hainter
Member
Greetings
I have recently been faced with a problem of replacing an unreliable torque tamer on a conveyor. The conveyors are prone to getting stuck and currently the solution is to use a torque tamer (which is basically a clutch) in conjunction with a proximity sensor to sense the conveyor turning when it is supposed to be. The torque tamers are very unreliable in that when they slip they need to be re-adjusted and they are difficult to adjust in the first place.
The solution I have come up with is to monitor the current in the VFD and stop the conveyor if the current gets too high. This will either be done with an analog out from the VFD using "set points" in the VFD to allow for current spikes, or just simply having one of the outputs on the VFD be set to go on at a certain current level.
I have researched monitoring the shaft torque with a torque sensor, monitoring shaft speed, using a current sensing relay on the VFD output, and some other options. These options are either too expensive or not suitable.
My question is: Is there an easier way to solve this problem that i haven't discovered? Will the current sensing be accurate enough or will normal operation spikes make it difficult?
Thanks
Joe
I have recently been faced with a problem of replacing an unreliable torque tamer on a conveyor. The conveyors are prone to getting stuck and currently the solution is to use a torque tamer (which is basically a clutch) in conjunction with a proximity sensor to sense the conveyor turning when it is supposed to be. The torque tamers are very unreliable in that when they slip they need to be re-adjusted and they are difficult to adjust in the first place.
The solution I have come up with is to monitor the current in the VFD and stop the conveyor if the current gets too high. This will either be done with an analog out from the VFD using "set points" in the VFD to allow for current spikes, or just simply having one of the outputs on the VFD be set to go on at a certain current level.
I have researched monitoring the shaft torque with a torque sensor, monitoring shaft speed, using a current sensing relay on the VFD output, and some other options. These options are either too expensive or not suitable.
My question is: Is there an easier way to solve this problem that i haven't discovered? Will the current sensing be accurate enough or will normal operation spikes make it difficult?
Thanks
Joe