Current Sensing

Our customer, a leading supplier of shearing equipment, found an inherent health & safety issue with their sheep shearing units. It was found that when the shearing blades became blocked with excess wool, the blades stopped cutting but the motor continued to run, when the blockage was cleared, the blades immediately began to cut again. This presented a serious problem as the operator was required to manually isolate the unit in order make it safe. This was an unacceptable situation and presented a risk for serious injury.

SST performed significant analysis into the conditions present during normal operation and how these differentiated from the conditions during blockage. It was identified that there were two clear conditions which occurred during a blockage, we performed trials using a variety of technologies including Optical, Hall Effect, Current and Magneto-resistive. The final solution provided fail-safe unit to protect the user and a very cost effective solution for the customer. Additionally we spent time with the customer to make sure our solution was designed to fit in with their existing manufacturing process.