Device for determining and monitoring changes in the position of shafts

US4864148A · kind A · utility

Inventors

• Heinrich Lysen · Garching bei München, DE
• Dieter Busch · Ismaning, DE
• Karl Wagner · Munich, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 30, 1987
• Grant date: Sep 5, 1989
• Expiry date: Apr 30, 2007

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01B11/272
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An apparatus for detecting and monitoring changes in the position of rotating shafts in which a light ray generally parallel to the shafts is directed to measurement positions (which are offset from each other by about 90.degree. in the circumferential direction of the shafts) to a rectangular prism, which reflects the ray to a ray receiver, which supplies signals, which change with any change in the position of the shafts. In known apparatus for making possible a continuous monitoring of the alignment condition of coaxial shafts, the ray source and the ray receiver are arranged on one shaft and a prism is arranged on the other. The signals of the ray receiver and the power supply thereof require the use of complex and unreliable transmission means between the rotating and stationary parts of the apparatus. According to the invention light rays (S and S'), come from two separate source-receiver pairs (2.sub.1,9.sub.1, and 2.sub.2 and 9.sub.2) each pair having a ray source and a ray receiver which are fixed in a reference system (X,Y and M) in which the shaft or shafts rotate. As a result it is possible to dispense with complex and unreliable transmitting means for the signals from …