New smart screws let you know when they loosen

Have you ever replaced a wheel on your own in a car that you screwed on too weakly and you fell off on your way? I hope not, but even if you did, you would have solved the problem with the Smart Screw Connection, which was just developed at the German Fraunhofer University of Fraunhofer. Why? Because these newly developed smart screws tell themselves when they start to loosen.

Scientists have developed new smart screws that inform owners when they are starting to loosen

Electronically enriched bolt and washer – this is what makes up the new Smart Screw Connection system, which is designed to alert you if a given bolt is damaged. they catch the proverbial backlash. Currently it applies to M18 screws, but in the future there are to be M20 and M36 versions, which suggests that all hardware can be easily converted to other screw varieties. On the other hand, the example of the wheel was used a bit exaggerated above, because the plan now includes the use of these bolts in key structures (road infrastructure, power plants).

This remote monitoring system allows us, for the first time, at all times, even remotely, to control the stability of a safety-critical infrastructure and to properly inspect every single bolt. This is a huge advantage from a security point of view. When inspecting a bridge or wind turbine, no engineer has to be on site to check each bolt separately as all data is transmitted via radio to the service station

Project manager Dr. Peter Spies said.

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In practice, however, the shim contains a pressure sensor made of a thin piezoresistive film called DiaForce. When the bolt is initially tightened, the foil registers the preload force at three different points. If this force changes at any of these points – due to loosening of the screw – the electrical resistance of the film will change, which is detected by the radio module in the screw, which then transmits an encrypted warning signal to a nearby base station. In the current prototype version of the system, all the energy needed for the team’s operation is generated by an integrated thermoelectric generator.