Nitin Kulkarni
Technical Services Committee Member
Helwig Carbon Products, Inc.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

When there is a need for cleaning the contact surfaces of commutators and slip rings with brushes, emery cloth with aluminum oxide is NOT recommended, as conductive abrasive particles will cause arcing and damage to the surface. Many times, stone cleaning, garnet paper and machining are not a convenient, sufficient, or cost-effective option for machines as the priority is to keep the downtime to a minimum. This is when the carbon brush can be designed to clean up the contact surface. It will help remove localized high resistance burn spots, contamination and old grade film before the new grade brush is installed. In many cases, the carbon brushes are used as a temporary but highly effective tool to clean the contact surface.

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