Search Results (4)

Proper surface lubrication with optimal grease thickness is essential for extending steel wire rope service life. To achieve automated lubrication quality control and address challenges like variable lighting and motion blur that degrade recognition accuracy in practical settings, this paper proposes an improved lightweight GEMR-MobileViT. The model is designed to identify the grease thickness on steel wire rope surfaces while mitigating the high parameters and computational complexity of existing models. In this model, part of the standard convolution is replaced by GhostConv, a novel efficient multi-scale attention (EMA) module is introduced into the local expression part of the MobileViT block, and the structure of residual connections within the MobileViT block is designed. A transfer learning method is then employed. A custom dataset of steel wire rope lubrication images was constructed for model training. The experimental results demonstrated that GEMR-MobileViT achieved a recognition accuracy of 96.63% across five grease thickness categories, with 4.19 M params and 1.31 GFLOPs computational complexity. Compared to the pre-improvement version, recognition accuracy improved by 4.4%, while its parameters and computational complexity were reduced by 15.2% and 10.3%, respectively. When compared with current mainstream classification models such as ConvNeXtV2, EfficientNetV2, EdgeNeXt, NextViT, and MobileNetV4, our GEMR-MobileViT achieved superior recognition accuracy and demonstrated significant advantages in its model parameters, striking a good balance between recognition precision and model size. The proposed model facilitates deployment in steel wire rope lubrication working sites, enabling the real-time monitoring of surface grease thickness, thereby offering a novel approach for automating steel wire rope maintenance. Full article

This study presents an on-line intelligent lubrication system utilizing specialty grease to address lubricant loss and uneven coating issues in traditional methods. Characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), the specialty grease demonstrates superior tribological performance, achieving a 46.7% reduction in the average friction coefficient and 33.3% smaller wear scar diameter under a 392 N load compared to conventional lubricants. The system features an automatic control vehicle design integrating heating, grease supply, lubrication-scraping mechanisms, and a dual closed-loop intelligent control system combining PID-based temperature regulation with machine vision. Experiments identified 50 °C as the optimal heating temperature. Kinematic modeling and grease consumption analysis guided greasing parameters optimization, validated through simulations and practical tests. Evaluated on a 20 m long, 36.5 mm diameter wire rope, the system achieved full coverage within 60 s, forming a uniform lubricant layer of 0.3–1.0 mm thickness (±0.15 mm deviation). It realizes the innovative application of high-adhesion lubricating grease, adaptive process control, and real-time thickness feedback technology, significantly improving the lubrication effect, reducing maintenance costs, and extending the lifespan of the wire rope. This provides intelligent lubrication technology support for the reliable operation of wire ropes in industrial fields. Full article

Wire rope greasing is essential for protecting wire ropes from corrosion and wear. To address issues such as low maintenance efficiency and excessive grease usage, this study proposes a high-efficiency, low-consumption optimization control method for the wire rope greasing process. A time objective function for the greasing process and a consumption objective function for grease are established. Considering the actual constraints of greasing equipment performance and greasing quality, a multi-objective optimization model is developed with greasing speed, greasing thickness, grease flow rate, and greasing time as the optimization parameters. The model aims to achieve high efficiency (minimizing greasing process time) and low consumption (minimizing grease consumption). Weight coefficients are introduced to transform the multi-objective optimization model into a single-objective optimization model, which is then solved using an improved genetic algorithm. The effectiveness of the model is validated through a specific case study, and a sensitivity analysis of the weight coefficients of the objective functions in the optimization model is conducted. This research provides valuable support for wire rope greasing process planning and improvement. Full article

This work outlines a design for a wire rope maintenance device that is based on commonly used, low-dropping point lubricating grease for wire rope lubrication and operates along the strand’s twist direction. Unlike similar existing devices, this device scrapes abrasives from the wire rope’s surface along the strand’s twist direction and applies lubricating grease in the same direction. It addresses issues related to the accumulation of old lubricating grease between strands, as well as the problems of a heavy weight, high traction force requirements, complex operation, unstable motion, potential surface damage to the wire rope, and the strong pollution found in existing products. The wheel system of this device was kinematically modeled and subjected to force analysis, and its accuracy was verified through simulations and experiments. Test results show that when this device is used for cleaning and lubricating wire ropes, it requires less than 150 N of traction force, maintains a stable speed of 0.6 m/s, and ensures coaxiality within ±0.1 mm, thus meeting the maintenance requirements of ropeway wire ropes. In future work, the effects of different factors, such as changes in scraper shape and size, lubricating grease application speed, and temperature and pressure inside the grease storage chamber can be studied to understand their influence on the application of grease to wire ropes. Full article