Until recently, most small dc motors on spacecraft were required to operate only in a vacuum environment. With the advent of the space shuttle, small actuator motors now must operate both on the ground and in space. In this paper, a test program to evaluate small dc motor brush performance in air and vacuum is reported. Thirteen candidate brush materials were selected based upon research and vendor surveys. Permanent magnet and shunt motors were connected in pairs to test each brush material. Motor performance was monitored during air and vacuum operation, and brush wear was measured after each test interval. Of the 13 initial candidates, two materials could not be fabricated into brushes, three showed high wear, and the eight remaining were acceptable. One candidate was significantly better than the others. The inherently simpler and less expensive brush motor, then, may be used in place of more complex brushless dc motors for many spacecraft applications. The successful candidate require further qualification tests, such as vibration and temperature, before use in any particular application.
Motor brush wear test results for air and vacuum operation
Ergebnisse der Verschleisspruefung von Schleifkontakten in Luft und im Vakuum
ASLE Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Solid Lubrication. The Amer. Soc. of Lubrication Engineers ; SP-14 , Aug ; 132-138
1984
7 Seiten, 3 Bilder, 5 Tabellen, 2 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Motor Brush Testing for Mars and Vacuum
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