The impact of using silver alloy as contact material for automotive relays on product performance is mainly reflected in the electrical conductivity, mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and cost-effectiveness. Silver has excellent electrical conductivity and low resistivity. While maintaining good electrical conductivity, silver alloy can also take into account other performance requirements. Using silver alloy as contact material can reduce contact resistance and reduce voltage drop, thereby improving the conductivity efficiency of the relay and ensuring stable operation of the circuit.

Pure silver has low hardness and is easy to wear. After long-term use, the contact resistance will gradually increase. Silver alloys can improve the hardness and wear resistance of contacts, reduce contact wear and extend service life by alloying and adding other metal elements such as copper, nickel, palladium, etc. to silver. However, some silver alloys such as AgSnO₂ have the problem of difficult molding due to the high hardness of SnO₂, and special processing technology may be required to ensure accuracy.

Silver is not easy to oxidize at room temperature, and the oxide film is easily decomposed and reduced to metallic silver at high temperature. The resistivity of the oxide film is not high, and it has little effect on the contact resistance. Silver alloy inherits this characteristic of silver and can resist oxidation to a certain extent and maintain stable conductivity. By adding a small amount of tin, zinc and other elements to silver, the anti-sulfurization performance of silver can be improved, so that the silver alloy can also maintain good performance in a sulfur-containing environment, and improve the working stability and reliability of relays in different environments.

The high price of silver limits the wide application of pure silver in relays. Silver alloy can reduce the amount of silver to a certain extent through alloying, thereby controlling costs. While maintaining good conductivity, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance, silver alloy can achieve a balance between performance and cost by optimizing alloy composition and processing technology, thereby improving the cost performance of products.