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Satnews Daily
October 22nd, 2014

Metallized Carbon's Silver Treatment Solves Solutions For Electrical Apps


[SatNews] Metallized Carbon Corporation is now producing Silver Metcar, a silver impregnated, carbon-graphite material useful for electrical applications that require low resistance, low voltage drop, and low electrical noise—this material is ideal for DC motor brushes, non-welding electrical contacts, and rotary slip ring brushes or contacts in satellite communications systems, air traffic control radars and telecommunications systems.

Low noise slip rings assemblies, known as rotary joints, microwave rotary couplings, and RF rotary joints, are used to transmit minute electrical signals in rotating equipment like microwave antennas, radar receivers, sonar receivers, rotating thermocouples read-outs, and rotating strain gauge read-outs.

The carbon-graphite in Silver Metcar provides self-lubricating properties and the pure silver provides high and constant electrical conductivity. The material is corrosion resistant, dimensionally stable and has a heavy overload capacity. Additives to the carbon-graphite base material improve its self-lubricating properties in the dry atmospheres that occur at high altitude and in space.  Silver Metcar cannot melt or weld to another metal surface because the carbon-graphite base material will not melt.  It can be silver plated so that it can be easily soldered to metal parts such as leaf springs or conventional brush holders.

To make the Silver Metcar materials, solid carbon-graphite base materials, in rings or blocks, are submerged in pure, molten silver and the silver is forced into the porosity of the carbon-graphite material using extremely high gas pressure. Most of the Silver Metcar grades contain approximately fifty percent silver by weight. X-ray inspection is used to ensure that each Silver Metcar part is uniformly impregnated with silver.

“With the growth of in-flight and at-sea television and Internet service, we are seeing a huge increase in demand for the material for use in antennas used to track satellites,” said Matthew Brennan, Chief Operating Officer of Metcar.

Since 1945, Metallized Carbon Corporation has been manufacturing high-quality, dependable bearing solutions for severe operating environments. Metallized Carbon offers the field expertise and data necessary in a wide variety of industries, supplying completely machined components as well as materials for customer machining. Metallized Carbon is ISO certified and produces the Metcar brand of solid, oil-free, self-lubricating materials.

For additional information about the company and its services, please visit the company online at http://www.metcar.com/