Often a regular technical inspection of large plants is necessary and also mandatory. The service intervals can be extended if condition sensors monitor the function of relevant components or functional groups almost completely. In a lecture of the Forum Automation, strain sensors, which can be easily attached to representative locations, e.g. any kind of fasteners, and measure the load, will be presented.
Dr. Thomas Frank, head of the MEMS department at the CiS Research Institute will explain the basis of such sensors on April 4 at 15:00. They are miniaturized silicon strain sensors, 50 times more sensitive than a conventional metallic foil strain gauge and as small as the head of a pin.
The first applications concern the measurement of assembly pretensioning force in machine screws and the loading of pressure vessels. For better assembly, these are mounted on supports and electrically contacted. From this data pool, both the service intervals and the remaining time can be derived.
