Product category:
Maintenance planning, services and equipment
News Release from: Renold Chain | Subject: Smartlink chain monitoring technology
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 28 November 2007
Chain monitoring device installation is
easier
Innovative chain monitoring technology, that can be installed and operated either by maintenance engineers or OEMs, has devices supplied ready fitted to a section of chain.
Renold has launched a new version of its Smartlink chain monitoring technology, which can now be installed and operated either by maintenance engineers or OEMs Formerly Smartlink had to be installed and monitored by Renold's own engineers, which limited its use to larger projects
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 17 Oct 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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Now Smartlink can be owned and operated by anyone, said Renold, bringing the benefits of chain monitoring to a much wider range of applications.
The Smartlink devices are supplied already fitted to a section of chain; users simply install the new chain link and Smartlink is ready to go.
The Smarlink units are available for operation on one inch, one-and-a-quarter inch and one-and-a-half inch pitch chains.
They are remotely controlled with a choice of two hand-held devices, providing users with two levels of sophistication.
The simpler of the two hand-held controllers is no bigger than a key fob, said Renold Chain to manufacturingtalk.com, and enables Smartlink to be operated as an overload detector.
So Smartlink will provide a warning when chain exceeds a predetermined load.
Engineers are therefore warned to check machinery and make sure that it is safe to continue operating the system.
The alarm conditions on the Smartlink device can then be reset using the remote control.
A more advanced hand-held controller can download much more detailed information from Smartlink.
Information includes the nature of the stresses and loading the chain was subjected to during a given period of operation.
This data can then be analysed on a PC to identify the exact location of load peaks in the drive system using software specially written by Renold.
These developments have been possible thanks, in part, to the availability of smaller PCBs and miniature batteries that were initially developed for high-grade military applications.
These new batteries are so small that Renold's team were able to integrate them with the PCB itself so that they were no longer a component on the board, they became part of it.
Renold's marketing communications manager, David Turner, said: "This launch represents a breakthrough in chain monitoring technology and brings the benefits of Smartlink to a much wider range of engineers.
The new Smartlink units provide a groundbreaking opportunity to understand system loads which may be detrimental to the performance of a product or the operation of machinery.".
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