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Condition monitoring for automotive engine plants
smart plastics avoid failures through continuous condition monitoring
In the automotive industry, reliability is of the utmost importance. Whole vehicles as well as individual components, such as engines, go through production lines with a very high degree of automation. If production stops here, it quickly leads to expensive losses. Therefore, it is important for vehicle manufacturers and suppliers to be able to rely on fail-safe components. For this reason, an Austrian engine manufacturer relies on smart plastics from igus®. These smart plastic sensors measure wear during operation and notify the user early enough to plan a repair or an exchange.
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Twice as safe: abrasion and breakage monitoring
The i.Sense EC.W ("W" for "wear") abrasion monitoring system was used in the e-chain®. This is a sensor chip installed in the crossbar which continuously measures the condition of the gliding e-chain® as it travels. If the abrasion level indicates chain's service life is approaching, the sensor reports this and triggers a signal.
The use of the i.Sense EC.B modules ("B" for "break") is much more decisive here. They monitor the condition of the chain using a polymer wire inside the energy chain and a sensor unit. In the past, visual inspections of cable management systems could show no issues, but two weeks later, a breakage could occur. These situations can be prevented by the breakage monitoring system. However, a lot of fine-tuning still had to be done at the start of the beta phase. This is because the temperature in a factory has a major influence on the length of the chain as well as the pretension of the polymer wire. It was necessary to determine limit values in order to distinguish between "normal" expansion and actual incidents.
At the Austrian engine plant, the i.Sense modules from igus® were named the innovation of the month with considerations and plans to equip around 50 to 60 additional e-chain systems from igus® with breakage monitoring. The three test systems are already at the point where the system stops in the event of a reported breakage and the responsible machine setters have to take action. After a visual inspection, they can decide whether it was a false alarm or whether there is an actual need for action. This means that even during the current beta phase, expensive, consequential damage can be avoided and the gantries can be moved safely.
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