History, present situation and future trends in ensuring constant and consistent wire tension in stranding machines

London, 07 December 2008 Jrg Inhelder and Francisco Ferrer

Contents
1. Introduction, Definitions
Different applications of stranded products Meaning of material tension in stranded products Creation of tension in pay-off How can tension be measured Tension indication vs. closed loop tension control Difficulties with accurate measurement in rotating systems

2. Historic development of tension control 3. Current solutions 4. Design criteria for the evaluation of tension control
systems on stranders

5. Application examples 6. Future trends

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Strander Types Example of Cage Strander

1 Bay 18 wires Wrap angle 15

Rewind Station

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Example of Multi-Cage Strander

Bay #3 12 wires

Bay #2 18 wires
Wrap angle 15

Bay #1 2x12 wires

Rewind Station

ff 11-12-08

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Example of a Tube Strander

Pos #1
Measuring Roller Twisting Point

Pos #2

Pos #3

Pos #4

Measuring Roller

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Different Applications of Stranded Products

Controlled tension can improve product
quality in :

- Ropes for transportation purposes

(aerial cable-cars, elevator lifting cables, cranes aso)

- Data cable in network applications, - Submarine cables for power and data, - Fiber-optical cables aso

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Meaning of Material Tension in Stranded Products

Absolute tension in each wire/strand:
The absolute tension determines how tight the strand will be made, e.g. how much air is left in between strands

Consistency of tension amongst different

strands/wires:

- It influences the strength of a rope

due to its uniformed load distribution over the individual strands.

It influences electrical behaviour cable - controlled and even tension - defined cross-talk - defined capacitance between 2 wires
aso)
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Creation of Tension in Pay-off

Tension in a strand is created by braking
the wire bobbing and reducing pay-off.
Wire Bobbin
Friction Measuring Roller

The tension is a function of braking

torque, diameter of coil, friction over rollers and strand ducts in the lay plate.
Brake

As friction can be assumed more or less

constant over a short period of time, tension changes due to the continuously changing diameter of the coil.

Pay-off diameter

Without any changes to the brake force

through a complete run the machine starts with low tension at full coil and at the end of the coil the tension is higher by approximately the factor of full vs empty coil.

Schematics of tension creation in strander cage F brake d pay-off

strand tension = c *

+ friction

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How Can Tension Be Measured

Force

Industry knows sensors for tension

measurement since decades, most of them using strain gauges to convert mechanical stress into an electrical signal.

These sensors always require an

amplifier to get a standardized 010V signal for indication on a meter or further calculation in a closed-loop control. The mechanical side of the measurement is always a shieve sitting on a sensor that is wrapped by the wire or strand in a certain
angle.

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Wrap Angle and Tension

This wrap angle and the tension in the
material create a force on the sheave and therefore on the sensor that is proportional to the tension in the wire:
Wrap Angle

Force = 2 * Tension * sin (

wrap angle 2

)
Resulting Force

FB: Wire tension FG: Force of sheave weight FR: Resulting Force

Red Point

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Tension indication vs. Closed Loop Tension Control

Measurement enables the operator to see
if the machine is running with proper tension; if any adjustment is required the machine needs to be stopped and the adjustments made to the pay-off.
Drive or Brake Force Measuring Roller Wire

With a closed-loop tension control any

variations in the tension are corrected automatically and continuously by the controller.
Output signal for motor or brake

Tension feedback

Where closed-loop tension control is state

of the art in converting applications. It is not so easy to adapt them to rotating machines. It requires special concepts of data transfer between layplate, individual payoff/brake and MMI on the static side.
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Tension controller

Schematic diagram of closed loop Tension control system

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Difficulties with Accurate Measurement in Rotating Systems

In contrary to a wire running through an
static annealing or insulation process where measurement of tension can simply be achieved, it is much more tricky on a rotating machine: Rotation of sensor

- Centrifugal forces influence the

measurement

- Coriolis forces act on the load cell.

Coriolis force is the force created by 2 rotational movements, (which stabilizes your bicycle for example): one rotation is the lay plate and the second one is the sheave that rotates within the rotating cage.

Rotation of Layplate

Combination of 2 rotating systems creates Coriolis force

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Historic Development of Tension Control

The wish to keep constant tension in the individual strands is as old as stranders exist. In the
beginning simple mechanical spring-operated strap brake with a leather strip were used to adjust the tension for each individual pay-off. The Machine needed to be stopped to readjust the strap brake when the bobbin got empty.

The operator needed to feel the tension in the strands manually. There were skilled operators that
had a real good feeling and could do a good job of ensuring consistent tension throughout a full production run. Next day another operator did job not understand it as well. This leads to a high variation in quality and is no longer tolerable for modern processes.

In the 80s there were sensors available for wire tension measurement. A few machines were fitted
with tension measurement, using slip rings to bring the signals to the static side. This technology was simply too expensive and error-prone.

With technology moving on there were new possibilities available: Bus systems became available and
allowed the reduction of the number of slip rings and also radio transmission systems developed further at reduced cost.

