High speed test system for automatic structure test on balls

What would the world be without ball bearings? And what would the ball bearings be without balls? A mass product, however with high demands on a successful heat treatment and correct use of material. Soft balls or balls out of a wrong material assembled in a crankshaft bearing? The consequences for you as manufacturer can be serious when balls of a complete batch are faulty or a material mix-up occurred. Even a single case costs money and gnaws at your reputation.
Would it not be desirable to easily 100% guarantee that only balls with correct material properties are assembled into the bearings? In this case we can support you with our well-proven ball sorting machine.

The ball sorter combines the well-proven Preventive Multi-Frequency Technology PMFT and latest fully-digital stage of development (still faster test times, enhanced frequency range and harmonic analysis) with a very fast and precision test mechanics.
It is available as a plug-in standard product in two versions:

• for small balls (1.5 – 6.0 mm)
• for large balls (6.0 – 25.0 mm)
  

ball sorter with optional support for the instrument

Function

The balls are fed through a tube to the bunker of the ball sorter or smaller balls directly into the bunker. A transport disk with pockets, takes the balls from the bunker and moves them below a structure probe which tests each ball.

A fast solenoid is installed for sorting the balls to OK or NG in order to meet the high test speeds. Sorting is always active.

The distance of probe to ball is diameter-dependently and set by means of two micrometer screws for the X-and Y-values as per a table.

A lockable cover prevents unauthorised access. In addition there is a switch box with PLC, operating elements and the power supply.

A rotary knob under the cover with digits controls the number of test parts per second via the motor speed. Maximum setting means ten parts per second are tested. Setting is achieved with the help of a speed table.

A signal light on the switch box with two LEDs serves as remote control. The red light is on in case of standstill of the machine, the green light is on when the machine is working. The red light blinks in case of malfunction and the transport motor is stopped immediately.

Precise and rugged mechanics for the 3-shift use in harsh industrial environment

Scope of supply

• an eddy current test instrument of new generation, e.g. eddylinerS digital as a table top device or installed on an arm
• the test mechanic with parts feeding, transport disks, structure probe, discharge chute, cabling and switch box with control electronics

Principle of function

Testing of balls for correct material properties is always based on our eddy current structure technology PMFT. Balls which do not correspond to the correct properties are rejected. To achieve this, a certain quantity of OK-balls with correct material quality is fed into the test system as reference parts. Afterwards each test part is compared with this reference data. Any discrepancy sorts the parts to NG. From a physical point of view the permeability curves of the test parts are compared with the permeability curves of the reference parts.

ball sorters can be installed either at the beginning or at the end of your ball production process: at the beginning it is possible to stop the production early in the process when wrong material is involved and so avoid unnecessary expense. At the end you test your finished product and guarantee that OK-balls only are packed or mounted.

BTW: still larger balls with diameters >25mm can also be tested and we supply tailor-made solutions with proven mechanical concepts and performance data.

Reliable solution with impressive test speed