Development of flexible Hall sensor array for wire rope defect inspection using magnetic flux leakage

Abstract

In recent years, various inspection techniques have been developed to ensure elevator safety. One of the important inspection items is the diagnostic technique for a main rope. The main rope breaks occur due to various factors during operation, so there is a need for technology that comprehensively detects the types of wire breaks for safety management. In this study, we developed a rope tester to diagnose wire breaks in the elevator main rope. The measurement principle used in the rope tester is the magnetic flux leakage method, which uses a Hall sensor array to detect the magnetic flux leaking from the broken wires. As a result of measuring rope samples using the developed Hall array sensor, we detected magnetic flux leaking from the valley wire breaks. This result confirmed that the trend of magnetic flux signal input to sensors was consistent with the magnetic flux distribution obtained by magnetic simulation analysis of the damaged rope.