Eaton Corporation, Eden Prairie, Minn., announced it has received R&D Magazine's R&D 100 Award for its LifeSense hose, a hydraulic hose condition monitoring system that detects failure-related events and provides advance notification so that the assembly can be replaced to prevent unplanned downtime.
Selected by an independent panel of experts from a strong field of nominations, Eaton’s LifeSense hose joins the ranks of other breakthrough technologies that have been recognized as the most technologically significant products within a given year.
“Being recognized as an R&D 100 Award winner is rewarding and a testament to the significance of LifeSense technology for our industry,” said Jeffrey Finch, Eaton senior vice president and general manager. “This development delivers an unmatched solution for a long-standing challenge that costs customers time and money. With this patented technology, they are notified when a hydraulic hose is near the end of its useful life.”
LifeSense hose is the result of an Eaton initiated, joint research project with Purdue University, to effectively address the issue of hydraulic hose failure and its related costs of unscheduled equipment downtime, environmental spills, equipment damage, and safety. The project sought to identify measurable structural phenomena associated with hose deterioration over time and develop the required technology to monitor them accurately.
The patented technology monitors hydraulic hose assemblies in real time and detects both internal fatigue and external surface abrasion failures; notifying users when a hose is approaching the end of its useful life. Notification is provided with enough time for the hose to be replaced during a normal preventive maintenance function.
“LifeSense hose can dramatically reduce the incidence of hose failures in the field and it gives our customers critical performance value by mitigating unplanned downtime and its costs,” Finch said. ”Furthermore, it virtually eliminates the wasteful practice of time-based hose replacement that yields countless feet of good hose being discarded every year.”
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