METHOD FOR WEAR DETECTION, AND CONVEYING SYSTEM WITH WEAR DETECTION

Abstract

A method for wear detection during the operation of a conveying system having a closed circulating path, a pick-up which is attached to at least one running gear and which makes contact with a surface of a rail in the case of wear of the wheel and/or the rail, includes using a sensor coupled to the pick-up to register vibrations produced by the contact. The vibrations are transmitted wirelessly to a background system and are evaluated. The method and a conveying system allow wear detection, in particular in the case of closed conveying systems, and considerably reduce maintenance complexity.

Claims

1-12. (canceled)

13. A method for wear detection during operation of a conveying system, the method comprising: a) providing a conveying system including at least one running gear circulating in a closed path and containing transport rollers movable on rails, and a pick-up fastened to the running gear and disposed at a predefined distance from a rail surface of a rail; b) causing the pick-up to touch the rail surface resulting in oscillation of the pick-up in an event of wear of at least one of the transport roller or the rail due to operation; c) using an oscillation sensor coupled to the pick-up to register the oscillations; d) wirelessly transmitting the registered oscillations as data from the oscillation sensor to a background system, together with a time stamp and an identity of the oscillation sensor; and e) using the background system for analyzing the data transmitted in step c) and, in an event of deviations, detecting the data as wear and signaling the wear by issuing a message.

14. The method according to claim 13, which further comprises: f) using two rails to define the path; g) fastening at least one fixed oscillation sensor to each respective rail; h) using the at least one fixed oscillation sensor to register the oscillations generated by a transport roller rolling past and having wear; i) transmitting the oscillations registered in step h) as data to the background system, together with a time stamp and an identity of the fixed oscillation sensor; and j) performing step e) for the data transmitted in step i).

15. The method according to claim 14, which further comprises installing a gateway at a fixed location along the path, setting a zero time each time a running gear having a sensor passes, and using the gateway to transmit the data from the sensors to the background system.

16. The method according to claim 13, which further comprises detecting the deviations by a statistical comparison with preceding registrations or by a comparison with a fixed magnitude.

17. The method according to claim 13, which further comprises transmitting state data of each sensor in addition to the registered oscillations.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the state data of each sensor contains a remaining battery capacity and its temperature.

19. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises issuing a message according to step e) upon falling below a specified battery capacity or exceeding a particular temperature.

20. A conveying system, comprising: a) at least one running gear circulating on rails along a closed path, said at least one running gear containing transport rollers and a pick-up fastened to said at least one running gear and disposed at a predefined distance from a surface of a rail; b) said pick-up touching the rail surface resulting in oscillation of said pick-up in an event of wear of at least one of said transport roller or the rail occurring during operation of the conveying system; c) an oscillation sensor coupled to said pick-up for registering the oscillations; d) a background system receiving the registered oscillations wirelessly transmitted by said oscillation sensor together with a time stamp and an identity of said oscillation sensor; and e) said background system analyzing said wirelessly transmitted oscillations and the time stamp, detecting deviations as wear and signaling the wear by issuing a message.

21. The conveying system according to claim 20, wherein: f) two rails define said path; g) at least one fixed oscillation sensor fastened to each respective rail is configured for registering oscillations generated by a transport roller rolling past and having wear and is configured for transmitting said oscillations to said background system; h) said at least one fixed oscillation sensor registers said oscillations generated by said transport roller rolling past and having wear; and i) said background system receives said oscillations registered by said at least one fixed oscillation sensor together with a time stamp and an identity of said at least one fixed oscillation sensor.

22. The conveying system according to claim 20, wherein said deviations are detected by a statistical comparison with preceding registrations or by a comparison with a fixed magnitude.

23. The conveying system according to claim 21, wherein state data of each sensor are transmitted in addition to the registered oscillations.

24. The conveying system according to claim 23, wherein each sensor is operated by a battery and said state data of each sensor contains its temperature and a remaining battery capacity.

