Open Cut » Maintenance & Equipment
The SHAFTEST system utilizes a novel approach for the collection and presentation of ultrasonic shaft defect information, by which the normally complex task of monitoring the condition of large shafts and pins is simplified. The collection and recording of results are more accurate and reproducible, and the subjectivity of individual operators in the analysis of results is reduced. SHAFTEST has been in use for a number of years and has evolved into world leading technology for shaft condition monitoring.
Despite the advances made to date with SHAFTEST , there is still a real risk of failing to identify cracking due to the inherent limitations of ultrasonic technology. This project aimed to further increase the predictability of shaft condition monitoring by adding advanced features to the SHAFTEST system that assist the operator in identifying defects.
At the conclusion of this project the following functionality was successfully developed:
- A feature to build a 3 dimensional model of the shaft and then visualize the defect information within the model.
- An Artificial intelligence discriminator that distinguishes real defects and suppresses misleading artefacts.
- A tool that automatically identifies changes in shaft condition in comparison to prior surveys.
- A tool to quantify the size of a crack based on the collected ultrasound data.
Some of this functionality has been added to the SHAFTEST product, while efforts are ongoing to commercialise the remainder of this funcationality.
An 
e-newsletter has also been published for this project, highlighting its significance for the industry.