Patent ID: 7328130

Claim:
A method of tracking operational parameters of a rolling mill system including a rotatable work roll driven by a drive arrangement having multiple drive components including a shaft, the method comprising: providing a first sensor unit on a first drive component, the first sensor unit including both a sensor for generating an analog signal in response to an operating condition of the first drive component and an integrated local processor for processing the analog signal generated by the sensor, the integrated local processor having an associated timer; processing the analog signal generated by the sensor of the first sensor unit during operation of the first drive component using the integrated local processor of the first sensor unit to produce a first plurality of digital signal samples having at least one corresponding time stamp associated therewith; communicating the first plurality of digital signal samples from the first sensor unit to a remote processing unit located away from the first sensor unit; providing a second sensor unit on the shaft, the second sensor unit including both a sensor for generating an analog signal in response to an operating condition of the shaft and an integrated local processor for processing the analog signal generated by the sensor of the second sensor unit, the integrated local processor having an associated timer; processing the analog signal generated by the sensor of the second sensor unit during operation of the shaft using the integrated local processor of the second sensor unit to produce a second plurality of digital signal samples having at least one corresponding time stamp associated therewith; communicating the second plurality of digital signal samples from the second sensor unit to the remote processing unit, where the remote processing unit is located away from the second sensor unit; and substantially simultaneously resetting both the timer associated with the integrated local processor of the first sensor unit and the timer associated with the integrated local processor of the second sensor unit in order to reduce timing discrepancies between the two timers during subsequent tracking operations.