Description

[0029] The invention is explained in greater detail below on the basis of the drawing for example, in which:

[0030] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a partially opened baggage claim carousel;

[0031] FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional representation of a baggage claim carousel;

[0032] FIG. 3 shows representations of wear points on a rail;

[0033] FIG. 4 shows an arrangement of sensors in a baggage claim carousel;

[0034] FIG. 5 shows a representation of the communication paths of sensors, gateway and background system;

[0035] FIG. 6 shows representations of the detected location of wear points on a conveying system;

[0036] FIG. 7 shows a representation of the various (wear) states of the wheel and rail.

[0037] The exemplary embodiment described in detail below relates to a baggage claim carousel. The invention is not restricted to a baggage claim carousel, however, but rather can be applied to any kind of conveying system which have a closed circulation and comprise at least one running gear, the at least two rollers or wheels of which are each moved on a rail. One example of such closed circulations can be seen in each of FIGS. 1 and 6.

[0038] The specific design of the detection of wear points is described on the basis of FIG. 4. FIG. 4 shows a running gear 13 with a wheel 12, also referred to as transport roller 12, which rolls on the rail surface 17 of a rail 18. As the running gear 13 is guided by a further guide roller 15, the rails are embodied in a flat manner, i.e. not guided by way of the flange of a wheel in the manner of a railway track.

[0039] Fastened to the running gear 13 is a pick-up 20, the distance d of which from the rail surface can set in a fixed manner and amounts to a few millimeters at most. When the conveying system is operated, wear V results on either the wheel 12 or a part of the rail 18, as is clearly shown on the right in FIG. 3. Due to this wear V, the pick-up 20 will touch the rail surface 17 at a given point in time. This produces a scraping noise or oscillations which are registered by a sensor 21. This principle is comparable to the needle of a record-player, which touches a record, and aims for automatic 24/7 wear inspection, thus making manual checking superfluous; 24/7 stands for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[0040] A wireless, battery-operated sensor 21 is mechanically coupled to the pick-up 20 and registers the oscillations/vibrations of the pick-up 20. In order to register the vibrations, the sensor 21 performs a 3-axis acceleration measurement. The registered oscillations are transmitted to a gateway 23 attached in the conveying system 1, together with an identity of the sensor 21.

[0041] For ascertaining the location of a wear point, reference is made to FIG. 5. As explained above, the running gear 13 carries out a closed circulation and, on each circulation, also travels past in the immediate vicinity of the gateway 23. By way of a permanent or cyclical communication 24 between sensor 21 and gateway 23, a zero time is defined on each pass as a result. This gateway 23 therefore has a function of a beacon. During this transmission of the oscillations, a time stamp is also available, which contains a relative time in relation to the zero time. As the circulating velocity of such conveying systems is known and is typically constant, the point of an excessively strong oscillation—and thus a wear point V—can be determined on the basis of a touching of the pick-up 21 to the rail surface 17 relative to the location of the gateway 23. “Relative to the location” stands for the length of the path traveled and not, for example, for a point-to-point distance between gateway and wear point V. Additionally, a time of day can also be assigned to each registration of a sensor 21 or 22 in the background system.

[0042] For explaining the types of wear, reference is made to FIG. 3 and FIG. 7. A rail 18 with wear V on the rail surface 17 is shown on the right in FIG. 3. The wheel 12 is intact here. The pick-up 20 is not shown on the right in FIG. 3. It is immediately apparent, however, that the pick-up 20 comes into contact with the original rail surface to the left and right of the wear V, and is therefore made to oscillate, which can be registered by the sensor 21. FIG. 7 shows on the right a new state of the wheel 12 and rail 18 or rail surface 17. The distance (=radius) between the axis of rotation of the wheel 12 and the rail surface 17 is designated r. Wear V on the rail 18 is shown in the center of FIG. 7; wear V on a wheel 12 is shown on the left in FIG. 7. What is common among both types of wear is that the axis of rotation is displaced by a distance x in relation to the original location.

