Sensor Systems for Process and condition Monitoring

The fourth industrial revolution is changing Germany as a business location. Product development, production, logistics and customers are networked. The result is an intelligent, adaptable, efficient and sustainable production that can respond to market changes in the shortest possible time. A significant component of this development are sensor-based production resources. For inherent control functions, numerous sensors detect utilization in real time, as well as operating and maintening conditions of essential machine components. Evaluated sensor data are communicated wirelessly to higher-level planning and control systems. In the project SdSeMa of the High-Performance Center »Functional Integration for Micro- and Nanoelectronics«, the Fraunhofer Institutes ENAS, IIS/EAS, IPMS, and IZM/ASSID, with assistance of Fraunhofer IWU and Fraunhofer IKTS, worked on new technologies for the structural integration of sensors and actuators in machine components. The results were demonstrated on the example of a ball screw drive. The challenge was to measure the parameters that are important for manufacturing systems, such as force, temperature, acceleration and vibration, for maximum accuracy right at the point of origin. Therefore, miniaturized sensor systems have been developed, which together with networked and energy-efficient information processing components can be integrated into a wide variety of machine components. Current communication technologies are used for wireless data transmission to IoT gateways. The developed technologies are characterized by excellent integration capability and can be used in many applications.