.
Keywords-aerospace electromagnetic relay; storage
reliability; pick-up time; degradation; stress
I. INTRODUCTION
Aerospace relays are one of the indispensable key
components in National Defense Weapon Equipment System,
and its storage reliability affects reliability of weaponry
equipments directly. Lu Jianguo analyzed the mechanism of
aerospace electromagnetic relay storage, and predicted
accelerated storage life test data based on Grey theory [1]. Li
Ling solved the optimization design problem of relay small
sample storage accelerated test scheme by Gibbs sampling
MCMC method [2].
In the Aerospace EMR storage process, the reed, coil,
varnished wire and magnetic materials, etc. will degraded to a
certain extent. The degeneration will affect relay performance
characteristic or contact performance. For aerospace relays in
long-term stockpile, the regression is accurately assessed and
the current or future performance characteristics are predicted
by the test data in the storage process, which is important for
both relay manufacturer and user.
The relay characteristic of pick up time, time for the N.O.
contact to close, is sensitive to changes in electromagnetic
force, spring force, and other wear factors in the contact
system associated with component degradation, so it contains
the feature information reflecting relay component
degradation. Hammerschmidt et al. pointed that there are
deterministic relation within some parameters, such as pick-
up time, contact clearance and contact pressure, etc [3].
During the aerospace relay storage accelerated test, it is found
that pick-up time change obviously during the storage
process. The foundations for design and storage reliability
assessment are provided by finding degeneration reasons and
confirming the relay components which lead to the pick-up
time changed.
The pick-up time is affected by both coils and reeds. The
coils provide attractive force and reeds provide spring force,
and relay motions by the resultant force. The degradation of
coil within storage process is the changes of insulated wire
resistance, and the changes of spring force characteristics
mainly come from stress relaxation. Now, the research of
material stress relaxation has been very well researched by
international and domestic academics. Fox pointed the fall
rate of stress relaxation and time follow a linear relationship,
when he researched the bending stresses relaxation
characteristics of BeCu alloy strip [4]. Hashizume researched
the stress relaxation characteristics of copper alloy that used
to be spring and established Hashizume formula [5]. Zhu
Yongqing took accelerated stress relaxation test of domestic
tin bronze and beryllium bronze domestic relay contact reed
materials, such as tin bronze and beryllium bronze, and he
calculated the value of long time stress relaxation by short
time change law[6]. Now, the most stress relaxation is
researched simply from the views of material. In this paper,
the degradation reasons of relay pick-up time in storage will
be analyzed and confirmed, and pick-up time is used to

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represent characteristics of reed stress relaxation storage movable contact and two static contacts), which voltage is
degradation. The degradation model is built, and which 28V D.C. and contact load is 5A. The closing process was
provide references for the research of aerospace EMR storage that when the coil was energized, the armature was moved by
reliability. electromagnetic force, and the pusher arm pushed moveable
spring moving until N.O. contact closed. And, the opening
II. PROCEDURE OF AEROSPACE RELAY ACCELERATED process was that when the electromagnetic system was power
STORAGE DEGRADATION TESTING off, movable contact returned by mechanical spring force
A. Test System and Test Process until N.C. contact closed.
Normal open spring
The relay performances degrade slowly at room NO contact Coil
Iron core
temperature. The relay storage accelerated test is to speed up Movable spring
the relay performance degradation by increasing the stress in NC contact
Yoke
Pusher
arm
the condition of unchanging failure mechanism. Then
properties are tested, and relay storage performance Normal close spring
Leading-out rod
Pusher arm
Armature Reaction spring
degradation law and reliability are researched based on a) Contact system b) Electromagnetic system
performance degradation data. The contact resistance and Fig. 2. Schematic structure of aerospace EMR
time parameter test system, which is developed in references
[7], is used to take the storage accelerated test. The major B. Test Results of Pick-up Time
structures and physical map of the relay ASDT test system are
shown in figure 1. The whole test system is composed of Pick-up time is the time from the power-on of
temperature test chamber, relay switching circuit, contact electromagnetic system to the first contact of movable contact
resistance measurement circuit, time parameter measurement and N.O. contact. The relay pick-up time data were obtained
circuit, upper computer, and upper computer system software. by storage accelerated test on 10 relays over 210 days by
This system can monitor relay contact resistances and time using the above test system. The average value of 10 relay
parameters of 40 aerospace relays by turns under different pick-up time is shown in figure 3a). It is shown that the pick-
temperatures and transmit the test data to the host computer up time is on a declining trend under high temperature long
for processing. term storage. The curve is obvious two steps decrease. The
first step declines faster and the second step declines slowly.
temperature test
chamber 1
temperature test
chamber 2
temperature test
chamber N
The pick-up time decreases about 220μs in 0~2000h, and
... ...
...
... decreases about 50μs in 2000~5000h. The most decrease of
Relays Relays Relays
pick-up time appears on the first step. The box plots are
diagram drawn every pick-up time degradation, and the box
switch circuit board 1 switch circuit board 2 switch circuit board N plot in whole accelerated storage period is shown in figure
chip chip chip 3b). The ten groups of pick-up time are all two steps
control control selecting control selecting
signal
selecting
signal 1 signal signal 2 signal signal N decreases.
control
signal chip selecting signal
I/O1 I/O2-5 1- N
Coil
NC NC Relay Time Parameters
Pick-up time (µs)

