DEVICE FOR DETECTING THE TWIST ANGLE OF A SHAFT AND/OR A TORQUE OCCURRING ON THE SHAFT AND METHODS FOR OPERATING THE DEVICE

A device for detecting a twist angle (dw) and/or a torque (Md) of a shaft (10) occurring on the shaft (10) and methods for operating the device are proposed. The procedure is distinguished in that at least one first encoder (G1) is associated with the shaft (10), which influences at least one coil parameter, at least one first inductive sensor (S1, S1 sin, S1 cos, S1a sin, S1a cos, S1b sin, S1b cos) is provided for scanning the first encoder (G1), the at least one first encoder (G1) is associated with at least a part of the circumference of the shaft (10), the at least one first encoder (G1) has at least one track (18, 18a, 18b) having at least one period (32, 32a, 32b, 32-1a, 32-1b) per revolution of the shaft (10), and the at least one first inductive sensor (S1, S1 sin, S1 cos, S1a sin, S1a cos, S1b sin, S1b cos) provides a sensor signal (SW1, SW1 sin, SW1 cos, SW1a sin, SW1a cos, SW1b sin, SW1b cos), which reflects at least one measure for the rotational angle (w1) of the shaft (10) within the period (32, 32a, 32b, 32-1a, 32-1b), a second encoder (G2), which is also associated with at least a part of the circumference of the shaft (10), and which also influences at least one coil parameter, is provided at a predefined spacing (L) to the first encoder (G1), at least one inductive sensor (S2, S2 sin, S2 cos, S2a sin, S2a cos, S2b sin, S2b cos) is provided for scanning the at least one second encoder (G2), the at least one second encoder (G2) also has at least one track (19, 19a, 19b) having at least one period (32-2a, 32-2b) per revolution of the shaft (10), the second inductive sensor (S2, S2 sin, S2 cos, S2a sin, S2a cos, S2b sin, S2b cos) also provides a sensor signal (SW2, SW2 sin, SW2 cos, SW2a sin, SW2a cos, SW2b sin, SW2b cos), which reflects at least one measure for the rotational angle (w2) of the shaft (10) within the period (32-2a, 32-2b), and a difference ascertainment unit (22) is provided, which ascertains and provides the twist angle (dw) of the shaft (10) as an angle difference of the two rotational angles (w1, w2) detected by the inductive sensors (S1, S1 sin, S1 cos, S1a sin, S1a cos, S1b sin, S1b cos, S2 sin, S2 cos, S2a sin, S2a cos, S2b sin, S2b cos). The procedures according to the invention allow, in addition to the ascertainment of the twist angle (w1, w2) of the shaft (10), in particular the ascertainment of the torque (Md) occurring on the shaft (10) on the basis of an angle difference (w2−w1), which corresponds to the twist ang