Condition monitoring
The port – a harsh and salty environment with high machine duty cycles, not a place for unexpected system downtime. Heavy loads, long operating times and a wide variety of weatherconditions – cranes in port facilities have to deliver top performance. To ensure this at all times, reliable condition monitoring concepts are needed. I would like to briefly explain how this looks in practice and what advantages it creates for the users using the following 'best practice' example of an international port operator.
After our appearance at the Smart Factory Summit last week, we had our next premiere this week: as guest experts on the VDI podcast, “Technik aufs Ohr” (Technology on the Ear). Together with my colleague Andreas Dengler, Industry Manager Automotive Factories at igus, we spent an entertaining half hour talking about the exciting world of smart plastics in automotive factories.
In the current climate, every minute often counts in production plants. Efficient, intelligent maintenance protects against expensive production downtimes and unplanned shutdowns. The service life of our igus® products can be calculated online. What's more: With smart plastics, the components report at an early stage when they are due for replacement. In this article I would like to show you how we have successfully introduced smart maintenance to our customers.
Because technologies supported by the Industrial Internet of Things are enjoying greater acceptance in factory environments, even more components with integrated intelligence are being produced. This is leading to the emergence of a new generation of smart plastics capable of constantly monitoring themselves and providing performance data and early warning of critical wear. These smart plastics can be used to increase plant productivity, maximise service life, and reduce costs thanks to condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.
More than 25,000 igus energy chains travel long distances every year in STS cranes, storage and retrieval units and linear robots. To load and unload the cutting-edge Triple E-class container ships, larger STS cranes must be built or existing cranes retrofitted. For future operations, in addition to using rol e-chains, there is much to recommend self-monitoring systems fitted with sensors.