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MACHINE BUILDING

circuit board for this kind of application,” To add to this, Mantracourt’s T24 wireless telemetry
explains Lilly. “Although we customised system can link to SensorSpace. This is a cloud-based
some circuitry for improved power platform that allows users to remotely monitor the live
management specific to Habasit’s feed. This data can be stored, graphed and trended using
requirements.” dashboards – and further types of sensors, from pressure
The next novel development challenge and temperature, can be added to understand what’s
was the antenna. With all the other going on across the process.
components inside the link, there was not “The result of the project is that we’ve now launched
much room left for a standard antenna. the sensor,” explains Richardson. “It’s called the Habasit
Habasit reached out to a local company Spiral Smart Link and is designed as an embedded system
but found that having one developed to monitor belt tension. It allows users to perform non-stop
would have taken a year and considerable diagnostics, prevent sudden downtime and accurately
cost. Mantracourt recommended a schedule preventative maintenance for cleaning and
supplier who came in within budget and sanitation.
delivered quickly. “The device has been in place with our original
“The antenna uses a 2.4 GHz radio, customer for nearly two years and they’ve already been
but the protocol is proprietary, with the able to increase belt lifetime, reduce downtime and
frame of the metal link detects small changes in language written by Mantracourt,” explains Lilly. “In ideal ultimately reduce their total cost of ownership. We can
deformation caused by tension. These signals must be conditions the range is 800m, but obviously we don’t have also remotely monitor the condition of the belt 24/7,
captured, amplified and converted into engineering units a perfect line of sight in the plant. Our T24 protocol is support with on-site assistance where necessary and the
using signal conditioning electronics. The data must then similar to the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising customer receives direct push notifications via email and
be wirelessly transmitted to a base station using an packet in that it continues to broadcast packets of data SMS.
antenna. Finally, the unit needs to be effectively powered until it is told to stop. This means much lower overheads. “We’re really pleased with our collaboration with
by a battery that delivers energy density, long life and a “Using this approach has another benefit in that the Mantracourt. The team were really easy to work with and
small size.” protocol allows monitoring of multiple transmissions their expertise shone through in the final product. We’ve
With the strain gauge and signal conditioning board in between the sensor devices and the base station or other already placed more orders for components and as our
place, the team came up against the first engineering receivers. This gives Habasit the ability to monitor one-to- customers begin to roll out the product across the world,
challenge: the battery. The standard cell was sourced from one, one-to-many, many-to-one and many-to-many there will be opportunity to develop the product and add
a third-party supplier and was designed for harsh devices. This means a single operator can use one device features. What stands out for me is that we realised an
environments. However, it was the battery’s voltage that to monitor a single link, or multiple operators can use ambitious plan that’s delivered an elegant solution.”
was the issue. “We used our standard T24 SAE printed multiple devices to monitor multiple links.” MORE INFORMATION: www.mantracourt.com

Accumulating Pallet
Recirculation Systems

Interlinking two processing stations
Process-safe feeding, buffering and separation
Compact design with automatic return of pallets

www.mkpro昀les.co.uk mk Profile Systems Limited
a company of the mk Technology Group