Recently I was sent on a service call to a company having slip ring issues.  This company was not a UEA customer but the end user of a product that used our slip rings.  Relationships like this tend to be more problematic due to the lack of information being passed on from our customer to the end user.  Since the product is specified and ordered by the original customer, all the specifications, maintenance, mounting and installation are communicated between UEA and customer.  This information in many cases does not get passed on to the end user.

In this application there were a few problems due to this lack of communication between the product manufacturer and the end user.  In this situation, the ring had been mounted incorrectly, causing the slip ring to bind. This put added stress on the bearing and caused the brushes to ride incorrectly on the ring.  Secondly, the application was demanding enough that it required the brushes be replaced during its lifetime of operation.  However, the end user did not receive correct information on what brushes needed to go on what rings.  In this case, 2 silver graphite brushes were needed for the data circuits and they were replaced with copper graphite brushes causing an increase in resistance and failures.  The rings also were being cleaned improperly and at incorrect intervals.  

All the issues that the end user had been experiencing could have been avoided if the information would have been forwarded on from our customer.  In the end, I was able to fix the issues and give the customer a better understanding of slip rings in general.  Hopefully, this will help them avoid similar issues in the future.  UEA always strives to provide the highest customer service to all its customers and users of our products.