Micro Ohm Test contact contact Tset Instrument

Instrument
NO NO
contact contact
Host computer

universal serial bus

serial port

a) Major structures of relay testing system a) Trend of pick-up time average value

Storage time (×48h)

b) Physical map of relay testing system
Fig. 1. Major structures and physical map of relay ASDT testing system b) Box plots of pick-up time
Fig. 3. Degradation trend chart of pick-up time
In the test the thermal stress is accelerated with a storage
temperature of 170 C. Relay contact resistance and pick-up III. ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF PICK-UP TIME,
time parameters are tested every 72 hours after test
MAGNETIC FORCE, AND SPRING FORCE
temperature restores up to room temperature. The structural
schematic of a certain aerospace relay is shown in figure 2. The pick-up time, time for the contacts to go from the
This relay is a kind of common switch-type contact relay (one open position to the closed position, is a function of the

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electromagnetic force closing the contacts and the contact
spring force holding the contacts open. The magnetic force
varies with the gap between the armature which is attached to
the spring and the core pin of the induction coil. The
magnetic force pulls the armature toward the core pin and
increases as the gap becomes smaller. The stability of the
magnetic force from the coil to degradation is mainly a
function of the electrical resistance stability of the coil
winding.
The contact spring applies a force in the opposite direction
to the magnetic force in trying to keep the contacts separated.
The magnetic effect must be larger than the spring force in
order to close the contacts. The spring force also increases,
similar to the magnetic force, as the gap between the armature
and core pin becomes smaller. The stability of spring force to
degradation is mainly a function of stress relaxation which
occurs from a combination of spring stress and temperature
exposure.
The pick-up time is the time it takes to close the contacts.
This is a function of the net force for the magnetic force
minus the spring force. If the magnetic force decreases due to
an increase in coil wire resistance the pick-up time will
increase. If the spring force decreases due to stress relaxation
the pick-up time will decrease.
The stability of coil resistance was studied in a storage
accelerated test. The results are show in Table 1. The change
in coil resistance was very small about 0.2%. This difference
is insignificant. This means that pick-up time variations are
mainly a function of spring relaxation and that spring
relaxation can be calculated from changes in pick-up time.
TABLE I. MEASUREMENTS OF COIL RESISTANCE IN RELAY STORAGE
Time 0h 200h 400h
Coil Resistance 974.2Ω 974.9Ω 975.0Ω
Figure 4 shows a plot of spring force and pickup time vs
aging time. Because of the stress relaxation, the spring force
decreases sharply in the initial aging stage (left side of dot
line), and then decreases slowly late. It corresponds to the two
stages of reduction of pick-up time. So the preliminary
judgment is that the change of pick-up time is caused by
spring force relaxation.
Either spring force or pick up time
1 - Curve of typical stress relaxation
2 - Changed trend of pick-up time
1
2 force and spring force characteristics fixture as shown in
decline
sharply
decline slowly
0
Aging time
Fig. 4. Comparison or pick-up time readings with typical stress
relaxation plot.
Spring force and pick-up time have a direct linear
relationship which makes it possible to predict spring stress
force degradation from changes in pick-up time
measurements. This is an important factor to the research on
storage reliability.
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A. Relationship of Pick-up Time and Spring Force
To research the relationship of relay pick-up time and
spring force, finite element modeling was carried out and
dynamic characteristics simulated on a certain aerospace
EMR by MSC.ADAMS (as shown in figure 4).
Fig. 5. Finite element model of aerospace EMR
The change of the spring force characteristics during the
storage can be described by set of curves. Here initial force is
selected as the parameter on behalf of the relay spring force
characteristics for easy analysis and discussion. Initial force is
the representative value on the relay spring force curve. The
initial force is a point force at the time of movable contact and
N.C.static contact breakaway by the bottom of armature
pushed. On the premise that the size of relay and the relative
location of movable contact and static contact are not
changed, the relationship of spring force characteristics and
pick-up time, when initial force is [0.65, 0.75]N and step size
is 0.005N, is shown in figure 6. It can be seen that there is a
nearly linear relationship between reed initial force and pick-
up time, and the slope is 3900  s / N .
3.8
3.6
600h
Pick-up time (µs)
976.2Ω 3.5
3.
4
3.3
3.2
0.65 0.67 0.69 0.71
Initial force (N )
0.73 0.75
Fig. 6. Relationship of reed initial forces and pick-up time obtained in
simulation
B. Experimental Verifications
The high temperature storage tests of new aerospace
relays were performed, and the relay spring forces and
attractive forces were measured periodically. The spring force
characteristics were measured using the relay static attractive
literature [8].The relay pick-up time was measured using the
time parameters fixture as shown in literature [7]. In order to
measure the relay spring force characteristics, relay shells
need to be removed before storage test. The relay storage test
was conducted under 170 C for 600 hours, and the relay pick-
up time and spring force characteristics were test every 200
hours after test temperature restores up to room temperature.
The trends for the relay initial force was indicated in
figure 7. From this figure the relay initial force dropped
rapidly, which means stress relaxation has happened.

