EP2335122A1

EP2335122A1 - Method for marking multiple components

Info

Publication number: EP2335122A1
Application number: EP09748210A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Stefan GLÜCK; Thomas Rink
Original assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG and Co KG
Current assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG and Co KG
Priority date: 2008-09-11
Filing date: 2009-09-03
Publication date: 2011-06-22
Also published as: US20110168586A1; WO2010028627A1; CN102144194A; DE102008046812A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for marking multiple components (2, 3, 4, 5, 13), each of which has at least one transponder (6, 7, 8, 9) and a storage device, wherein a first marked component (2) comes in contact with second components (3, 4, 5, 13) disposed in the range thereof and transmits information to them, wherein said components mark themselves while taking the information transmitted by the first component into consideration, and wherein at least one second component after the marking thereof comes in contact with further components in the range thereof that are not marked yet in order to bring about the marking thereof, and to a group of components marked in this way, to a corresponding container for carrying out the method, and to a rolling bearing (14, 15, 16), which is a possible typical component to be marked in this way. As a result of the invention, the self-organization and marking of a group of components is achieved with the help of an interconnected network without great effort.

Description

Name of the invention

Method for identifying a plurality of components, group of components,

Container for carrying out the method and rolling bearing with a

Transponder and a memory device

description

Field of the invention

The invention is in the field of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering and relates in particular to the marking of components.

In addition to the pure function of components, their reliability and the quality control required for this increasingly play an increasingly important role in technology.

For quality control, the individualization and corresponding marking of components is an important aspect during the production process and also during maintenance. Due to a labeling individual components can be assigned to specific production batches and thus can be subject to errors occurring the entire batch of immediate maintenance or even replacement, as far as the individual components can be tracked. In the production process, it can be important to label each individual component with information that identifies the production steps that have already been carried out or the parameters that have occurred. Also dimensions or other properties of the components can be added to a corresponding marking. In addition, information about the production time often occurs in order to later be able to relate the age and the state of wear of components to one another.

In order to be able to conveniently label components, in recent years electronic means such as memory devices and communication interfaces have increasingly been introduced, with which the corresponding information of the components can be obtained by writing and reading devices and additional information can be given to the components.

An outstanding role has been played by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, which works with the aid of radio-wave transponders and corresponding storage facilities. Corresponding transponders can now be extremely reliable and robust and can be realized with small dimensions.

However, a special feature of such transponders is the possibly limited range in the vicinity of metallic objects, which makes it difficult, for example, to respond as bulk material present components, which themselves consist of metal, or even those components that are located in a metallic container.

From EP 1777599 A1 a method for quality control of mechanical elements has become known, which makes use of electronic identification of the components with contactless communication, which is used to store information about individual production steps in the component itself and thus to make available for later quality controls , From DE 112004002234 T5 a rolling bearing is known with a so-called IC marking, which is based on the RFI D technology and allows the storage of data in the warehouse itself. There, the problem is addressed that raceway elements of the bearing partially absorb the microwaves used for reading or writing and thus complicate the communication.

From DE 102006024212 A1 a complete wheel bearing unit with a corresponding IC marking is known. This ensures the traceability of the corresponding storage unit.

DE 102005043773 A1 discloses a warehouse with an RFID device which receives and stores storage data and makes the corresponding data available later. The data is used to optimize maintenance and includes, for example, operating parameters and information about particular load conditions that the warehouse has undergone.

Against the background of the state of the art, the present invention is based on the object of providing a method with which a group of components, each having a transponder and a memory device, can be identified as efficiently as possible.

According to the invention, the object with the features of claim 1 of the method according to the invention and by a group of components according to claim 13 is achieved. The invention also relates to a container according to claim 14 and to a roller bearing according to claim 15. The invention is based on the problem that several components, which are unmarked as a group of components, should be identified as efficiently and individualized, the cost of time and costs should be minimized. The invention achieves this object by a method in which a first marked component comes into contact with second components arranged within its reach, transmits this information to the latter, each of which characterizes itself taking into account the information transmitted by the first component, and wherein at least one second Component according to its identification to other, not yet marked components within its reach in contact occurs to effect their identification.

This method assumes that there is at least one component that responds to a subsequent generation of components and requests them by a corresponding signal to identify themselves. The second components belong to a generation that follows the generation of the first component. The generation is therefore a first parameter that distinguishes the first component from the second component. The second components must now find corresponding self-identifications using the information they have received from the first component. For this they can either individually individually communicate with each other with the first component, which then manages the necessary different identifications of the second components or the second components can communicate with each other to avoid identically denominated markings. For example, each component can be provided with an algorithm that results in the other components of the same generation reporting and logging in their identification. The component that does this first is accepted by the others and may first be identified. Thereafter, this process is repeated and that component of the generation, which reports next to the rest, forgives the next label until all components of the generation are marked. However, it can also be provided that in each case the component of the higher generation, ie, in the example mentioned, the first component assigns the corresponding identifications to the components of the second generation, for example by assigning the generation number and numbering it.

