Robust impedance controlled slip rings
AssigneeSeescan, Inc.
InventorsAlexander L. Warren, Mark S. Olsson, Nicholas A. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A slip ring for transferring electrical signals between rotating and static elements of a device includes a rotating element, a static element, an electrical contact assembly, including a plurality of subassemblies, contacting the rotating element and static element, one subassembly including a deformable PCB, and a spring element positioned to supply an axially aligned force to a face of the PCB to facilitate electrical contact between the PCB and other electrical contacts elements on another subassembly.
Claims15
A slip ring assembly for electrically coupling video signals in a video camera inspection system from a video camera output to a camera control unit (CCU), comprising:
- a rotating element;
- a static element;
- an electrical contact assembly coupling the rotating element and static element for coupling video signals from the video camera to an electrically coupled camera control unit (CCU), the electrical contact assembly comprising two or more axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies, wherein one electrical contact subassembly is disposed in the rotating element and another electrical contact subassembly is disposed in the static element;
- and
- an elastically deformable printed circuit board (PCB) as one of the axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies, the elastically deformable PCB configured to deform in an axial direction;
- and
- a spring element to provide a force centrally to a face of the elastically deformable PCB to deform the PCB so as to provide electrical contact therefrom to another of the axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies during rotation thereof.
A video pipe inspection system, comprising:
- a drum reel;
- a push cable;
- and a slip ring, the slip ring comprising:
- a rotating element;
- a static element;
- and
- an electrical contact assembly coupling the rotating element and static element, the electrical contact assembly comprising two or more axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies, wherein one electrical contact subassembly is disposed in the rotating element and another electrical contact subassembly is disposed in the static element;
- an elastically deformable printed circuit board (PCB);
- and
- a spring element positioned to provide force to a central area of the elastically deformable PCB to deform and urge the elastically deformable PCB into electrical contact with one of the axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies.
A video pipe inspection system, comprising:
- a camera control unit (CCU);
- a drum reel;
- a push-cable;
- a video camera;
- and
- a slip ring for communicatively coupling electrical signals from the video camera to the CCU, the slip ring comprising:
- a rotating element;
- a static element;
- and
- an electrical contact assembly coupling the rotating element and static element, the electrical contact assembly comprising two or more axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies, wherein one electrical contact subassembly is disposed in the rotating element and another electrical contact subassembly is disposed in the static element and wherein a first of the axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies includes an elastically deformable printed circuit board (PCB);
- and
- a spring element to push the elastically deformable PCB into electrical contact with one of the other axially aligned electrical contact subassemblies.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.