Product news

Knowledge of pressure and contact temperature is of great importance for the monitoring and design of lubricated rolling contacts. So far, there are only a few approaches for measurements under high contact pressure with mixed friction, i. e. the simultaneous occurrence of fluid and solid friction. In collaboration with the Institute of Machine Design (IMK) at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, the Fraunhofer IST has therefore developed a thin-film multi-sensor designed for simultaneous, high-resolution pressure and temperature measurement in rolling contacts under mixed friction and high loads. The measurement data obtained under real operating conditions increases the understanding of the machine element. In addition, this approach enables a critical evaluation and improvement of calculation methods used for the design of rolling contacts.

The thin-film sensor technology developed is a valuable tool for the product development of rolling contacts in drive units and can be transferred to other machine elements. It is also conceivable that the sensor technology could be used for condition monitoring in the future.

https://www.ist.fraunhofer.de/en/expertise/sensor-technology.html