A possible marking parameter is thus the designation of the generation of the respective component, that is to say the designation of the number of marking runs already carried out up to its marking. In addition, a tagging parameter can exist in a time stamp, which, for example, designates the time of the tagging.

As conclusion of the designated marking step, the first component can advantageously capture and store the identification data of the second components. This can apply in the following for each component with regard to the components of the following generation which it has addressed.

Additionally or alternatively, it may also be advantageous that every second component detects and stores all identification data of the remaining second components. This can also apply to each subsequent generation, so that a component of a generation can capture and store the identification data of all other components of the same generation and advantageously also of the other generations.

This makes it possible to address the group of components from the outside via a reading device and to query the data of the entire group from a single component via its transponder from the memory device. This is particularly advantageous if in a group of components not all can be reached via radio frequency communication, since the components shadow each other, which is the case, for example, if they are present as bulk material and at least partially made of metal or between them see parts stored are at least partially made of metal.

A similar problem arises when the components are stored in a metallic container, since its metallic shell also at least partially shields corresponding radio frequency communication, so that only the components of the uppermost layers can be reached by a read / write device.

Advantageously, it can be provided in the method that each unmarked component before its identification only communicates with the component already identified, which first comes into contact with it.

This avoids that the unmarked components competitively contact with several components of a previously identified generation and thus no clear identification could be guaranteed.

Since the already marked components are clearly identifiable, the still unmarked components in their communication can clearly specify with which of the already marked components that have come in contact with them, they want to communicate to determine their own labeling. The described method is repeated in successive generations until all the components have been addressed, wherein, for example, a container filled with corresponding components is gradually penetrated depending on the range of the communication. The range of the communication can be determined, for example, by the transmission strength or the reception sensitivity of the transponder. The transmission strength and / or the reception sensitivity may be adjustable in the transponders in order to improve the orderly course of the method.

The communication between the transponders is advantageously time-synchronized (eg TDMA: Time Division Multiple Access). Cyclic communication avoids collisions. For the transmission of the signals, the frequency spread and the frequency hopping method can be used. The reliability of the transmission can be increased in the network.

The labeling process is advantageous from a separate transmitting and receiving unit or by a transponder, the z. B. has the function as a gateway, which is associated with a container containing the components and which comes to the, still untagged, components of the group in contact, which then form the first generation of marked components.

Correspondingly, the information which the respective components collect about their identifications or the labels of the following generations can also be collected in the transponder or the memory device associated with the container. For this purpose, it is advantageously provided that each component via its transponder detects the markings of the components contacted by it, stores them and passes them on to the component from which it was contacted even before its identification.

In addition, it can also be provided according to the invention that each component has a plurality of transponders assigned to each of its component elements, the transponder associated with the respective identical component elements belonging to separate classes.

For example, in a bearing the different bearing elements each have a transponder and a memory device be assigned, so that the individual bearing elements such as inner ring, outer ring, end shields, seal, cage and rolling elements each carry the information about their own manufacturing conditions and / or the hours of operation and operating conditions , This information can be advantageously accumulated in a transponder of the camp, which then corresponds to the assembly of the camp with the transponders of other camps in the context of the method according to the invention.

The transponders can also be organized according to each separate classes, so that, for example, all transponders of outer rings of the bearings communicate with each other and the corresponding transponder of inner rings or end shields and so on.

An individualized marking of individual bearing parts is possible before or at the same time as the marking of the bearings. The invention also relates to a group of components with transponders and memory devices, each of the components has stored in its memory device its own identification and information about the labels of all other components of the group and a container for carrying out the method according to the invention, wherein the Container has an impermeable envelope for the communication of the transponder and the container is associated with a transponder and a memory device.

In addition, the invention also relates to a rolling bearing with at least one transponder and a memory device, wherein the memory device includes an individual identifier, which is generated by the inventive method.

In the case of a roller bearing, if individual parts of the bearing are each equipped with transponders, a self-diagnosis can also be carried out via the main transponder by centrally storing information about the subordinate transponder or the corresponding components and comparing it with later acquired data. Thus, it can be determined within the bearing whether the provided bearing elements are present and in an acceptable state.

In the following the invention will be shown with reference to an embodiment in a drawing and described below.

