It is suitable for all applications in which a spindle inverter system is used, such as milling machines, which often involve several operations with different milling cutters. Here, MotorView allows each machining step to be tracked directly.

Any machine can be equipped with this measuring device. This applies both to the design of new machines and to the retrofitting and reconditioning of older machines.

MotorView is divided into two components, a sensor part and a display part. Integration is extremely simple: the sensor part is simply clamped or looped into the motor cables between the inverter and the driven motor. As a result, the motor phases run via the device, which records and stores all information about voltages and currents without affecting the process.

The display part is connected to it via a cable and graphically displays the recorded load status of the spindle. A digital and serial interface is available for communication and integration with the machine control system.

"Motorview has its ear directly on the process, so to speak, and can record and display the data on the load status of the spindle with extreme sensitivity," explains BMR development engineer, Dipl.-Ing. Frank Buchholz. "The load status of the motor usually also maps the machining process, which allows valuable conclusions to be drawn as to whether the process is running properly or whether problems are looming," continues Frank Buchholz.

This brings us right back to the topic of Industry 4.0, as predictive maintenance, i.e. predictive tool monitoring, can prevent unplanned machine downtime.

MotorView also becomes an instrument for quality assurance and, in the long term, helps to reduce production costs. By detecting reductions in cutting performance due to blunting tools at an early stage, it offers the user the opportunity to change tools in good time before the process quality deteriorates or, in the worst case, the tool breaks.

In addition to these important functions, it detects other problems at an early stage, such as bearing wear on the spindle, failure of a motor cable, detection of control oscillations or parameterization errors in the drive system. Thanks to the sensitive sensor technology, a direct image of the machining process is always possible.