Graphitization of Electric Power Unit Consumption
The graphitization of electric power is an important technological process in the development of power industry. Graphitization of electric power means the replacement of the traditional electric power carbon brush by graphitization materials. The electric power carbon brush is made of metal alloy material and has certain electrical conductivity and electrochemical characteristics. On the one hand, it often generates well-known carbon dust phenomenon in the running process; On the other hand, due to its low thermal conductivity, it has the characteristics of producing high temperature during the sliding friction, causing ablation or carbonization of the commutator, thus causing the electric power to fail. The replacement of the traditional electric power carbon brush will help to reduce the probability of these failures.
Graphitization materials are mainly soft graphite, hard graphite and diamond-like carbon (DLC). Among them, hard graphite is the most widely used in electric power graphitization due to its reasonable cost and good performance. Soft graphite has better performance than hard graphite in terms of wear resistance and texture toughness, but it costs more. Diamond-like carbon is extremely wear-resistant, but its cost is prohibitive. The typical properties of these materials are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Typical properties of graphitization materials
Material
Specific Elastic Modulus(GPa)
Specific Strength (MPa)
Soft Graphite
1.0
35
Hard Graphite
11
580
Diamond-like Carbon
280
3400
Grades and the selection of graphitization materials are determined according to device parameters, design requirements and technical economic conditions, including voltage, current, service conditions, installation size, etc. Generally speaking, soft graphite is suitable for control of high-precision rotating mechanical devices, hard graphite is suitable for high-power slide, semiactivated and external-excited commutator devices, and diamond-like carbon is suitable for external-excited commutator devices with high load and extremely high speed.
In terms of performance, the graphitization power unit has the advantages of low ablation, low electric carbon brush dust, low heating and low noise in the process of running. Also, compared with the traditional power unit, the graphitization power unit can save more than 20% of the power and reduce the unit consumption by about 50%. This can significantly reduce the operation cost of the power station and improve the operational efficiency of the electricity generation machinery.
In addition, the graphitization power unit has long service life and good anti-impact performance. In the long-term running process, high-speed, high-load and strong-impact operation conditions of the commutator and the electric machine, the graphitization power unit can provide superior performance in the aspects of safety and reliability.
To sum up, graphitization of electric power units can significantly reduce power unit consumption, and has the advantages of low ablation, low dust, low heating and low noise in running. In addition, its long service life, good anti-impact performance, and low running costs also make it an ideal choice for many power plants and industrial machinery.
