Slip Rings

The slip rings are manufactured according to Servotecnica specifications, inspected and certified individually in order to provide highly reliable components, ensuring the highest quality-cost ratio. The slip rings are also known as: electric rotary joint, electric collector, electric joint or electric coupling. The main purpose of the slip ring is to transfer signals or electric power from a fixed structure to a movable one, ensuring continuous rotation and preventing that the electrical conductors are stressed by mechanical torsion.

Slip rings consist of two parts: an outer one called STATOR (because it is normally stationary) consisting of brushes made of precious material (gilded or silver plated copper) and an internal part called ROTOR (because it normally rotates) also consisting of rings made with precious materials. Operation is reversible, i.e. the external part, which is normally fixed, can be made to rotate and, as a result, the internal part (which normally rotates) can be kept fixed.

Servotecnica, in its electric collectors, has paid special attention in the design and manufacture of the two elements that come into contact: the brushes and rings. The selection of precious materials, the thickness and the particular geometry, the careful selection of the bearings, can have an estimated service life of up to 50 million rotations.

The types of slip ring offered by Servotecnica start from the series called “Capsule”, which are collectors without a through-hole with a diameter measuring 12 to 22 mm and featuring 3 to 56 circuits. The gold-gold technology, applied to the brushes and to the rings, ensures the transfer of high frequency signals as well as fieldbus transfers with a bandwidth up to 1 G, used especially in video surveillance systems, in the medical and pharmaceutical industry.

The “Faston” series with 32 mm and 45 mm diameters and featuring 2 to 6 contacts, which can simultaneously transmit power and even analogue signal, are ideal for Flowpacks, in packaging and in rotary tables also thanks to the option with IP65 protection rating.

One of the most successful series is that of the “through-bore” slip rings, i.e. with through-hole measuring 3 mm to 100 mm in the standard versions. It is possible to transmit very high power, even by connecting several contacts in parallel and to simultaneously carry digital, analogue and fieldbus signals including Ethernet Realtime (Ethercat - Sercos III - Profinet - Ethernet / IP -Powerlink); these electric collectors are applied in the Converting, Medical, Pharmaceutical, NC Machine and Packaging industries.

For special applications like in the food industry, machine tools, rotary tables requiring both IP65 protection rating and a steel casing, we have developed the collectors of the “Rugged” series. The “Naked” rotary joints are intended instead for wind turbine applications, in fact we have concentrated considerable power in a small space and having removed the outer casing they are particularly convenient. Particularly interesting are the new “Flat” slip rings that extend more in diameter, thus limiting thickness. The latest creation is the series that demonstrates Servotecnica’s commitment to innovation in the field of electric collectors: the “Explosion proof ATEX” series designed for Oil & Gas, Off-shore and metallurgy applications.