Condition monitoring for energy chains on RMG cranes saves lots of downtime costs

The harbour - a harsh and salty environment with high machine duty cycles, no place for unexpected system downtimes. Heavy loads, long operating times, a wide range of weather conditions - cranes in harbour facilities have to deliver top performance. To guarantee this at all times, reliable cable routing for cranes and dependable condition monitoring concepts are required.

The maintenance and servicing of current crane systems as well as the cable routing on cranes is growing not only in size but also in the complexity of operation. Currently, the drag chains for power supply in the harbour are replaced by HPC every 7 years. Although this creates a certain sense of security, it also generates immense recurring costs.

However, in order to load and unload the latest container ships - keyword Triple-E class - even larger STS cranes will have to be built or existing ones retrofitted. In addition, the demands on the availability and reliability of container cranes are increasing. This also has an impact on the design and selection of the energy supply system. There is much to suggest that, in addition to the use of roller chains, self-monitoring systems equipped with sensors will be used here in the future.

The main arguments in favour of i.Sense condition monitoring on the crane are maximum safety and reliability of the cable carrier system. It should not be possible to rectify downtimes at all or at least with minimal effort. This is precisely where the condition monitoring systems have their strengths and raison d'être. Each i.Sense system has its own advantages:

• i.Sense EC.P system: Increases in tensile or shear force due to defects in the travel are recognised in good time and expensive consequential or total damage is prevented.
• i.Sense EC.B system: Protection against consequential damage in the event of chain breakage with minimal maintenance costs
• i.Sense CF.P system: No abrasion of the cable in the inner radius of the e-chain® due to incorrectly adjusted cables

However, the performance of the smart plastic solution goes even further: the status data of the energy chain is compared with experience gained from ongoing applications via the i.Cee module and then specified. On this basis, the user can plan maintenance with foresight and in relation to the actual condition of the energy chain. Another advantage: the maintenance technician can access the service life data of the energy chain at any time and from any location. From igus®'s point of view, this technology will be an integral part of future energy chain applications in container cranes.