SBIR-STTR Award

Diamond Antenna proposes to use Roll-Ringr technology and create a form, fit, and function Roll-Ringr replacement for the V22 slip ring. Unlike slip rings with a sliding electrical interface, Roll-Ringsr employ a rolling, non-sliding, electrical interface. The rolling, non-sliding, interface is a non-wearing, metal-to-metal, electrical interface that does not generate wear particles. Because there is virtually no wear, the Roll-Ringr will meet the 10,000-hour operating requirement and the 3000-hour MTBF requirement. Testing to date shows that Roll-Ringsr without maintenance will surpass the V22 life by 40%. In addition, because there is no wear or debris, the Roll-Ringr maintains its electrical characteristics over the life of the product. The Roll-Ringr has the following advantages over slip rings that use brush blocks. 1. No maintenance 2. Long life 3. Consistent electrical parameters throughout the life of the product 4. Low resistance 5. Low noise, i.e. low variation in circuit resistance due to rotation

In Phase I Diamond Antenna proposed to use Roll-Ring® technology and create a form, fit, and function Roll-Ring® replacement for the V22 slip ring. Unlike slip rings with a sliding electrical interface, Roll-Rings® employ a rolling, non-sliding, electrical interface. The rolling, non-sliding, interface is a non-wearing, metal-to-metal, electrical interface that does not generate wear particles. Because there is virtually no wear, the Roll-Ring® is expected to meet the 10,000-hour operating requirement and the 3000-hour MTBF requirement. Phase I concluded with a high power demonstration of 200 A and an extremely low noise (resistance variation over rotation) of < 1 milliohm. This demonstration illustrated the potential of Diamond’s coupler contact technology for very clean, high power transfer performance. Diamond Antenna in conjunction with our Phase I sponsor and building upon the work of our Phase I program plans to further the maturation of this technology. This will include finalizing the design of the Roll-Ring® and couplers, identifying the failure modes and associated risks of this technology, fabricating a reduced channel count channel prototype to fit within the existing slip ring envelope, and demonstrating the capabilities (signal transfer as well as reliability).

Benefit:
Diamond Antenna has a 47-year history of designing and manufacturing precision rotating components for the military and commercial market. Diamond is extremely well versed in working within the aircraft environment specified by this SBIR topic, as well as the environment for new ground programs like the Army’s Future Combat Systems program. Leveraging this record of success, Diamond has a twofold method of commercializing the technology developed under this Phase I SBIR and its Phase II follow-on. First by working with government agencies that will require the capabilities presented by lightweight, multi-purpose Roll-Ring® technology, Diamond will achieve Phase III success and revenue. Additionally, Diamond plans to market the technology to third party commercial partners. This gives the best possible means of growing revenues. New data and power transfer technologies are in great demand in the aerospace industry for a number of different applications, primarily to increase system performance and economy. The trend is towards higher data rates, more channels, more power, lower weight and less space. Diamond Antenna can also increase the performance of systems requiring these capabilities significantly. After Phase I and Phase II of this program, a minimal amount of Non-Recurring Engineering funding (approximately $5M-$10M) will be required for final production. This additional investment will likely be obtained through customer/program-related funding. Revenues will be realized within the first 3 years after Phase II completion by selling finished systems. For planning purposes the high-end systems with upwards of 60 channels, will cost approximately $50,000 each. There is high likelihood of commercialization success in bringing the product to market and to realize revenue within the first year after Phase II completion by selling systems to the commercial sector. Sales revenues will recoup the initial investment within the first several years and should maintain continuous growth. Diamond’s research identifies an initial market size of several thousand potential customer applications that fit the Roll-Ring® product. There are a number of higher-end airborne applications for the military, specifically within the rotary and fixed-wing aircraft sector. Applications include large groups of airborne systems such as the V-22 and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). For example, at the present time, there are 7,000+ helicopters of various types in the U.S. military inventory (and over 20,000 worldwide). These helicopters could potentially each use at least one lightweight, multi-purpose Roll-Ring® per aircraft, which represents a potential of over 27,000 units alone . Additionally, there are over 50,000 fixed-wing aircraft worldwide. The ground systems such as the Marine AAAV and Army M1 tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Stryker, and Future Combat Systems vehicles that could benefit from having the improved Roll-Ring® performance. A potential Phase III application could be to the Future Combat System program, which has 18 types of manned and unmanned ground and aerial vehicles as well as sensors, and will benefit from the Roll-Ring® technology being developed under this SBIR. There are over 125,000 ground vehicles worldwide that may either require systems applications or replacement by new vehicles that will require Roll-Ring® solutions for their advanced systems. At a conservative estimate one $50,000 Roll-Ring® unit per new or retrofit airborne or ground vehicle, represents a total market potential of over $1 Billion. Additionally, there are likely to be quantities of several lower performance Roll-Ring® units per "vehicle", likely increasing the total quantity of units needed to over 500,000. Additionally, there will likely be value-added revenue of approximately 10% for support services and spares. Taxonomy

Keywords:
rotating electrical contact, coupler, slip ring, roll-ring, power transfer