High-quality Combination Measurement Flanges for Torque and Axial Force

The company, MANNER Sensortelemetrie, has extended its range of measuring sensors specifically developed for the test rig environment with a new feature.

In particular with cardan shaft test rigs, the measurement of axial forces is a key factor in addition to dynamic torque. It is known axial forces and bending moments are generated at the bending angle of a cardan shaft. The axial forces should be minimised as they put considerable strain on the bearings and cause wear.

With fan, propeller or pump test rigs, the generated dynamic axial force is an important factor in addition to torque. A combined and crosstalk-free measurement of these values presents a particular challenge.

Previous concepts only permitted precise measurement of axial force for large values compared to the torque.

The company, MANNER, has developed a compact sensor specifically for this task, which also achieves the highly accurate detection of comparatively small axial forces with the lowest crosstalk. This sensor can measure axial forces with an accuracy of 0.1% and torque with an accuracy of 0.05% which is standard today.

This provides MANNER as a centre of excellence for special-purpose sensors with yet another unparalleled tool.

The rotating sensor automatically transmits the simultaneously measured values via contactless sensor telemetry for data logging. Digital sensor telemetry has significantly improved the system accuracy. With the new sensor generation, the torque and axial force values are already digitized in the rotor with 16 bits at 4,000 values/sec. Optional higher sampling rates are also available.

The comparatively large signal transmission range between the rotational antenna and the compact pick-up, as well as the robust design, not only guarantees easy handling but have also proven highly successful in practice. Data transmission to the test rig controller typically uses networks USB, CAN, Ethernet (TCP/IP) and EtherCAT. Of course, classic analogue output signals are still available, too.