Elevator Rope Optical Inspection for Wear and Wire Break Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing elevator rope inspection technologies fail to accurately measure wear and breakage without relying on pre-existing texture information, and they do not provide real-time warnings for potential wire breaks.
Innovation Solution
A non-contact method using a camera to capture images of elevator ropes, applying binarization and labeling processes to detect wear and measure distances between labels, issuing warnings when the distance is below a threshold to indicate a wire break.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional inspection methods are used, then the system is simple to operate, but measurement precision of wear and breakage is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical contact-based inspection methods with a non-contact optical inspection system using cameras and image processing. This substitution enables precise measurement of wear and breakage without physical contact, resolving the contradiction by achieving high measurement precision through optical fields rather than mechanical means.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates digital copies of the rope surface through high-resolution imaging, then analyzes wear and breakage patterns from these copies. This allows precise measurement without directly manipulating the physical rope, maintaining measurement accuracy while simplifying the inspection process.
2Measurement precision
If non-contact inspection is implemented, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses cameras to create visual copies of the rope surface, capturing wear and breakage patterns without physical contact. This copying approach enables high-precision breakage detection while keeping the device relatively simple by using standard imaging technology rather than complex measurement apparatus.
Solution Approach 2:
The image processing system automatically analyzes captured images to detect wear and breakage, eliminating the need for manual inspection. This self-service capability maintains high detection precision while reducing operational complexity, as the system performs measurements autonomously without requiring complex manual procedures.
3Reliability
If continuous monitoring is implemented, then safety improves through timely warnings, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic image capture and analysis at predetermined intervals rather than continuous monitoring. This periodic action maintains safety reliability by regularly detecting wear and breakage, while reducing energy consumption by keeping the system dormant between inspection cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback through warnings when wear or breakage exceeds predetermined thresholds. This feedback mechanism ensures safety by alerting operators to critical conditions, while energy consumption remains low as the system only activates for analysis when needed, rather than requiring continuous high-energy operation.
Data Source
AI summary
An elevator-rope inspection device comprising a camera for capturing images of the elevator rope R, and an image-processing unit for processing a captured image outputted by the camera, wherein the image-processing unit detects a location of wear by implementing binarization on the captured images, and a labeling process that assigns a label to the location of wear, measures a distance between labels 1, 2, and 3 assigned by the labeling process, and when that distance is less than a fixed value, it judges that the area between labels is a wire break, so texture information of the elevator rope is unnecessary in advance.