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HCP Sense - Surface Damage Detection Technology
HCP Sense offers advanced sensor technology tailored for measuring bearing loads, monitoring lubrication, and crucially, detecting surface damage in rolling bearings at an early stage. The HCP Sense sensor technology is particularly effective in applications operating at very low speeds, where traditional oscillation monitoring fails to detect damage due to minimal vibration production. By directly measuring the electrical characteristics of the bearings, these sensors provide a precise signal unaffected by external noise and environmental vibrations. The technology enables early detection of damage through changes in the impedance signal. Initial roughness peaks on running surfaces create short signal deflections, which smooth over time during running-in. Damage, such as pitting, causes significant deflections in the impedance, allowing for the analysis of damage severity and progression. This capability is beneficial in applications like cylindrical roller bearings, where minor pitting can be tolerated, thus optimizing maintenance and reducing costs.
In addition to force measurement and lubrication monitoring, HCP Sense sensor technology also offers the possibility of detecting rolling bearing damage at an early stage and tracking its progress.
Especially in applications with very low speeds, bearing damage cannot be reliably detected by today’s common oscillation monitoring. This is due to very low vibration generation when the damaged track is slowly rolled over. The same applies to environments where a single bearing signal is strongly masked by environmental vibration and noise.
HCP Sense’s sensor technology, on the other hand, directly measures the electrical characteristics of the bearing. Therefore, each bearing can be uniquely assigned to the corresponding measurement signal without environmental disturbances.
The following figure shows how bearing damage is measured with the impedance signal.
At the beginning of the measurement, many short deflections occur, which are due to initial roughness peaks on the running surfaces. These are removed during running-in, which leads to a smoothing of the signal. Initial changes in the signal occur shortly before the damage, which enables early detection. As soon as damage – in this case pitting – occurs, strong deflections of the impedance become visible, which occur each time the damage is rolled over.
The deflections also allow analysis of the extent of the damage and its progression, as the duration of the deflection corresponds to the length of the damage along the surface.
In applications that can tolerate minor pitting, such as cylindrical roller bearings with low running accuracy requirements, it is possible to track the damage until it exceeds a critical level.
Thus, there is no need to act directly when the first damage occurs, which optimizes maintenance intervals and downtimes and reduces costs.