The intelligent powertrain

Clutches and brakes from mayr power transmission become smart and networked. Components such as the ROBA-brake-checker module or the torque-measuring shaft coupling ROBA-drive-checker provide data and thus enable intelligent safety: For smart production and predictive machine maintenance. At Hannover Messe 2023, the company will present the intelligent, talking components for process monitoring..

The digital twin will remain one of the most important trends in automation and drive technology in 2023. This is because digital twins can be used to simulate processes, analyze different scenarios, and also make it easier to work and perform maintenance remotely. But building and validating such a model requires a large amount of extended process data from the various components. Normally, this data is collected via sensors and then used to feed the model. "However, our brakes are also capable of communication without additional sensors and provide information directly from the component," explains Andreas Merz, Product Manager at mayr power transmission in Mauerstetten..

Save costs and time

The monitoring of the Mayr safety brakes is carried out with the retrofittable ROBA-brake-checker module, which is clamped into the voltage supply of the brake. The module detects the movement of the armature disk through an extended analysis of current and voltage and knows in which state the brake is. In addition to monitoring the switching state and critical coil temperature, the ROBA-brake-checker also performs preventive function monitoring for wear, functional reserve and faults. In an extended version, the ROBA-brake-checker module is equipped with an additional board with a customer-specific interface (e.g. Eathernet-based). Via this interface, it can provide data on switching time, current, voltage, resistance, power and relative pickup current. This means that curves can also be evaluated, anomalies in the process can be quickly identified and conclusions drawn from complex relationships, and integration into remote maintenance systems is also possible. All in all, these are advantages - not only for predictive maintenance, but also for lowering maintenance costs and reducing technical defects and downtimes, or for setting up and validating a digital twin.

Hello clutch, how are you today?

And shaft couplings from Mayr Antriebstechnik can also do more than transmit torques and compensate for shaft misalignment. "Shaft couplings are important components in the drive train. They sit right where the action is, so to speak, and are therefore predestined for intelligent monitoring concepts," explains Ralf Epple, Product Manager at Mayr Antriebstechnik in Mauerstetten. "The goal is the intelligent clutch, which gives us information about the status of the driveline. This brings decisive advantages." Instead of adding elaborate measuring flanges or the like to the driveline, the couplings are equipped with integrated sensors. This saves space and additional components. "Our ROBA-drive-checker coupling is based on the standard ROBA-DS steel lamina coupling and can thus be easily integrated into many existing applications," adds Ralf Epple. This approach is particularly attractive in the area of process monitoring, where, in addition to accuracy, cost-effectiveness also plays an important role. "We deliberately set ourselves apart from high-quality measurement technology and measurement systems from the test environment, which pursue a different goal," Ralf Epple specifies.