The future of Fluid Inspection on Industrial Applications: an Autonomous Micro Colorimeter Sensor for fluidics

The work to be presented is focused in the design, development and fabrication of an Autonomous Micro Colorimeter Sensor for fluidics inspection in Industrial Applications. 

The system is based on the integration of different off-the-self components as the LED emitter, (IR)RGB receiver, mechanical housing structure, optics and the electronic readout and algorithmic system. The measurement is taken from the transmitted light bean across the fluid under inspection.

The design has been driven by low cost, micro size and reliability constraints. Additionally, the statements of IEEE Std 1451 technical standard has been partially followed. Therefore, autonomous operation of the sensor has been targeted, offering factory self calibration (automatic digital trimming to compensate the opto-mechanical fabrication drift) and temperature compensation (range 0º-80ºC) functions towards offering fully operational measurements trough a digital interface (Modbus RTU).

The system is currently at the commercial pre-series stage, where, among others, the repeatability over the fabrication batch and the impact of the self-calibration and system assembly time are being validated. The current applications range from, industrial lubricated machinery, hydraulic systems, compressors and turbine lubricant monitoring to battery acid inspection.