Observation of Current Flow Point in Contact Surface of a Current Collecting Mechanism

Recently, sliding contact mechanisms are being used to supply current to rotating or moving objects in a number of industrial applications. In this paper, we examine the heating and deformation that affects the contact areas of these sliding contact mechanisms by means of experiment and numerical analysis. In both the experiments and the finite element method (FEM) analysis, deformation was observed in the contact surfaces as mechanical stress. Moreover, a strong temperature distribution was found around the contact area with the formation of hot spots. In this work, we focused on the temperature rise under stress in the actual contact area. We also analyzed the heat transfer and stress at the point of contact between the copper pin and the copper block that constitute the contact area by FEM analysis and experiments. It was found that heat is generated from the tip of the pin. The FEM analysis results indicated that that the maximum mechanical stress occurred around the periphery of the contact area, leading to significant deformation in this region. The experimental results showed that blackened areas were formed on the contact area surface.