Maintenance-free bearings in drone hangars

Gas pipelines can be damaged by a variety of scenarios such as construction activities, vegetation or landslides. For this reason, regular visual inspections must be carried out. Helicopters, which are usually used for this purpose, are extremely expensive and often cause a lot of noise pollution for local residents.
exabotix offers an alternative: Since 2012, the provider has been realising drone solutions that are also used by operators of gas pipelines. The HD 4-1100 drone developed for this purpose flies over the pipelines fully automatically thanks to intelligent GPS software, inspects them and reports any abnormalities in the landscape so that countermeasures can be taken if necessary. As pipelines are often several hundred kilometres long, a large number of drones have to be used for this job, sharing the route between them. In order to position each drone in the right place before the inspection flight, exabotix sets up drone hangars at regular intervals along the route. When a start command is given from the control centre, the roller shutters open and a platform with the drone on it moves out. On landing, the drone finally touches down again on the extended platform, where it immediately recharges the battery when it touches the landing surface thanks to built-in contacts in the feet.
The design of these drone garages had to be as robust and maintenance-free as possible in order to avoid expensive maintenance work at the remote hangar locations. A corrosion-free and lubricant-free system had to be found, especially for the 4.5 metre long rails on which the take-off and landing platform slides out into the open.

For the hangars, the engineers opted for products from the drylin W series - linear rails made of aluminium and carriages made of zinc die-casting - on which the platforms are now mounted.
The drylin W guide system offers several decisive advantages that led to this choice. For example, the cost-effective linear bearing is virtually maintenance-free. It owes this specification to the high-performance plastic iglidur J used in the pillow block of the carriage, which allows for low-friction and maintenance-free dry operation thanks to integrated solid lubricant - without a single drop of lubricating oil. This also greatly reduces maintenance costs that would result from the time-consuming travelling of technicians alone. As the bearing technology is self-cleaning, no cleaning work is necessary. The carriage bearings slide on the linear rails instead of rolling, so they push the dirt along in front of them until it eventually falls off the rails. The hardened, anodised aluminium rails are extremely temperature-resistant (-20 to +40°C), and UV radiation and moisture are no problem for them, either. The plain bearings in the carriages also offer low moisture absorption (just 0.3%).
The drone hangar and similar solutions have already helped exabotix grow rapidly. It now has 30 employees, and that number is rising. The company also has plans for the future. For instance, it is currently considering enlarging the hangar. This would result in a container that package delivery companies could load with five drones to deliver packages in rural areas.