Abstract
The presence of microscopic particles in suspension in industrial fluids is often an early warning of latent or imminent failures in the equipment or processes where they are being used. This manuscript describes work undertaken to integrate different photonic principles with a micro- mechanical fluidic structure and an embedded processor to develop a fully autonomous wear debris sensor for in-line monitoring of industrial fluids. Lens-less microscopy, stroboscopic illumination, a CMOS imager and embedded machine vision technologies have been merged to develop a sensor solution that is able to detect and quantify the number and size of micrometric particles suspended in a continuous flow of a fluid. A laboratory test-bench has been arranged for setting up the configuration of the optical components targeting a static oil sample and then a sensor prototype has been developed for migrating the measurement principles to real conditions in terms of operating pressure and flow rate of the oil. Imaging performance is quantified using micro calibrated samples, as well as by measuring real used lubricated oils. Sampling a large fluid volume with a decent 2D spatial resolution, this photonic micro sensor offers a powerful tool at very low cost and compacted size for in-line wear debris monitoring.
Highlights
The presence of solid particles in suspension in industrial fluids, such as lubricants or hydraulic fluids, is frequently an early warning of latent or imminent faults in the machines or processes where they are being used [1,2], as it can be seen in Figure 1, where the contaminated lubricant of a gearbox about to fail is displayed
The early detection of the presence of these wear particles is a key objective in a proper predictive maintenance program, complementing other machine condition monitoring approaches (CMS) such as vibration analysis [3]
This section describes the different test benches and prototypes developed with the objective of validating the proposed sensor approach that enables the largest fieldthe of other view (FOV), depth of fieldparticle (DOF), highest resolution and maximum compatible flow rate to fulfill the industrial requirements for particle counters
Summary
The presence of solid particles in suspension in industrial fluids, such as lubricants or hydraulic fluids, is frequently an early warning of latent or imminent faults in the machines or processes where they are being used [1,2], as it can be seen in Figure 1, where the contaminated lubricant of a gearbox about to fail is displayed. The early detection of the presence of these wear particles is a key objective in a proper predictive maintenance program, complementing other machine condition monitoring approaches (CMS) such as vibration analysis [3]. (ii) solutions for applications with challenging and expensive off-line sample acquisition (e.g., off-shore wind turbines) [11,12]; and (iii) solutions for closing the control loops, as for example in torque regulation in run-in phases of gears or drive trains manufacturing [13].
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