2020 smart plastics® news

3D i.sense: 3D printed wear-resistant parts with sensors

Fast manufacture of intelligent special parts for predictive maintenance

Components made with the multi-material printing process enable predictive maintenance for quickly manufactured special parts, so that machine downtime and maintenance work can be reduced sustainably. Due to the sensor layer, the intelligent 3D isense components issue a warning before the wear limit is reached or if overloading occurs.  

Intelligent iglidur isense plain bearing

No more unexpected bearing damage

iglidur® isense plain bearings indicate their wear status in good time. If a bearing needs to be changed, the system is informed about it.

Function check at the touch of a button

New drylin® W isense linear carriage with LED display

No integration in IT environments, no interface issues. With the new drylin® isense linear carriage, the function and wear test is carried out simply at the push of a button.

Multiple asset connection

i.Cee.box ... LoRa Receiver & antenna

With the small i.Cee:box, you can escape the machine's switch cabinet, which allows for data transmission to the sensor on the igus product via LoRa radio transmission standard. The housing of the box meets IP68 and thus protects the inside from wind and weather. The i.Cee.box allows users to connect different assets, store all raw sensor data and selectively delete individual data. Download is possible via USB or, on request, a continuous export via an IoT connection.

Lifelong condition monitoring

EC.W LoRa separator with solar power supply

No more battery changes. The sliding feeder's abrasion condition is communicated via LoRa radio transmission standard to the i.Cee:box or i.Cee:plus.
Energy is supplied from the solar panel.  Graduated percentage service life information is implemented across four sensor layers.

EC.PR position-dependent push/pull force measurement

Protection for travels of up to 1000m – along their entire length

System-dependent imprecision due to static force limits for travels >150m are a thing of the past. A new EC.PR module makes this possible! Here, force limits are dynamically adjusted with information from PLC control systems, OPC UA servers or analogue (4-20mA) path measurement systems (Profinet/EC.PP). This reduces repair cost and effort; replacing a stacker reclaimer, for example, costs €30,000 or more.

EC.PP trough-integrated path measurement system

Provides EC.PR position data

Small transmitters connected by cable are installed at 50cm intervals on the outer guide trough side links. The so-called beacons transmit their positions to a single antenna fixed to the floating moving end. The system uses the relative position of the beacons to the antenna and the transmitted position to calculate the trolley position. It is then sent to the customer control system via Profinet. Both as information for the EC.PR push/pull force monitoring system and for positioning the crane trolley precisely. The envisioned repeatability is indicated to be +/-5mm!

Crossbar for online lifetime monitoring

IoT cloud connection for gliding e-chain systems®

The LTE modem integrated into the crossbar allows direct communication with the igus® IoT cloud. Maintenance recommendations are output via web dashboard, e-mail or SMS. An energy supply of several years is ensured via an integrated battery - there are also optional "energy harvesting" solutions. Separately calculated MTM mobile phone contracts and cloud costs ensure transparency. Graduated percentage service life information is implemented across four sensor layers.

Service life monitoring for all e-chain® installation types

Integrated offline service life monitoring for unsupported and roller chain applications

Excess clearance between a chain link's bolt and hole is a clear indication of the decreasing service life of an e-chain system®. The EC.I.SU.02 sensor measures this clearance in unambiguous percentage increments and sends them to the icom.plus module via LoRa. There, the remaining service life is calculated from movement data from the system's control system and, if necessary, a replacement recommendation is made. Operating the integrated battery for several years is based on an energy-optimised transmission procedure. Furthermore, energy-harvesting concepts are planned.