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A slip ring is an electrical device that helps in the transmission of power and electrical signals from a stationary to a rotatory body. They are mainly used in joints of automation machinery.
Components of a slip ring
A slip ring assembly consists of many different parts:
Housing:
A housing is a compartment in which the slip ring assembly is kept in order to keep the assembly set up out of any kind of contact with the outside environment. It is often made up of non-conductive material. To increase the efficiency of the housing and reduce corrosion, an alloy of aluminum is used to make the housing.
Contact brushes:
The contact or contact brushes are parts that form a connection between the rotational part and the stationary part. They form the stationary part of the assembly. They are made up of carbon generally but to increase the efficiency and reduce the corrosion, precious metals or fiber brushes are used.
Conductive rings:
Conductive rings are the rotatory part of the slip rings assembly. They are also made of highly conductive materials so as to allow maximum transmission without loss. Furthermore, since they rotate at a very high speed, they are likely to be corroded due to friction. To reduce this corrosion, the surface of the conductive rings is polished to provide minimized friction. They are also made of precious metals sometimes as they do not react to chemical reactions.
Insulation
The material used to insulate the parts of the slip ring is made up of high-quality materials. The insulation ensures that the several conductive rings and the contact brushes are insulated from each other so that there is no cross connection of the signals.
Brush holders:
They are the reason for the contacts to maintain proper pressure on the conductive rings. The brush holders ensure the brushes are always in contact with the conductive ring and ensure a continuous connection.
Modern slip rings vs orthodox slip ring
Various section of industries has definitely benefited from the advent of the slip ring. But with time, the relevance of slip ring began to drop. The primary reason was the modernization of the equipment. As modern equipment came along, the need for high speed rotation came with it and there were similar other additions that came with the so-called modernization.
The conventional lot of slip ring that we had then was quite clearly inefficient to meet such changing requirements. For an instance, meeting such high-speed rotational requirement was something that the orthodox slip ring was not quite cut out for. Thus, the slip ring manufacturer came up with a modern lot of equipment which, not only fulfilled the transmission requirement, but also matched up with the rotational speed. Some of the modern set of slip rings are an electrical slip ring, ethernet slip ring, and most recent inclusion HDMI slip ring.