It shows

FIG. 1 schematically shows a container with a bulk material consisting of metallic objects; Figure 2 symbolically a meshed network of transponders; Figure 3a shows a rolling bearing in a side view;

Figure 3b shows various transponders of a single bearing schematically and Figure 4 is a schematic representation of the self-identification process of the transponder a group of components.

1 schematically shows a metallic container 1, which is partially filled with a group of components 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, wherein the components form a bulk material, lie loosely on one another and consist of a material which At least partially shielding electromagnetic waves, for example made of metal.

The components may be, for example, roller bearings which contain metallic components or consist entirely of metallic parts.

Each of the components carries at least one transponder and a memory device, wherein the individual transponders together with the respective memory device are shown schematically as points in the middle of the components. Such a transponder can receive and transmit signals. If it is an RFID transponder, so-called air interface in the radio frequency range using electromagnetic waves is provided. However, other radio signals for information transmission are also conceivable. In principle, other non-wired signals for realizing the method according to the invention are conceivable, such as, for example, infrared or ultrasonic waves. If it is to be determined which components are present in the container 1 or which container is involved, a request signal can be sent into the container 1 by a transmitting and receiving unit 10 and a response can be waited for. If the individual components 2, 3, 4, 5 or the transponder 21 contain markings, they can identify themselves to the request of the transmitting and receiving unit 10 and send back corresponding signals.

The components 11, 12 lying further down in the container do not receive the request signal of the transmitting and receiving unit 10, since they are electromagnetically shielded by the components lying above them. Accordingly, it is difficult to determine by a query process which components are stored in the container as a whole.

The invention helps to solve this problem by organizing the components as a networked network. For this purpose, the components come into contact with each other, that is, because of the limited range of the transponder occurs every single component to the other components in contact, which can reach it via its transponder.

Each component then copies the information received from its reachable neighbors into the storage means of its own transponder and forwards that information to all available neighbors. After several iteration steps of this communication, the memory devices of all components located in the container 1 contain information about all components. A query by the transmitting and receiving unit 10 can then reach each of the components and query from this the number and identity of all located in the container components.

In order for this described communication process to work, it must first be ensured that the individual components are identified in an initialization process, if this has not already happened earlier. For this purpose, from the transmitting and receiving unit 10, as shown in Figure 2, an initialization pulse are sent to the components, which is first received and acknowledged by one of the components 2. This component 2 is then sent by the transmitting and receiving unit 10, a time stamp, which is stored in the memory device of the transponder of the component 2. The component receives the information that it is the first identified component and stores this information as part of the self-identification. It is thus identified as component 1 Generation 1.

In the next step, the component 2 transmits, within the range of its transponder, a second initialization pulse, which is received by the components 3, 4, 5, 13. The individual components 3, 4, 5 13 are numbered according to a fixed algorithm, which can take into account, for example, in which order the components have received the second initialization pulse from the component 2 or in which order they have acknowledged this.

Thereafter, each of the components 3, 4, 5, 13 has stored the number of its generation, namely the number 2, as well as a serial number and a time stamp. These quantities are additionally sent to the component 2 and exchanged among the components 3, 4, 5, 13. Thus, all components of the first and second generation now have information about the identity of the already marked components. Each of the components 3, 4, 5, 13 in turn sends a third initialization pulse to the potential third generation components. For identification, these are given the number 3 as the number of the generation as well as, for example, the identity of the component that contacted them and a time stamp. This information is also communicated both within a generation and to the superordinate generations, so that at the end of the described iterative process all components in the container 1 contain the information about all components.

FIG. 3 a shows by way of example a roller bearing, as may for example be present as bulk material in the container 1. Such bearings usually have an outer ring 14, an inner ring 15, seal 23 and rolling elements 16 and a cage 22 for guiding the rolling elements, wherein most components of a rolling bearing, at least in the higher load range of metal.

In the rolling bearing shown transponder 17 are also shown in the outer ring and 18 in the inner ring. The rolling elements 16, the cage 22 and the seal 23 may also have corresponding transponder. The transponders of the various components of a warehouse can communicate with each other, so that the information about the various components can be exchanged and stored, for example, in a hierarchically prioritized transponder.

Such a structure of transponders is shown in FIG. 3b, wherein the hierarchically prioritized transponder is denoted by 17, while the subordinate transponders are designated by 18, 19, 20. The system can be set up such that mainly the prioritized transponder 17 communicates with other rolling bearings to the outside and the subordinate transponders 18, 19, 20 only for communication within a warehouse provided and qualified. This can be realized for example by coding or separate frequency ranges of the corresponding transponder.

Thus, a self-diagnosis of the bearing is possible by, for example, timestamps of the individual transponders and thus production times of the components of the bearing can be detected and adjusted. Even the absence of parts can be determined automatically in this way.

