With some appliances, it is necessary to replace carbon brushes one after another without remachining the commutator. To ensure that the subsequent brushes which replace the first one achieve sufficient life, the commutator must be sufficiently round and free of excessive flecking.
This can only be guaranteed if when the corresponding carbon brushes reach the wear limit, the commutator is not excessively roughened by arcing or made out of reoudness by in creased brush sparking.
This can be achieved by fitting a so-called "Cut-off Device" in the carbon brushes.
This system is designed to obviate damage to commutator on midget mortors where brushes are likely to become worn beyond the operational limit.
The moment the brush has worn to its replacement level the cut-off pin automatically interrupts the circuit.