TorqSense torque sensor characterises cutting tools

Risk is being driven out of the use of heavy-duty diamond cutting tools thanks to a EUR800,000 EU-backed research programme at Greenwich University in London to determine the true operating characteristics of such equipment. At the heart of this work is a TorqSense non-contact digital torque sensor from Sensor Technology. The researchers found that this was the most effective way to measure the true toque in the rotating saw blades and drill bits.

Previous research has simply estimated the torque by calculation from the drive motors' current requirements and consumption. This was known to be highly inaccurate, because every motor has its own unique signature of characteristics, which can have a significant effect on actual performance in highly demanding applications, such as drilling 1000mm bore holes through reinforced concrete, or sawing through the barnacle-encrusted steel of sub-sea structures.

To advance the understanding of how heavy-duty cutting tools operate, it was necessary to build a database of the torque, power and other characteristics for the tools under a variety of operating conditions. This can then be used to profile the tools' performance and allow accurate forecasting of their performance in the field.

In order to characterise the performance of each tool, it is necessary to measure the torque of the tool as it rotates, for which a non-contact sensor is required. The Greenwich team chose the TorqSense unit from Sensor Technology. This non-contact transducer operates using Surface Acoustic Wave technology and, for this project, the sensor was mounted so that it could move with the tool as the cut progressed.

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