Tracking wear of plain bearing liners with intelligent Igus sensor

The new smart plastics linear system measures the wear of the bearings in operation and gives an early warning
Read more at http://www.ferret.com.au/c/treotham/tracking-wear-of-plain-bearing-liners-with-intelligent-igus-sensor-n2531531#E56Kq3C4ZIVFoTdJ.99

igus engineers have developed a new intelligent linear guide designed to detect the wear of liners in linear systems at an early stage. A sensor in the bearing liners measures the individually determinable wear limit and sounds an alarm when it is reached. This allows maintenance to be planned in advance, thereby avoiding unexpected system failure.

Operators of systems that use linear robots and linear systems are often challenged by the question: When should the bearing be changed? From packaging machines and the glass processing industry up to machine tools, linear guides must withstand extreme loads. In order to detect early wear of the sliding lubrication-free bearings made of high-performance plastics and to plan the maintenance in advance, igus has now developed a new smart system for its drylin linear systems. The new smart plastics technology measures the wear of dirt and dust-resistant bearings and alerts the user when the wear limit is reached.

Patented technology for wear monitoring

A new intelligent and patented technology measures the wear of a bearing in all directions. To do this, igus integrates a sensor in the bearing, which sends the measured data to the icom. The communication module collects the data of all smart plastics sensors, processes them and forwards them. The user can take over the monitoring with the terminal device of their choice and carry out maintenance, repair and replacement.

Fast replacement directly on the rail

Bearing change is quite simple thanks to igus’ smart bearing replacement technique. The linear axis or the multi-axis gantry with toothed belt drive no longer has to be disassembled, because the replacement takes place directly on the rail. Similar to a pit stop in Formula 1, the linear plain bearing can be changed in no time at all and thanks to a free tool, it reduces downtime to a minimum. The system can be put back into operation within a few minutes.

For more information, please visit the Treotham Automation website www.treotham.com.au or call 1300 65 75 64.