The world of industry and electromechanics is always in motion. More precisely, in rotary motion (rotating consumers). Wind turbines, medical technology, crane technology, stage technology, video cameras, screens, data-driven automation, data transmission and robotics – standstill is the death of efficiency and innovation. None of these industries function without the transmission of power and data on continuous, unrestricted or intermittent rotation.
Therefore, reliable, maintenance-free and loss-free transmission of data, power and electrical signals between the individual stationary and rotating components is required. That’s were electromechanical devices come into play that allow that kind of transmission, regardless of the application or kind of rotation: slip rings. This may be components rotating incomplete revolutions in one direction continuously or rotating incomplete revolutions in either direction. Or they oscillate through parts of a revolution, depending on the application.
Slip rings are elementary for every industry in motion, such as:
To name just a few.
They do not only fulfill a purely technical function that cables could not perform in the transmission between two rotating or a stationary and rotating component. Slip rings also help to improve mechanical performance, simplify system operation, and eliminate the need for damage-prone cables hanging from moving joints. For a long time now, it has not only been about the transmission of electricity. Especially in the context of Industry 4.0, it is becoming increasingly important that slip rings can transmit much more and that under various requirements and a wide variety of rotation speeds. Our roots are in wind power, but over the last few decades we have been able to gain a lot of experience in transferring the requirements for space saving, reliability, speed, robustness and freedom from maintenance to other sectors.
Because it doesn’t matter whether it’s a human-robot collaboration, a filling system, factory automation, a sprinkler system, a rotary milking parlour or a CT device. They all require a combined transmission of signals such as Profinet, fieldbus, HD-SDI or video signals, data and power.