What is a Slip Ring, What is its Use, and How Does it Work?
They’re made to solve a very serious problem and yet they’ve become a help that stuck for decades and is still keeping up with the modern standards of many industries.
In this article, you’ll learn what slip rings are, how they work, how they are built, and even where you can find them, among other things you should know - so keep on reading!
What is a Slip Ring and How does it Work?
A slip ring is a small device that is built into or added to a device, machine, hardware, and equipment that has a stationary and a rotary part to it.
It is built to solve the wire winding problem where the stationary part meets the rotary part on the machine. Dangling wires around the joints are extremely dangerous and can lead to a serious downtime of the machine, as well as error in the machine.
Therefore, slip rings maintain a strong connection and can transfer electrical signal, power, data, and sometimes even other mediums while eliminating wires around the joints.
The whole contact is done through a slip ring and it works very simply. Two main components include a slip ring (case or the outer part) and brushes (or wipers) placed on the inside of the ring. As the rotation happens, brushes slide across the inside of the slip ring, making a stable and continuous connection.
This way, slip rings can eliminate wires, provide a stronger contact point, and bridge the gap between a stationary and a rotary part of a device while solving a simple but crucial problem in an easy way while providing many other benefits.
What is the Purpose of a Slip Ring and What are its Benefits?
The main purpose of a slip ring is the ability to eliminate wires around the joints while providing a secure contact point and connection between rotary and stationary parts.
However, slip rings are also useful at transferring electrical signals, power, data, and other mediums such as water, coolant, other fluid types, oil, gas, and more.
On top of these benefits that provide a great solution to a problem with plenty of benefits, slip rings are built in such a quality way that they can do much more.
Slip rings are also used to add resistance to motors and to control the rotating speed, they’re used on wind turbines to eliminate the wind turbines from spinning too fast, and they can provide an efficient slow start to machinery that requires a slow build-up of power at the start.
They can also handle a high load capacity well so they’re really built to last for long and keep up with the needs of any type of machinery they’re used for.
Yet they’re very affordable, simple to use in any type of device or equipment, and yet they’re still getting innovated so you can expect even better solutions.
Slip Ring Types and Real-Life Uses
There are 6 main types of slip rings, but each one of these types has sub-versions of the type to ensure slip rings in as many devices as possible.
Therefore, 6 main types of slip rings are the following:
● Pancake ring
● Ethernet slip ring
● Fiber optic ring
● Through hole slip ring
● Mercury contact ring
● Miniature ring
Companies such as Moflon have a reputation for producing top-notch slip rings for over 3 decades and among the most standard slip rings that come in any of these 6 types, they also produce custom solutions for companies in need. And on top of that, they continue to innovate and produce modernized versions of slip rings that can provide an even better service.
Some of the best real life examples where you can find slip rings include medical imaging equipment such as CT or MRI, radars, robotics, heavy-duty machinery, aviation, aerospace, wind turbines, monitoring equipment, and many others.
Slip rings can be found in the food and beverage industry, marine dredging equipment, factory automation, and many others.
Future of Slip Rings
Slip rings have been a standard in the industry for devices and equipment that feature a rotary part to it.
And even though they’ve been pretty much the same for the last couple of decades, there are still innovations that can help improve its purpose and installation and reshape the whole purpose for the better.
The most modern slip rings you can find on the market are known as the next-generation slip rings and they rely on technology that provides wireless power slip rings and brushless slip rings that have an extended lifespan.
Therefore, slip rings are definitely a solution that’s here to stay and they’re hardly replaceable since if they did not exist, there would have to be a substitute to fill in the slip ring’s role.
On top of that, even the traditional slip rings will continue being used, yet additional advanced modern slip rings will also find a way to be a good fit for certain needs which means this solution will provide even more versatility and benefits.
Companies such as Moflon are working extremely hard to help provide slip rings across dozens of industries and even work with companies to provide custom solutions so slip rings are definitely in high demand.
Conclusion
Slip rings are often overlooked devices that solve an important issue and play an important role in so many devices, machines, and equipment that feature a rotary aspect to it.
With so many different types, benefits, and advantages, slip rings are widely used in so many devices without us even realizing it.
Their purpose is very simple and yet thanks to the additional benefits it provides, it’s really worth the use across various projects. And their use in equipment and machines such as wind turbines just vouches for their reliability.
Reviewed by Author
on
August 03, 2022
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