Cable fatigue monitor and method thereof

Abstract

A monitor for determining the operation condition of at least one cable that suffers bending and/or twisting and constitutes an electrical loop and a method thereof are provided. The monitor comprises a test electrical signal generator (5) for generating an identifiable test electrical signal and injecting the test electrical signal into the first point of the at least one cable, a test electrical signal filter (7) adapting to extract the injected test electrical signal from the second point of the at least one cable, and a comparator (8) for comparing a predetermined threshold with the difference between the electrical state of the injected test electrical signal and the extracted test electrical signal and producing a warning signal indicating cable fatigue when the difference exceeds the predetermined threshold. It provides the advantages as follows: it only monitors the electric performance, not the mechanical performance of a cable; it monitors the cable itself rather than a monitor material; it is applicable to all kinds of cables, including but not limited to a large-current cable; it does not introduce new cables; it is an on-line monitoring, i.e. the electro-mechanical system needs no pause for monitoring its cable fatigue.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.