Design And Testing of a Continuous Duty Current Collectors

The Center for Electromechanics at The University of Texas at Austin (CEM-UT) is involved in brush research to develop sliding electrical contacts capable of high current density (2 kA/cm2), high slip speed (200 m/s), continuous operation. The preferred approach is to actively cool the contact by introducing a coolant into the brush-rotor interface. Preliminary testing of this concept has been performed with encouraging results. Design of a contact will be presented along with test results from a single point brush tester capable of 200 m/s slip speed with externally supplied current Results from the high speed brush tester (HSBT), a homopolar generator capable of 400 m/s operation, will also be presented.