Under the name Isense, Igus has had a product family in its range since 2016 in which various sensors and monitoring modules make plastic solutions such as energy chains, cables, linear guides and rotary table bearings intelligent. Among other things, they detect wear during operation and issue an alarm as soon as a repair or replacement is required.

Networking using the Igus Communication Module (Icom) enables online status display with alarm options, for example via PC, tablet or smartphone, as well as direct integration into the company-wide infrastructure. These smart plastics are already predicting the service life in numerous customer applications, such as in the automotive industry, and are being continuously developed further.

For example, the improved Isense modules, which use sensors to collect data from the energy chain, cable, linear guide or rotary table bearing, are equipped with a serial interface and can be easily integrated into the control cabinet. A data logger allows the values to be saved on an SD card. The measured data from various Isense systems is then sent wirelessly to the Icom module, summarized and processed.

The customer can choose from various concepts for integration into their own infrastructure. For example, the Icom can send the sensor data to a PC or integrate the data into the existing software environment and intranet solution via the computer. A connection to the data center is also possible. In this case, the maintenance recommendations are constantly compared and refined using machine learning and AI algorithms with the experience gained from many running applications, for example from Igus' 2,750 square meter test laboratory.

"Thanks to these numerous tests, which are incorporated into the online service life calculators, we can predict quite accurately in advance how long an e-chain, for example, will work reliably in the respective application," emphasizes Richard Habering, head of the newly founded smart plastics division. "The Isense components provide the customer with additional security through a permanent service life update. This is because it takes into account the current environmental conditions of the current application. Components are only serviced and replaced when it is really necessary. This saves time and maintenance costs." as

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