igus energy chain sensors monitor movement and measure wear

Plan maintenance in advance: this goal is not only pursued by igus with its intelligent smart plastics products for monitoring energy chains, cables and plain bearings, but manufacturers of machines and systems are also offering increasingly more solutions with their own condition monitoring tools.

Among them is Swiss company Güdel: the automation specialist uses the igus sensors EC.M and EC.W for its linear robots. “The sensors measure the movement and wear of the four energy chains used and send the measured values via the icom data concentrator to Güdel’s condition monitoring computer”, explains Richard Habering, head of the smart plastics division at igus. By connecting to the igus cloud, the data is evaluated using AI and machine learning. The integration of the analysed data takes place via the Güdel Condition Monitoring System. “With the tool, the user can monitor the status of the energy chains and rollers in use”, says Daniel Bangerter, head of customer care at Güdel. “Maintenance can be planned by collecting and evaluating the data.”

In the video (https://youtu.be/oYRlQR1Ny5s) Richard Habering and Daniel Bangerter explain precisely how predictive maintenance works with smart plastics and the condition monitoring system from Güdel.