Parallel with these developments also the technology of the stranders developed: there were
pneumatic and magnetic brakes available that allowed a more reproducible tension setting and also and this is one of the main targets of any machine builder- higher speeds.
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Current Solutions
A certain percentage of new machines is currently equipped with tension control systems; some open
loop and some closed-loop (examples are Sket [FMS], Lesmo [FMS], Queins [FMS], GCR [FMS], NMC [FMS], Caball, Pourtier and others)

There are thousands of older machines in the field. A very small percentage of them has been
retrofitted with tension control, but many of them remain to be retrofitted, and for many of them it is quite simple to retrofit them.

Amongst the current retrofit solutions the following ones are most common: - Slip rings for analogue signals. This principle is not seen very often anymore. - Bus systems and slip rings is quite common. If the slip rings are of good quality, one can obtain
reliable results.

Bus systems with Radio transmission is getting more and more common with the availability of inexpensive and reliable radio transmission modules.

Common to all known systems is that the amplifiers are always placed on the rotating part. This has
electrical reasons. The load cells output is only a milliVolt signal and those can not be handled by bus systems directly nor be transferred over slip rings.

The majority of the tension control systems in todays stranders are open-loop systems.
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Design Criteria for Tension Control in Stranders

Position of the Measuring Device

Red Point

In general there are 2 suitable

positions to measure the tension:

Wire

RMGZ Sensor

- One is where the strand / wire

exits the layplate is directed to the stranding point.
Rotation Axis of Layplate

Resulting force Rotating Layplate

- Another position is near the

center, near the stranding point
Wire

Position 1: Measuring at the exit of layplate

Resulting force RMGZ Sensor

It depends on the specific

circumstances (mainly space) which position is better suitable.

Position 2 offers the advantage of

lower centrifugal forces.
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Rotation Axis of Layplate

Rotating Layplate

Position 2: Close to centre/ stranding point

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Calculation of Required Nominal Force of the Sensor

2 screenshots from the calculator software from FMS to determine the correct type and nominal force of sensor .
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Influence of Centrifugal Forces

Depending on the application data (rotational
speed, weight of sheave, sensor design etc.) it can be necessary to do accurate calculations of the effects of the centrifugal forces to get a measurement that is not affected by them. To eliminate the influence of centrifugal forces several measures must be taken:
Red Point measuring direction

Centrifugal force

- requires very accurate positioning of the

sensor.

- sensors that are designed to withstand

these high loads rectangular to the measuring direction

- other design measures

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Resulting force component

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Influence of Coriolis Force

The influence of the Coriolis force can
only be compensated by a proper design of the sensor which makes it insensitive in the direction of the Coriolis force.

Rotation of sensor

Rotation of Layplate

Example of a sensor that is insensitive to Coriolis forces Combination of 2 rotating systems creates Coriolis force
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Design Example with Dedicated Tools

Picture left: Tool for determination of suitable sensors under certain Centrifugal and Coriolis forces The amplifiers must always be placed on the rotating part of machine (no mV signals to be transmitted). To achieve best reliability (low gforces) they should be placed as close as possible to the centre of the strander

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Application Examples

Application in Germany
Description: Application of a steel wire strander with tension measurement and data transfer through Radio transmission. All tension data can be monitored on PC screen. Using a CAN bus to connect all amplifiers and RF to transmit signals to PC. System: RTM02, 12 channels Load Cells: RMGZ531B Material: Steel cables 30-60mm from strands 4-10mm

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RMGZ400 Force Measuring Roller

Description: Application of copper wire strander for the production of electrical cables. System: Load Cells: Material: 24 EMGZ306A Amplifier 24 RMGZ422 Copper cables

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RMGZ422B Force Measuring Roller

System Description: Application of closed-loop tension control: 12 FMS loadcells and amplifiers connected to PLC (rotating!) which controls each individual payoff drive to maintain constant tension. System: Load Cells: Material: 12 EMGZ306A Amplifier 12 RMGZ421B Multipolar electrical cables strands 0.5-1.0mm

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High Performance Steel Cables for US Navy Aircraft Carriers.

System Description: Application of 4m diameter strander for steel ropes for military applications. Each strand is measured individually with one FMS load cell. Amplifiers are connected through a ProfiBus and the bus signals transferred over slip rings. System: Load Cells: Material: 6 EMGZ470 ProfiBus Amp. 6 RMGZ838 Steel cables 30-60mm strands of 4-10mm

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Future Trends

Tension Indication vs. Closed Loop Tension Control

To be able to meet the future quality
demands generally speaking there needs to be:

- higher process stability - higher process reliability - better documentation of process

variables

Amongst other parameters tension of the

single wires / strands is a very important one

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Tension Control Providers Can Support these Improvements with:

Optimized load cells for rotating
applications

Closed-loop tension control systems Standardized systems for data exchange

between rotating and static part

Provide easy connection to PLC or PC to

document process parameters

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Machine Builders can Support these Improvements with:

Design load cells as standard Make each individual payoff easily
accessible for 2 electrical conductors

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Users of Stranders Can Support these Improvements with:

Ask their machine suppliers for
tension control solutions

Get aware of the possibilities and

advantages of tension measurement and control

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