Monitoring of roller chains
Increase equipment uptime with targeted roller chain monitoring
Goal of the project
Roller chains are essential components in many industrial and agricultural applications. They provide a reliable method of power transmission, but are not without challenges. The most common issues include wear, insufficient lubrication, harsh environmental conditions, incorrect alignment and tension, as well as material fatigue. These factors can significantly affect the service life and efficiency of the chains, which therefore require regular maintenance and careful installation.
To monitor a roller chain, data is collected directly at the chain using a roller chain sensor from IWIS. The recorded process data is visualised in moneo, ifm’s IIoT platform. This allows limit values to be monitored and the wear that increases over time to be analysed and displayed.
 Avoidance of unplanned |
 Visibility of chain wear |
 Easy set-up |
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Benefits of targeted roller chain monitoring
Targeted monitoring using a chain sensor and moneo provides clear visibility of roller chain wear, enabling necessary measures to be taken at an early stage. This includes:
- Visualisation of key process variables: Elongation, acceleration and temperature are continuously monitored.
- Calculation and continuous monitoring of the actual chain length: The exact length of the chain is determined using “Calculated values”.
- Analysis functions for trend detection: Early detection of wear trends enables proactive maintenance.
- Limit value monitoring: Warning and alarm levels ensure timely notifications when critical conditions occur.
- Optimised maintenance planning: Maintenance activities can be planned and carried out more efficiently.
- Avoid long machine downtimes and reduce production losses and associated costs.
These measures not only improve efficiency, but also significantly increase the reliability and service life of the roller chains. As a result, overall runtime can be extended and the entire application can be optimised.
Value proposition
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Machine availabilityIndustrial application of roller chains and their monitoring
Thanks to their versatility and robustness, roller chains are indispensable in many industries and contribute significantly to efficiency and productivity. Roller chains are used in a wide range of industrial applications, including:
- Drive technology: They are commonly used for mechanical power transmission between shafts using sprockets and chain wheels.
- Mechanical engineering: Here they serve as drive and transmission chains to ensure motion and power transmission within machines.
- Conveyor technology and logistics: Roller chains are used in conveyor systems to transport materials efficiently.
- Lifting applications: In lifting and hoisting systems, they provide the necessary stability and reliability.
- Special applications: Custom-designed roller chains can be used for specialised transport and conveying tasks.
To monitor roller chains, the total chain length is compared with the longest individual chain link. Important factors include the position of the chain link with the maximum elongation, the operating time of the roller chain, the total chain length, the number of chain links that have passed since start-up, the current running speed of the roller chain, the average acceleration and the current temperature of the roller chain. The recorded history data can be accessed via the analysis. For example, the total chain elongation can be compared to the maximum elongation of a single chain link.
Automated maintenance planning for a roller chain
As a full-service provider of sensors and software solutions, ifm also offers numerous interfaces for transferring the data collected by the sensors to third-party systems. This includes various protocols such as MQTT and OPC UA that can be used to extract data from moneo and integrate it into your downstream system.
In addition, it is possible to issue automated warnings and alarms when limit values are exceeded. Using the ticket processing rules integrated in moneo, it can also be defined what should happen after a warning or alarm has been triggered. For example, automated email notifications can be sent to the responsible staff members.
ifm’s proprietary SFI (Shop Floor Integration) interface even enables direct integration with SAP, allowing maintenance and spare parts orders to be triggered automatically.
System structure
- Chain sensor
- IO-Link master
Step-by-step instructions for monitoring your roller chains
To monitor your roller chain, a chain sensor (CCM-S-10B) from IWIS is mounted on the roller chain in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications and then electrically connected to the IO-Link master. moneo can already be used in the moneo Cloud. The IO-Link masters are connected to the server via a dedicated VLAN. The sensor can be set up and put into operation using moneo configure. In addition to the process values, the chain sensor also provides monitoring-relevant parameter values. These process values can be read out via moneo. The parameter values are read out via the intelligent and universal data interface ifm Agent. ifm Agent cyclically reads out the sensor’s parameter data before transforming and transmitting it to moneo. The current condition of the chain can be viewed at a glance in the dashboard.