Energy chain with monitoring and predictive maintenance for RMG crane

• What was needed: energy chain with condition monitoring systems for tension/push force detection (iSense EC.P), for cable tension monitoring (iSense CF.P) and for breakage detection (iSense EC.B) as well as a predictive maintenance system
• Requirements: Safe and failure-free movement of a large number of heavy cables in adverse environmental conditions
• Industry: Cranes
• Success for the customer: With the installation of smart plastic, the customer now has full control, overview and safety for the energy supply on its RMG crane

As with most machines, this crane is also designed for long and constant operating times. Even short and, above all, unplanned stops are undesirable and must be avoided.
However, the high number of cables in the two e-chain® entails a high load and load for them. In addition to the desired long service life in conjunction with the high loads, a wide variety of weather conditions also come into play. Wind and weather affect the material, but the function should be 100% guaranteed at all times of the year, because the cranes in harbour facilities have to deliver top performance.
The customer therefore wanted a safety system that switches off in the event of damage (condition monitoring) as well as a preventive system (predictive maintenance), which in addition to a signal also provides a maintenance recommendation and the remaining service life of the product.

The customer therefore opted for the complete smart plastic crane package and now has full control, overview and safety for the energy supply on its RMG crane:
Specifically,3 condition monitoring systems ( i.Sense EC.P (tension/push force monitoring on e-chain®), i.Sense CF.P (tension force monitoring on cable) and i.Sense EC.B (breakage detection on e-chain®) are now installed in the crane. A
predictive maintenance system was also installed. All systems are coordinated with each other and supplied and installed as a package.
Thanks to condition monitoring, in the event of an incident with an energy chain, be it a bent guide trough, foreign objects in the guide trough, a blockage or the breakage of a chain link, the crane operator can be informed of the incident and, if required, the system can also be stopped immediately. Predictive maintenance, on the other
hand, prevents all further incidents before they can occur. If maintenance is required, a signal is sent with the relevant information. All sensor data, such as temperature, acceleration or speed, can be viewed in real time online or in the company network via a dashboard.