Maintenance-free Radar Solutions for Challenging Environments
1D-Position Measurement on Cranes and Transfer Units
The KY-LOC 1D product line was designed for distance measurement on railbound or straight driving machines in rough indoor and outdoor production plants. Accuracy and reliability demonstrate the competitive advantages of 61 GHz Radar sensors
in dusty and all-weather environments in heavy industries, e.g. steel plants, container terminals, waste management and open pit mining. Maintenance-free operations on cranes are rather typical applications, where Radar confirms the benefits compared to optical sensors and encoders for distance measurement.
Manual or automatic crane based logistics to track individual products like plates, slabs, coils or other valuable items benefit from the cost-effective and zero-maintenance operation of Radar sensors, just like stackers/reclaimers in bulk handling, ladle cars, transfer units, coke ovens and other unidirectional moving machines.
Coke oven - position measurement of pusher, filling- and quenching car (Click to enlarge)
Collision avoidance between moving/fixed objects, dynamic warning zones (Click to enlarge)
Animation: collision avoidance with dynamic warning zones
Collision and Skewing Avoidance
The KY-LOC 1D.01.01 sensors avoid collisions when several cranes operate on the same rail or on overlapping levels. Preset no-go zones create a stop signal to crane drives. The sizes of the warning zones (zone A, zone B in the picture) are adjusted dynamically based on approach speed. This allows very close operation when moving slowly.
The anmimation shows the principle.
To minimize the mechanical strain on wide cranes, KY-LOC 1D sensors are applied to measure the crane skewing. Crane motion control can use this information to adjust the drives appropriately.
KY-LOC-1D and KY-RAY 1D can also be deployed vertically (or at an angle, with side and height offset), to allow height measurement on lifting equipment. This is very effective for new and retrofitted machines, as re-alignment due to rope lengtheneing does not affect the height measurement.
Lifting applications, crane skewing avoidance (Click to enlarge)
2D Position Measurement of Transport Vehicles
Free ranging transport vehicles like forklifts, slab carriers or container handling equipment do reliably measure their 2D position in indoor and outdoor applications with KY-LOC 20.03.01.
The position and heading is precise down to a few cm. Transport tasks can be assigned to the best positioned vehicle and, triggered by load change events, the coordinates of goods picked or dropped can be communicated to a product tracking database. Product positions can thus be tracked across the entire plant without any tracking device attached to the product.
2D position of transport vehicles – efficient job assignment and product storage position tracking (Click to enlarge)
Absence and Presence Detection, Volumetric Measurement, Zone Surveillance
The given (MIMO) antenna array on KY-RAY sensors scans a 3D field of view, without any movement of the sensor or parts of it. Several targets can be detected simultaneously by KY-RAY 3D.03.01 sensors and their movement data transmitted via the data interface to any control device.
Main applications are zone surveillance/safety zones (monitor objects/persons), volumetric measurement of stock piles and streams on conveyor belts, collision prevention with all kinds of moving/fixed objects, or determining product dimensions to control movement (e.g. on roller conveyors).
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