Industrial Automation Magazine India

Smart service loop with integrated sensors

Published on : Wednesday 15-07-2020

LAPP is a leading supplier of integrated solutions and branded products in the field of cable and connection technology.

For special cables, it is useful for monitoring sensors to be installed directly in the cable. For example, this is the case with what are known as service loops, which are often used on offshore drilling platforms. These hybrid cables generally supply the application with compressed air and hydraulic energy in addition to power and data. In the past, it was difficult to predict their ageing, especially because of the different usage conditions and structures. For this reason, they are replaced as a precaution after a defined time interval. This is no longer necessary with the smart service loop from LAPP. It contains a reference cable, sensors for monitoring the ambient conditions, and a microcontroller with WiFi connection, which is integrated into the cable’s anchoring or housed in the control cabinet. It calculates when it is time to replace the cable from the changes in the sensor values.

“The prototype has already completed 800,000 movement cycles in our test laboratory”, says Dr Susanne Krichel, Senior Manager for IoT business development at LAPP. "This will help us to make the data evaluation algorithms more precise. Our approach will save the customer up to €700,000 in failure costs per hour and offer modern business models such as guaranteed availability of the entire installation or a monthly diagnostic report on the cable condition.”

Headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, LAPP is a leading supplier of integrated solutions and branded products in the field of cable and connection technology. The company’s portfolio includes standard and highly flexible cables, industrial connectors and cable entry systems, customised system solutions, automation technology and robotics solutions for the intelligent factory of the future, as well as technical accessories. LAPP’s core market is in the industrial machinery and plant engineering sector. Other key markets are in the food industry as well as the energy and the mobility sector.

LAPP India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru. Tel: 080-47405000. Email: [email protected]