Monitoring temperature on rotating machinery like a planetary ball mill presents significant challenges for traditional wired sensors. A customer needed to log surface temperature on a rotating container for several days. A wireless solution, featuring a battery-powered transmitter and a USB receiver connected to a PC, was provided to overcome the physical and data acquisition hurdles.
- Application Challenge: Accurately measure and log surface temperature on a container rotating within a planetary ball milling machine for a multi-day duration.
- Product Solution: An IWTT-Node-PT wireless Pt100 temperature transmitter paired with a surface-mount Pt100 sensor, transmitting data to an IWR-USB wireless receiver.
- Key Features: The wireless design eliminates complex cabling on rotating parts. The IWR-USB connects to any PC for easy data logging and viewing.
- Key Benefits: Enables continuous, long-term monitoring of a previously difficult-to-measure parameter. Data is logged in a universal .csv format for straightforward analysis, providing valuable insights into the process.
A significant challenge in process monitoring involves measuring critical parameters on moving or rotating equipment. A customer using a planetary ball milling machine faced this exact issue. The application required the continuous monitoring of the surface temperature on a rotating cylindrical container, with the milling process often extending over several days. The primary difficulties were attaching a sensor to a constantly moving component and retrieving the logged temperature data without interrupting the long-duration process. The ideal solution needed to be robust, provide accurate surface temperature readings from a rotating body, and feature a simple method for data logging and retrieval.
The proposed solution was a wireless sensing system, perfectly suited to overcome the challenges of monitoring rotating machinery. The system comprises a surface-mounting PT100 RTD sensor connected to an IWTT-Node-PT wireless Pt100temperature transmitter. This transmitter is mounted directly onto the rotating container, eliminating the need for complex and failure-prone wiring and slip rings.
The IWTT-Node-PT transmits the temperature data wirelessly to an IWR-USB receiver. This receiver simply plugs into a standard PC, and with the free-of-charge utility software, allows for continuous, real-time monitoring and data logging of the temperature readings. This setup is particularly advantageous for long-term tests, as the IWTT-Node-PT boasts a battery life of up to five years at a 10-second transmission rate, ensuring uninterrupted operation for the multi-day milling process.
The IWR-USB software conveniently saves the time-stamped data into a .csv file, making it readily accessible and easily imported into standard spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel for analysis once the process is complete. This type of wireless solution has been successfully implemented in other demanding applications, such as monitoring the temperature inside industrial food mixers, proving its reliability and versatility in challenging industrial environments.
IWTT-Node-PT Wireless PT100 Temperature Transmitter and IWR-USB Gateway Receiver
- Part No: IWTT-Node-PT, IWR-USB
- Wireless Transmitters: Temperature Sensor Node – PT100
- Wireless Receivers: USB serial port