[0043] The touching of the pick-up 20 to the rail surface 17 leads to an increase in the oscillation velocity and/or oscillation amplitude.

[0044] By way of the pick-up 21, the sensor 21 detects an increase in the oscillation velocity, which is caused by foreign objects O. Such foreign objects may block the wheels, as shown on the left in FIG. 3 for example. It is anticipated that, during normal operation, wheels transfer oscillations (peak-to-peak velocity) of approx. 5 mm/s to the rail and generate “blocked” wheel oscillations of approx. 85 mm/s. “Blocked” wheel oscillations are understood to mean oscillations which are generated by wheels which have an inhomogeneous wear in the form of a flat point due to a blockage mentioned above.

[0045] In addition to the sensor 21 on the running gear 13, one sensor 22 may be attached to each rail 20—i.e. on the left and on the right—which is of the same type as the sensor 21 and registers the oscillations mentioned above caused by wheels with flat points.

[0046] The data received by the gateway 23, i.e. at least the triple consisting of frequency/amplitude, time stamp and identity of the sensor, is transmitted to a background system—e.g. to a cloud—where it is analyzed by means of a signal processing server by [0047] comparison with the previously received triples, [0048] statistical evaluation over time.

[0049] If, during this analysis, a significant deviation is ascertained, then a message can be transmitted to the operator which indicates the installation and the location in the installation, in order to be able to deploy maintenance personnel. Stored in the background system 27 are further installation parameters, in particular an assignment of identity of a sensor to an installation and assignment of identity of a sensor to a track and wheel 12 or to a rail 18.

[0050] “All-in-one” “Bluetooth Low Energy” BLE-capable sensors are provided as sensors 21, 22, which are referred to as “vibration BLE sensors” here.

[0051] A conveying system 1 preferably possesses at least two fixed sensors 22 which are fastened to rails 18 and two sensors 21 which are located on a running gear 13 and coupled to the pick-up 20. Each of these sensors 21, 22 is of the aforementioned type “vibration BLE sensor”. These vibration BLE sensors are battery-operated, with a service life of 3 to 9 years. The service life is dependent upon the data transfer cycle to the gateway. In addition to the previously mentioned triple, these oscillation and temperature BLE sensors may transmit their internal status, such as the remaining battery capacity for example, to the background system 27 via gateway 23. Optionally, a transmission of the temperature is likewise possible. Using this additional data, the state of the sensors can therefore also be monitored by the signal processing server in the background system. As a result, the availability of the proposed method and system for wear detection during operation of a conveying system is improved once more and without additional equipment outlay.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS, GLOSSARY

[0052] 1 conveying system, baggage carousel [0053] 2 path, closed circulating path [0054] 10 conveyor belt [0055] 11 blades, rubber blades [0056] 12 supporting wheel, polyurethane cylinder; transport roller, wheel [0057] 13 running gear [0058] 14 blade carrier [0059] 15 guide wheel [0060] 16 drive unit [0061] 17 rail surface [0062] 18 rail [0063] 19 supporting buffer [0064] 20 pick-up [0065] 21 sensor on running gear [0066] 22 sensor on rail [0067] 23 gateway, Wi-Fi gateway, beacon [0068] 24 communication sensor 21←.fwdarw.gateway [0069] 25 communication sensor 22←.fwdarw.gateway [0070] 26 communication←.fwdarw.background system [0071] 27 background system, evaluation system [0072] 28 signaled wear point [0073] BLE Bluetooth Low Energy [0074] d distance between pick-up and rail surface [0075] O foreign object [0076] r radius of a wheel in non-worn state [0077] V wear, wear point [0078] x displacement of axes of rotation caused by wear

LIST OF CITED DOCUMENTS

[0079] [1] CN103458040 (A) [0080] “Equipment abrasion state wireless monitoring device based on Internet of Things” TIANJIN ZHONGTIANYI INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO LTD [0081] [2] EP 1 469 278 A1 [0082] “Apparatus for measuring the wear of wheels or rollers” SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, DE—80333 Munich