In manufacturing, throughput is everything. One key to increasing manufacturing throughput is gaining insight into the performance of your equipment and machinery. When you have a better idea of how your equipment is functioning, why it might be breaking down, and how you can get ahead of downtime and optimize machines to run at full capacity, you can significantly increase manufacturing throughput. Torque telemetry can solve all of these problems by providing you a way to continuously measure torque on an existing shaft. Here’s a closer look at 4 ways torque telemetry can help increase manufacturing throughput:
#1 Speed Up Troubleshooting
Torque telemetry provides torque and power data, revealing the true mechanical behavior of a driveline component leading up to and after a potential failure. This data highlights key information, such as the existence of damaging torsional vibrations, that will help engineers speed up the troubleshooting process and reduce the downtime of your equipment.
When engineers can see at a glance what went wrong, and when, they’re able to identify the cause of the problem quickly and develop a solution. The faster your engineers’ troubleshooting process, the faster your equipment gets back up and running, minimizing downtime that would otherwise reduce your manufacturing throughput.
#2 Stop Equipment Before Catastrophic Failure Occurs
When you implement torque telemetry for continuous monitoring, you can stop a process the minute your torque data identifies an adverse event. For example, in the event of a jam, torque data will spike, clearly relaying to your engineers that there is a problem on the line.
Engineers then have the opportunity to stop the process before expensive equipment components — like shafts, couplings, and gearboxes — are stressed to the point of breaking. By avoiding downtime and expensive repairs, you increase manufacturing throughput, while reducing overhead costs associated with repairs.
#3 Run Machinery at Higher Capacity
In addition to helping prevent downtime and speeding up the troubleshooting process, torque telemetry can also help you run machinery at a higher capacity, without putting undue stress on your equipment. With continuous monitoring in place, you have the data you need to run machinery at the highest capacity possible.
By knowing the true mechanical torque and power output of your equipment, you can determine what the true load is on your equipment. If the load is lower than rated capacity, you know there is available power in your equipment allowing you to speed up your process.
Conveyor drives are a perfect example of this benefit. Increasing the power of your conveyor drive to a safe level helps maximize the speed of the conveyor, simultaneously increasing manufacturing throughput as your process is capable of outputting more, in less time.
#4 Identify Efficiency Losses
When machines age, internal components begin to wear, affecting the overall efficiency of any drive, and ultimately reducing your manufacturing throughput. With torque telemetry solutions in place, you are able to measure the true mechanical power output of a drive to see if it is running at its rated capacity. If the equipment is not running at its rated capacity, it may be time for an equipment upgrade. You can use torque telemetry measurements to identify why that equipment isn’t running at rated capacity, and determine whether an equipment upgrade is necessary.
Torque telemetry also affords you the opportunity to measure the true efficiency loss through a gearbox. With this measurement, you can identify wearing components, allowing you to replace or repair them before larger damages, shutdowns, or downtime occurs.
The greater your insight into the machinery and equipment that are integral to your manufacturing throughput, the more efficient your facility can be. Torque telemetry provides the data your engineers need to reduce downtime and losses in efficiency, while helping streamline the troubleshooting process, and identifying areas where your equipment can run at a higher capacity.
With no need to modify an existing shaft, torque telemetry solutions are simple to implement but provide the data your engineers need for in-depth analysis that will increase manufacturing throughput. If you’re interested to see how torque telemetry can increase manufacturing throughput for your facility or factory, talk to the experts at Binsfeld Engineering.