Engines for marine research

• What was needed: robot joint of the robolink® series, iglidur® PRT rotary table bearing, drylin® E stepper motor, D1 dryve control system
• Requirements: Ambient conditions are a salty atmosphere, high humidity, fluctuating temperatures and vibrations. All components had to be very compact in order to fit into a shipping container. A cost-optimised solution also had to be found.
• Industry: Research
• Success for the customer: The motors provide IP68 protection and are therefore perfectly suited for use in this special CT system. Another advantage of the control system: It saves the commissioning engineers time. And with a cost-effective D1 dryvecontrol system, the motor is easy to programme. diondo is so satisfied with the solution that the cooperation will continue in the future.

Building computer tomographs (CT) for unusual applications: The company diondo from Hattingen has specialised in this task for 25 years. Every customer enquiry presents a new challenge. Just like an order from Chinese researchers to develop a new CT system. It is to be used to analyse drill cores from the seabed on a drilling platform.
Anything but a routine job, because the requirements were special. The system had to be able to withstand a salty atmosphere, high humidity, fluctuating temperatures and vibrations. It also had to be compact enough to fit into a shipping container, including its peripherals. Last but not least, a particularly cost-optimised solution had to be found due to the tight research budget.
With a long catalogue of requirements in his luggage, Maas set out in search of components for the CT system. Normally, in industrial CT systems, the sample, clamped in a manipulator, moves over up to seven axes between an imaging system consisting of an X-ray source and detector. However, this set-up was impossible due to the instability of the sample.
Instead, the new solution therefore envisaged a design similar to a CT from medical technology. The X-ray source and X-ray detector rotate around the drill core. The X-ray source and detector perform a 270-degree rotational movement around the drill core during the examination. Up to 7,300 measurements are taken per rotation. During each measurement, X-rays penetrate the drill core and are attenuated to varying degrees depending on the density of the material. An algorithm then generates the 3D sectional images from these attenuation images. In these tomograms, material areas with a high density appear light, while areas with a low density appear dark. The resolution is 1,920 x 1,536 pixels with a pixel size of 128 micrometres. Researchers can recognise even the finest structures in sedimentary rock on these 3D images.

To enable the rotational movement, the designers installed a robot joint from the robolink® series. A worm gear and the iglidur® PRT rotary table bearing are integrated into the plastic housing - a polymer plain bearing that requires no lubricant and, unlike metal bearings, is maintenance-free. Thanks to its flat design, the bearing also requires only a small installation space and is resistant to dirt, dust and moisture. It is driven by an electric stepper motor from the drylin® series. The motors, which provide IP68 protection, are perfectly suited for use in this special CT system. Another advantage of the control system is that it saves the commissioning engineers time. Thanks to the D1 dryve control system, the motor is easy to programme. To do this, the developers call up a user interface with a web browser via an IP address - using a PC, tablet or smartphone. Parameters such as travel distance and feed rate can be changed there. The user can implement time-saving automation without transmission and loading processes. Last but not least, the motor control system also reduces the costs of the project. diondo was looking for an alternative to a PLC control system, which can cost around 12,000 euros including licences. The D1 dryve was a much more cost-effective solution, costing just 338 euros.
Products such as the D1 dryve motor controller are developed in joint projects: This is also demonstrated by the collaboration between diondo and igus®.
During the realisation of the motor control unit, individual wishes of the designers were directly implemented in updates. This made it possible to control digital inputs and outputs via the BUS system and eliminate the need for a separate I/O module.
So it is no wonder that diondo is continuing the co-operation. Among other things, cost-effective CT systems for education and research are planned.