Metal Fiber Brushes and Slip Rings

Metal Fiber Brushes and Slip Rings

Defense Holdings, Inc® (DHi) and HiPerCon, LLC® of Charlottesville, VA have teamed to extend the use of their revolutionary, patented Metal Fiber Brush (MFB) technology from use in U.S. Navy nuclear submarines to other military and commercial applications.

 

MFBs, which gain their name from the fact that they are constructed of thousands of hair-fine silver alloy fibers running on their tips, offer significant improvement over carbon brushes in both data and current transfer, offering extended brush and slip ring service life, high current capacity, and significant decreases in service acoustic and electrical noise. Our silver alloy fibers offer significantly better service life and higher speeds over gold wire technology at a considerable price advantage. Metal Fiber Brush technology was originally developed under the Small Business Independent Research (SBIR) program working with HiPerCon, LLC, the U.S. Navy and the University of Virginia. MFBs are now being backfitted to the Navy’s fleet of nuclear submarines.

Following in the wake of their successes with submarine applications, DHi and HiPerCon adapted their submarine MFBs to solve de-icing system problems for the Navy’s E-2C early warning aircraft and the Air Force’s C-130 aircraft. In these and other aircraft de-icing systems, frequent failures of carbon brushes and the presence of carbon dust can pose significant risk of de-icing system failures and fire. MFBs offer significant reductions in scheduled preventative maintenance providing increased operational availability. DHi can provide the complete spectrum of engineering and life-cycle support for MFBs from a form-fit-function replacement for existing carbon brushes in legacy slip ring systems to complete slip ring design, manufacturing and life cycle support. DHi also offers MFBs for point designs such as its MFB grounding brush. The MFB grounding brush can be easily fitted to existing applications with simple tools and can run on the existing shaft without modifications. DHi’s MFB grounding brush will clearly outlast existing grounding brush systems and its very low resistance and high current carrying capability ensures protection for your valuable assets. MFB technology is also being applied in a number of products such as consumer electrical devices, wind turbines, vehicle power generation, transportation, and many others.

Rich Martin, DHi’s President and CEO, states “Defense Holdings and HiPerCon have already proven that our patented MFBs can operate under high runout conditions in excess of 50mils while under electrical loading and in the presence of industrial contaminates. Success of DHi’s program has proven that its MFBs can deliver a reliability improvement across a range of operating conditions ranging from controlled environments to harsh environments where carbon brushes increasingly fail.” DHi and HiPerCon have developed the technology, have pioneered the MFB market, and are presently the largest supplier of these types of Metal Fiber Brushes in the world.