Overall, each roller bearing can be characterized by the automated process described itself using a time stamp, so that, for example, within a container a production batch carries a certain, even later after a certain wear of the bearing queriable group identification. This tag allows each bearing to be identified later and analyzed for life. Also, the origin or production batch of each camp can thus be tracked. If individual batches have problems, the associated bearings can be easily identified and replaced.

FIG. 4 shows again schematically the process of self-identification, wherein several rows of transponders are shown one below the other and each row represents a generation. The transmitting and receiving unit 10 does not belong to the components to be marked but only gives the initialization pulse for the identification. All transponders 30, 31, 32, 33, which receive their initialization pulse directly from the transmitting and receiving unit 10, belong to the first generation and are identified accordingly including generation number, time stamp and numbering.

Each of these transponders 30, 31, 32, 33 now attempts to reach the remaining transponders 34, 35 within its range, to which the next generation number together with the updated time stamp and numbering is assigned. If a transponder of the second generation is contacted by several transponders of the first generation, then a priority control is followed, which may, for example, consist in the transponder coming into contact with the transponder of the higher generation which contacted it first. However, other priority arrangements are conceivable.

By virtue of the fact that each transponder sends an initialization pulse to its neighboring transponder only once after its own self-identification, it is ensured that the entire self-identification process is ended after a finite time.

The identification data is then communicated over all generations, so that each of the transponders contains data about all other transponder identifications or component identifications.

If later marked components are filled in a container, they can organize themselves very quickly by forming a meshed network similar to the self-identification and inform each other about the network formed, which components are present in the container. This ensures that even when mutual shielding by means of a transmitter / receiver by addressing at least one component information about the overall contents of the container can be detected.

As a result of the invention, the self-organization of a group of components, both at the first marking and later at any desired detection, is substantially simplified without any organizational effort.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 metallic container

2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13 components 10 transmitting and receiving unit

14 outer ring

15 inner ring

16 rolling elements

17 prioritized transponder 18, 19, 20 subordinate transponder

21 transponders for containers

30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 transponders

Claims

claims

1. A method for identifying a plurality of components (2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13), each of which has at least one transponder (6, 7, 8, 9) and a memory device, wherein a first identified component (2) comes into contact with second components (3, 4, 5, 13) arranged within its range, transmits this information to the user and in each case identifies itself, taking into account the information transmitted by the first component, and wherein at least a second component after its identification comes to other, not yet marked components within its range in contact to cause their identification.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the second components (3, 4, 5, 13) communicate in their self-identification each individually with the first component (2) to avoid identically denominated markings.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the second components (3, 4, 5, 13) communicate with their self-identification in each case with the other second components in order to avoid identically denominated markings.

4. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the first component (2) detects and stores the identifications of the second components (3, 4, 5, 13).

5. The method of claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that each of the second components (3, 4, 5, 13) detects and stores all the characteristics of the second components (3, 4, 5, 13).

6. The method according to claim 1 or one of the following, characterized in that one of the identification parameters is a time stamp.

7. The method according to claim 1 or one of the subsequent claims, characterized in that one of the marking parameters, the name of the generation of the respective component, that is, the designation of the number of identification cycles already carried out up to its identification contains.

8. The method according to claim 1 or one of the following, characterized in that each unmarked component before its identification only with that already marked Component communicates, which comes first in contact with him.

9. The method according to claim 1 or one of the following, characterized in that at the beginning of the marking, a transponder (21) associated with a container containing the components (1), at least one first unmarked component comes into contact.

10. The method according to claim 1 or one of the following, characterized in that at the beginning of the marking a

Transmitting and receiving unit (10) to at least a first unmarked component comes into contact.

11. The method according to claim 1 or one of the following, characterized in that each component (2, 3, 4, 5, 13) via its transponder (6, 7, 8, 9) detects the markings of the contacted by him components stores and to the component from which it was contacted even before its designation.

12. The method according to claim 1 or one of the following, characterized in that each component has a plurality of its respective component elements associated transponder (17, 18, 19, 20), wherein the respective like component elements associated transponder belong to distinguishable classes.

13. Group of components (2, 3, 4, 5, 13) with transponders (6, 7, 8, 9) and memory devices, each of the components in its memory device its own identification and information stored on the labels of all other components of the group.

14. Container (1) for carrying out the method according to one of the- claims 1 to 12, wherein the container for the communication of the

Transponder impermeable envelope and the container is associated with a transponder (21) and a memory device.

15. Rolling bearing (14, 15, 16, 22, 23) with at least one transponder (17, 18, 19, 20) and a memory device, wherein the memory device includes an individual identifier, which by a method according to one of the claims 1 to 12 is generated.