Cable Protection Tube with Embedded Sensor
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cable protection pipes face challenges in integrating sensors and information carriers that can monitor various properties and functions of the pipe without altering its mechanical properties or requiring complex manufacturing processes, and existing solutions often result in pipes that no longer meet standards or are limited in data storage and application versatility.
Innovation Solution
A cable protection pipe with sensors and information carriers integrated into the pipe wall during manufacturing, using plastics engineering processes like extrusion and coextrusion, allowing for continuous production without protrusions or cavities, enabling the pipe to maintain mechanical properties and store data on pipe conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sensors and information carriers are integrated into the pipe wall using conventional methods (embedding, gluing, inserting), then the pipe can monitor its properties and functions, but the manufacturing process becomes complex and expensive, and the pipe may no longer meet approval standards
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor and information carrier are merged with the pipe wall itself, forming an integrated structure where the sensor is embedded within the wall thickness and the information carrier is incorporated during the extrusion process. This eliminates separate manufacturing steps for attaching sensors and reduces the pipe to a unified component that meets approval standards.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor and information carrier are integrated into the pipe wall during the extrusion process itself, before the pipe is completed. This preliminary integration avoids subsequent complex assembly steps and ensures the pipe maintains its structural integrity and meets approval criteria from the outset.
2Reliability
If sensors are embedded in the pipe wall using subsequent methods (gluing, inserting into cavities), then the pipe can detect faults, but the mechanical properties and appearance of the pipe are altered
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor is integrated into the pipe wall during the extrusion process, before the pipe is completed. This ensures the sensor becomes part of the pipe's structural integrity rather than being attached afterward, which would compromise mechanical properties. The sensor is positioned within the wall thickness without creating weak points or altering the pipe's appearance.
3Reliability
If complex multi-layer structures with aluminum foil and plastic layers are used to integrate sensors, then the pipe can monitor moisture and leaks, but the production becomes very complex and expensive with many work steps
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple monitoring functions (moisture detection, leak detection, temperature sensing) are merged into a single integrated sensor system embedded within the pipe wall. This eliminates the need for separate aluminum foil layers, multiple plastic layers, and numerous work steps, while maintaining all monitoring capabilities in a streamlined production process.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated sensor system performs multiple functions simultaneously - detecting moisture, leaks, and temperature - within a single component embedded in the pipe wall. This multi-functionality replaces complex multi-layer structures with separate monitoring systems, simplifying production while maintaining comprehensive monitoring capability.
4Reliability
If sensors are attached to the outside or inside of the pipe wall, then the pipe can be monitored, but additional protective covering agents are required and the pipe structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor is merged with the pipe wall structure itself, eliminating the need for separate protective covering agents. The sensor is embedded within the wall thickness and protected by the pipe wall itself, rather than requiring additional protective layers or complex attachment structures.
Data Source
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AI summary
The cable protective tube comprises a semiconductor sensor (1a) and/or information carrier that is suitable for detecting measuring variable relevant for a capacity/function of tubes and that is integrated into the tube wall by a plastic-technical forming process during the production of the tubes. The sensor or information carrier consists of microchip or exists in a form of a microchip for storing data, which concerns for a characteristics of the tube, for the proper functioning of the tube or cable laid in the tube or cable line relevant measured variables. The cable protective tube comprises a semiconductor sensor (1a) and/or information carrier that is suitable for detecting measuring variable relevant for a capacity/function of tubes and that is integrated into the tube wall by a plastic-technical forming process during the production of the tubes. The sensor or information carrier consists of micro chip or exists in a form of a microchip for storing data, which concerns for a characteristics of the tube, for the proper functioning of the tube or cable laid in the tube or cable line relevant measured variables, or also data for relocation and installation, characterization and identification of cables laid in the cable line or for their maintenance relevant data. The sensor/information carrier is intended to detect or store a physical variable concerning a cable laid in this cable protective tube or a cable line laid in this. The sensor is suitable to detect a wavelength of light or other electromagnetic waves, which are guided by the cable or the cable line. The cable is made up of glass fibers, synthetic fibers, mineral polymer fibers or metals as conducting or transferring media. The sensor is worked in the production of the tubes into the non-plastic of the tube wall before its cooling. The tube is produced by an extruding and the sensor at the same time is extruded into the tube wall. The sensor is brought into the tube wall, so that it does not protrude out the tube wall outer radially and/or does not protrude over inner radially into the light cross-section of the tube. The tube is manufactured as endless tube in continuous manufacturing. The sensor or information carriers are arranged with distance to each other along a metrically fixed chain on a spiral line around the longitudinal axis of the tube in the tube wall. The sensors detect the strength of a signal guided in the cable or cable line or the amplitude of the cable or an electromagnetic wave led into the cable or the line. The sensor is provided to examine or to monitor the function or a property of the cable or the line. The sensor is equipped with means, which enables the precise discrimination orientation of this sensor by means of a satellite monitor. The sensor/information carrier comprises a small-dimensioned chip selected from chip scale packages (CSP), ball grid array (BGA), flip chip, memory chip or the like. The information stored in the sensor/information carrier is enquired by means of electro magnetic waves, magnetic induction or ultrasonic. The tube consists a jacket tube, which takes up a majority of interior tubes assigned by individual cables or groups of cables. The jacket tube has a round outline and takes up variable number of inner tubes, which are relocatable in the jacket tube in an axial direction.