Sensing position and speed by recording magnetization transitions on mechanically functional machine members (abstract)
Authors: Garshelis I. J. 
Published: July 2002

Conventional means of sensing position and speed of moving machine members for control purposes typically requires the use of supplementary, ad hoc devices. Many mechanically functional moving machine members are fabricated from ferromagnetic steels and may, thus, provide an opportunity to themselves carry positionally relevant information in the form of local regions of deliberately instilled remanent magnetization, Mr. To avoid ambiguities associated with the imprecise borders of such regions as well as their possibly preexisting presence, information is more reliably carried in the form of local transitions in the polarity of Mr from a quiescent bias. The presence and physical location of such transitions relative to reference features either on the member itself or on other members undergoing correlated motion constitutes stored information. The presence of a transition is signaled by the transitory appearance of the external field associated with ∇⋅Mr as the transition containing region passes by a magnetic-field detecting device fixed to the machine frame. Implanting and removing transitions from parts while in motion is readily accomplished by pulsed currents and biasing magnets. While the whole process of storing, reading, and erasing bits of information in magnetic form follows the concepts and principles of conventional magnetic recording, profoundly different quantitative factors, conditions, and performance requirements affect the implementation of the described sensing system. In particular, the coercivity, Hc, of commonly used steels is 3–30 Oe versus 300–1200 Oe in recording media and both the thickness of the media and the air gaps separating the media surface from the heads used in conventional systems are each 2–3 orders of magnitude smaller than their counterparts in the described system, where speed may also be variable down to zero. While the combined effect of these factors is to greatly diminish the attainable density of recorded information, this has only modest impact on the ability of the system to fulfill its purpose by effectively providing a dynamically adjustable “magnetic cam.” The magnetic and operational details of an experimental sensing system were explored using a “timing” belt as the mechanically functional member. The molded polyurethane belt incorporated cabled steel wires (nine cold drawn carbon steel 0.08 mm diam) wound in an 0.8 mm pitch helix around the belt circumference; 13 full turns in the 10 mm wide belt. An isolated cable showed 4πM=15 kG in a 100 Oe field, 4πMr=11.9 kG with Hc=17 Oe. The belt was driven at surface speeds from 0–10 m/s. Bias was provided by a small barium ferrite magnet, magnetic transitions were recorded by current pulses through a coil wound on a gapped core and detected by a Hall-effect field sensor located at a fixed distance downstream. Fields of ±10 Oe with gradients &gt;1 Oe/mm were detected at distances of 1.5 mm from the belt surface. Speed was determined from the elapsed time between a recording pulse and its detection.