Sensor Technology has specialised in wireless torque sensing mainly offering a solution based on detecting surface acoustic waves. It’s new sensors, designated the SGR510/520 series however, use a full four element strain gauge bridge design.
The new sensors have the advantage that they can accurately measure and record sudden spikes in torque load. In the past this data was generally not required by plant and machinery operators, but with the growth in automated continuous monitoring it is becoming more and more important. Any torque spike could have an immediate effect on operations, while a series of them may indicate the beginnings of a problem.The new design also compensates for any extraneous forces, such as bending moments, inadvertently applied to the sensor, improves sensitivity and has a wide temperature tolerance..
The TorqSense SGR510/520 offers several significant advantages over conventional torque sensors. It eliminates the sort of noise pickup and signal corruption associated with slip ring and other analogue methods of transferring torque data from rotor to stator. The over range capacity means true overrange values are captured rather than ‘maxing-out’ at the technology’s upper limit, while the 400% mechanical overload limit is unlikely to be breached in the vast majority of applications.
The range extension means the SGR series is available in sizes from 200mNm to 13000Nm. All units are accurate to +/-0.1% and resolution to +/-0.01% of the transducer’s full scale
Other features include an optional adjustable moving average filter, power supply range from 12VDC to 32VDC, user configurable analogue output voltages, a choice of RS232 communications, USB interface, CAN bus interface, external Ethernet gateway, TorqView software and LabView virtual instruments.