Condition monitoring in hydraulic and pneumatic systems

Fluid Power from SICK: Know today what will happen tomorrow. These are intelligent sensors and applications in the field of hydraulic and pneumatic industrial drives. In many areas, they contribute to the optimization of processes and improved value creation - when it comes to condition monitoring and predictive maintenance as well. For many years, these topics were just a future vision. However, the growing digitalization of production as well as increasingly powerful methods of data evaluation permits the leap from pure monitoring to forecasting.

Magnetic cylinder sensors in pneumatics: More than pure position detection

The transitions between condition monitoring and predictive maintenance are fluid. Decisive for the development of predictive maintenance are further processing of the acquired data and its correct interpretation. This mechanism also works for magnetic cylinder sensors in pneumatics: More data is collected than just the piston position of pneumatic drives. The user receives data on the temperature as well as the stroke traveled since the beginning of installation. Using this data, irregularities in the production process can be detected, for example, making it possible to draw conclusions about cylinder wear. This enables on-time replacement before high costs occur due to unplanned machine downtimes.

Hydraulics: Versatile diagnostic options with pressure sensors

In hydraulics, pressure sensors from the PBS series are a good example for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance already in use. They feature diagnostic options for which IO-Link can be used to evaluate pressure peaks or low pressure situations, for instance. Various error messages can also be evaluated. In addition to low and excess pressures, there are also parameters such as faulty voltage supply or short-circuits which are used for data recording and evaluation. Based on this data, statements about the behavior of the system can be made, as can expected scenarios.