ADVANCES IN RESEARCH ON A MULTICHANNEL ONLINE FERROGRAPH

This paper introduces the basic principle, functions and test results of a multi-channel on-line ferrograph. The instrument catches wear deb ris with an electromagnet, detects wear debris with a photoelectric se nsor, and controls sampling and data processing with an 8098 single-ch ip microprocessor which can communicate with a master computer. The in strument has four sampling channels, which can monitor not only one ma chine but also four machines one by one. The software of the instrumen t includes five modules which are a main program, a keyboard control p rogram, a floating point operation program, a serial communication pro gram and a self-checking program. The results of experiments on a gear box show that increasing average values detected by the instrument co rrespond to increasing load, so the instrument can meet the need for o n-line monitoring of the wear condition of machines. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.