Fig. 7. Stage #1 degradation of spring force, rapid decline
Figure 8 gives the relationship between pick up time and
initial time of relay during 600h. It is can be seen that pick-up
time and initial force both decrease with time elapsing, and it
is nearly a straight line. The line in the figure is the fitting
result, and the slope is 3770  s / N . It further testifies that the
change of pick-up time during storage is caused by spring
force rather than attraction force, and there is a local linear
relationship between pick-up time and initial force.
Fig. 8. Relationship of reed initial forces and pick-up time obtained in
test
The results of simulation and test prove the linear relation
between pick-up time and initial force. The uncertain factors
during the production process of aerospace relay cause the
small deviation between simulations and test.
The analysis above shows that it is feasible to reflect the
change of stresses of reed during the storage by use of the test
results of pick-up time. There is a great necessity to research
the performance deterioration and reliability of aerospace
relay during storage. Furthermore, the storage reliability of
reed and even the whole reed can be evaluated and predicted
by building the degradation model of pick-up time.
IV. STORAGE DEGRADATION MODEL OF PICK-UP TIME
There is linear relation between the pick-up time and
spring force, and according to the stress relaxation theory, the
degradation model of pick-up time in storage may be inferred.
The most common model of stress relaxation is Larson
Miller method [9]. The empirical formulae of Larson Miller
method can be expressed as:
  =F  S  = T +460  log t +C    
where θ is Larson-Miller parameter, T is Fahrenheit, t is time,
and the constant C is 20.
So, the values of the percentage of remaining initial force
in stress relaxation test as follows:
FS /F0 = T +460  log t +20   
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And, the pick-up time is nearly linear with the spring force as
follows:
Tx =kFx +c  
Then put the formula (1) into the formula (2) to get the model
of pick-up time in storage as:
Tx =kF0 T +460  log t +20  +c  
The accelerated storage data is disposed by least square
method that the contours fit using formula (4), which adjusts
the non-linearity of test data are shown in figure 9. The
storage test data of pick-up time and storage degradation
model (based on fitted parameters) are in good agreement.
test values of pick-up time
degradation model of pick-up time
Pick-up time (µs)
Storage time (h)
Fig. 9. Test data of pick-up time and storage degradation model
V. CONCLUSION
This paper has made research on degradation modeling of
pick-up time for aerospace electromagnetic relay in long-term
stockpile. From a series of consequences of previous testing,
this leads to the following results:
(1) In the accelerated storage degradation test, pick-up time
has shown the reduced trend. The results showed that
there were two obvious phases in the pick-up time
changes process. The two stages are as follows: stage 1:
rapid drop in closing time for aging under 1000 hours,
stage 2: gradual further decline in closing time above
1000 hours.
(2) The presumption of pick-up time change rule is
associated with stress relaxation has been proven by
tests and simulation result.
(3) The simulation and test results show that pick-up time is
nearly linear with the spring force. And so what that
means is feasible to study the stress relaxation in storage
by means of analyzing the pick-up time change rule.
(4) The model for pick-up time and stress relaxation in
storage has been tested and found to predict stress
relaxation. This provides a reference base for future
research on improvement of relay storage reliability.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors express their great thanks to the support of the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No.51507074), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(Grant No.2015M571898), the Natural Science Foundation of
Higher Education Institutions of Jiangsu Province (Grant
No.15KJB470003), and the Opening Foundation of Zhejiang
Provincial Top Key Discipline (Grant No.ZSTUME01A02).
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