Contact travel
Updated 2026-10-27
Data records
- Contact travel is the displacement of the moving contact of a circuit breaker during an operation, recorded against time by a transducer coupled to the operating mechanism; the travel curve yields stroke, overtravel, rebound, contact wipe and velocity, which reveal the condition of the mechanism and its damping.
- A circuit breaker analyzer captures contact travel through a transducer connected to the moving part of the operating mechanism or interrupter, presents the motion as a distance-versus-time curve, and reports total travel, overtravel, rebound, stroke, contact wipe and velocity for comparison with the reference data of the breaker manufacturer.
Elsewhere in the family
- Circuit Breaker Timing and Travel related entry on Circuit Breaker Reference
Sources
- Electrical Testing Reference editorial taxonomy, Electrical Testing Reference editorial taxonomy of test methods, 2026-10 edition, Electrical Testing Reference. Held as: Own observation.
- Megger application page, Recommended circuit breaker tests, web page edition, Megger. Held as: Public page. Publisher page
Changelog (4 entries)
| Date | Revision | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-27 | created (gloss.contact-travel.definition) | |
| 2026-10-27 | review_status unreviewed -> software_reviewed (gloss.contact-travel.definition) | |
| 2026-10-27 | created (gloss.contact-travel.usage) | |
| 2026-10-27 | review_status unreviewed -> software_reviewed (gloss.contact-travel.usage) |
Cite this page
Cite the governing standard for the fact itself; cite this page as the finding aid.
"Contact travel." Test Instrument Reference. 2026-10-27. https://www.testinstrumentreference.com/glossary/contact-travel/.
Test Instrument Reference, Contact travel (Oct. 27, 2026), https://www.testinstrumentreference.com/glossary/contact-travel/.
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title = {Contact travel},
howpublished = {\url{https://www.testinstrumentreference.com/glossary/contact-travel/}},
organization = {Test Instrument Reference},
publisher = {Test Instrument Reference},
year = {2026},
note = {last substantive change 2026-10-27}
}{{cite web |title=Contact travel |website=Test Instrument Reference |publisher=Test Instrument Reference |url=https://www.testinstrumentreference.com/glossary/contact-travel/ |date=2026-10-27 |access-date=}}