Driving Innovation in Product Design and Manufacturing Using 3D Printing
device that can operate the system in continuous torque control, laying down accurately the counterweight on material bed, without any extra delicate hydraulic system. The brushless motor allows high flexibility of parametrization, very accurate and continuous torque and weight variation control. This avoids any“ blind” moment, guaranteeing seamless contact between the sensor and the material bed. The device, known as METRO, is virtually maintenance free – no longer requiring gearboxes or bearings to be lubricated; no longer wearing out parts due to mechanical friction; eliminating failures due to overheating of components.
The electric supply and communication is redefined as a plug-and-play solution connecting an electric power cable and a data cable. The measuring system is managed by a drive controller installed in a specially designed electrical cabinet. See Figure 3. Functional parameters can be programmed directly into the driver during workshop assembly phases and engineers can further fine-tune them during plant operations remotely if needed. At the same time, Asynchronous Statistical Data( ASD) can be collected by adopting the IIoT architecture to deploy analysis on various parameters related to its functioning( i. e., the actual speed in descending movement and the actual current consumption while operating). This data is collected to strictly observe and address proactively any malfunctioning that could result in a general plant unplanned downtime.
Figure 3- METRO Schema
METRO is a brilliant machine by nature: it is a sensor itself and is equipped by sensors.
With continuous and loop fine-tuning of its operations by means of a Proportional-Integral- Derivative( PID) controller plus feedforward fine-tuning allows a machine to:
� respond to the present through the proportion term, � insert past experience through the integration term, � anticipate the future through the derivative term, and � leverage operators and engineers’ knowledge.
IIC Journal of Innovation- 47-