Influence of Surface Roughness on Contact Voltage Drop of Electrical Sliding Contacts

Abstract

Usually, sliding contact action is used to supply current to a rotating or a moving object. In the present experiment, we examined the relation between surface roughness condition and contact voltage drop for sliding contacts. We used carbon brush and copper slip ring for sliding materials. It is confirmed that the contact voltage drop is changed by various surface roughness of sliding materials. In case of the brush surface roughness is same as slip ring surface roughness, the contact voltage drop is increased. We consider that the real contact area affects the contact voltage drop change. In this paper, we examined mainly, the relation between sliding speed and surface roughness for electrical sliding contact action.