Life is far from simple for automotive design engineers. To meet the growing demand for 10-year, 150,000-mile components, they often turn to durable but expensive metals and engineered plastics, only to find themselves caught between the proverbial rock and hard place as they strive to minimize design and production costs.

More and more design engineers, however, are realizing there is a proven, less expensive route to longer component life. Synthetic lubricants, custom-designed for specific highly engineered components, not only extend operating life, they can also cut costs by reducing reliance on exotic metals and glass-reinforced and other specialty plastics making the switch.

Extending operating life of switch

A leading switch manufacturer saw the light when they decided to test a custom-designed perfluorinated polyether (PFPE) grease from Nye on a new ignition switch. They had tested a standard, off-the-shelf grease, but the switch failed at 6,000 cycles, far below their 10,000 cycle target. When they replaced the standard grease with NyeTact 571 H-10 by Nye, the switch was still functioning “like new” at 55,000 cycles.

Nye developed a related lubricant, NyeTact 570 H, a couple years ago for gold telecommunication connectors, and it has since become the standard in the Telecom industry. While NyeTact 570 H was formulated for temperatures as low as -30C, it didn’t quite meet the automotive benchmark of -40C. 
So Nye reformulated 570 H to meet automotive standards. The result was NyeTact 571 H-10, a new PFPE-based lubricant with an operating temperature range of -60to +250C.

NyeTact 571 H-10 is a dispersion of Nye grease in an ozone-safe solvent. It can be applied to contacts by brushing, spraying, or dipping. The solvent evaporates leaving a thin, durable lubricant film.

Improved performance of the ignition switch is attributed primarily to PFPE’s “non-burning” characteristic. In sliding switches, there can be some degree of arcing, which causes traditional contact greases to decompose, leaving resistive carbon debris on the contacts. This debris increases contact resistance, accelerates wear and, in turn, compromises the life of the switch. In contrast, NyeTact 571H-10 leaves no residue upon decomposition; so, they minimize wear and extend operating life.