Controlling brakes intelligently

Safety brakes are equipped for the future: mayr® power transmission propones its brake technology 4.0, which boasts monitoring modules of the latest generation and a friction system, in compliance with the safety principles

by Vittorio Ascari

The safety brakes producer mayr® power transmission presents its Brake technology 4.0, which stands for intelligent monitoring modules: the Roba®-brake-checker and the Roba®-torqcontrol monitor safety brakes easily and quickly, or facilitate the even and smooth deceleration of machines and devices.

Continuous brake monitoring and predictive maintenance
The Roba®-brake-checker module operates without sensors. Instead, it analyzes current and voltage and recognizes the movement of the armature disk. Thus it knows the condition of the brake. In addition to the switching condition, the module can also deduce the temperature, wear and tension path or tensile force reserve. On reaching the tensile force reserve, the module emits a warning signal, early enough so that a defined operating time of the brake is still possible. Thus the machine operator can undertake specific maintenance. The Roba®-brake-checker is now available in a design for AC voltage. In addition, another version of the module will also in future take on the supply of the brake, and as a result, replace the rectifier. Switching condition monitoring and brake control are therefore combined in one device.

Braking torque control
The Roba®-torqcontrol is instead ideal for applications which require braking torque control in addition to status monitoring. It shares the features of the Roba®-brake-checker and can also change the level of the braking torque in operation through purposeful influencing of current and voltage.
As a result, devices and machines can be evenly and gently decelerated.
This module permits the development of control loops and brakes movements intelligently – the ideal basis for its use in smart, interconnected machines.

Monitoring the switching condition of the brakes
Another module to continuously monitor the switching condition of the brakes is the safe brake control Roba®-SBCplus, which allows mayr® power transmission to offer safety brakes and safe brake control in a complete package. It has been developed in collaboration with the company Pilz, especially for applications which have to fulfil requirements for the protection of people according to standards regarding functional safety. The module must reliably interrupt the current in the magnetic coil when the brake is switched off. For this purpose, the module operates with wear-free electronic semi-conductors, and as a result achieves practically unlimited switching frequency and switching reliability.
Furthermore, an integrated plausibility check is conducted through the evaluation of the release monitoring signals. The evaluations of the switching states and the return signal therefore permit reliable error diagnostics.