VibraSens, manufacturer of industrial  vibration monitoring instrumentation, announces accelerometers with an M12 connector designed for predictive maintenance vibration monitoring.

Model 101.51: Top exit sensor with M12 connector. Datasheet 
Model 103.02: Side exit sensor with M12 connector. Datasheet
Item Code used for M12 will be Model Number- Frequency Code- Connector type
Example: 101.51-XX-2 for M12 connectors.

About VibraSens
With a wide range of products from industrial piezoelectric accelerometers, vibration sensors, vibration transmitters, signal conditioners to junction boxes, low noise cable assemblies, connectors, accessories and calibration equipment,  VibraSens , an European company, is one of the best designer and manufacturer of Vibration instrumentation with a glorious track record of over a decade especially in harsh and high temperature environment (500°C, 700°C or even more). Our competitive edge lies in the product innovation, competitive price and superior quality. 

A modern production facility exclusively engaged in the design and manufacture of piezoelectric vibration transducers, piezoelectric pressure sensor and vibration instrumentations help us to maintain a high quality level in our core business. Our manufacturing and test equipment ranges from basic precision machinery for providing high quality sensor components, to custom-built machinery specifically designed for piezoelectric vibration sensor fabrication. During the years of development we have also built some specifically design systems to test our range of piezoelectric accelerometer. We have developed using ®Labview (National Instrument Trademark) a completely automated shaker test system to check the sensitivity and frequency response (up to 10 kHz) of our piezoelectric vibration sensors. Our controlled process includes laser and microplasma welding, helium leak tester, resistance welding, temperature cycling, high temperature brazing. All those processes and others are strictly controlled by our process specification document. We closely work with one of the best European company specialized in the manufacturing of hybrid circuit for the sensor industry. With this partnership, we are sure to stay ahead of this technology for the years to come. 

Customer satisfaction is VibraSens’s prime objective. Service and dedication towards customers, has earned the company its distinguished clientele & distributors from various industries such as Power generation (Gas turbine, Steam turbine, Wind turbine, Hydro generator), Petrochemical & Pipeline industry, Metals & Mining, Pulp and paper, Waste water treatment, etc. VibraSens has products to cater all the industrial needs of their clients. 
For more details please visit: http://vibrasens.com/ 

Machine Condition Monitoring Market

Machine health monitoring is a process of supervising the machinery to identify considerable changes that indicates a fault. The use of machine health monitoring system allows timing for maintenance to be scheduled in a manner that prevents the failure of system and thus avoid its consequences. Machine health monitoring system benefits machinery by identifying the fault before it develops into a major failure. The growing importance of asset management and manufacturer’s drive to optimize productivity and increase efficiency of plant is driving the demand for machine health monitoring equipment market.

Additionally, increasing emphasis on asset utilization and the rising need for elimination of possible machine breakdowns which may lead to redundant maintenance costs has led to an increased adoption of this technology. This technique is generally used on rotating equipments and other machinery such as electric motors, pumps, presses and internal combustion engines. Manufacturing processes, such as breweries and oil refineries, employ monitoring systems, to measure critical parameters. This system makes use of sensors for the purpose of monitoring the machines. SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), is used to analyze information and provide data.

This system is used to monitor current and historical performance of equipments. Machine health monitoring facilitates prediction of machine failure which minimizes production losses, by planning corrective activities beforehand. This technique is primarily aimed towards reducing cot and repair time and is considered to be an efficient strategy in the manufacturing industry. Machine health monitoring involves strategic tools which help in decision making processes.

Various products of machine health monitoring systems are corrosion monitoring equipments, thermograph equipments, lubricating oil examination equipments, ultrasound emission equipments and vibration monitoring equipments. These products make use of various components such as spectrometer, corrosion probes, spectrum analyzer, ultrasonic detector, thermal camera and vibration sensor. The rising need for a system to decrease the risk of unforeseen machine failures and implementation of planned preventative maintenance techniques has increased the demand for machine health monitoring system Obtaining a return on investment from the installment of machine health monitoring system, and irregular maintenance cycles which may require certain modifications in existing machinery to fit the new systems are some of the factors that are constraining the growth of the market. Smart sensors development, vibration sensor machinery and development of Internet of Things (IoT) for machine health monitoring are some the current trends in this industry that are likely to drive the market during the forecast period.

Currently, North America accounts for the largest market share. The growth is mainly driven by the technological advancements in the industrial processing which in-turn have increased the adoption of machine health monitoring systems in this region. However, with growing manufacturing bases of the major market players in automotive, semi-conductor and consumer electronics sectors, Asia-Pacific is expected to be the key contributor for the market growth among all the geographic regions in near future

A Housing Project in Scotland Launches IoT Pilot Focused on Energy Use, Safety

The project is billed as a "smart neighborhood" technology test and will monitor energy use inside apartments, as well as the buildings' water and safety systems.

A handful of technology providers teamed with a Scottish housing provider, River Clyde Homes, last month to launch a pilot project for evaluating the use of IoT technology to reduce energy consumption and improve safety at a social housing project that comprises a small neighborhood called Broomhill.
Social housing programs provide homes to residents with low income or disabilities, as well as to the elderly or other individuals who have difficulty finding affordable dwellings. It is similar in some ways to public housing in the United States. Generally, social housing landlords are nonprofit organizations that funnel profits into maintaining existing homes and financing new ones. Social housing complexes are financially regulated by housing authorities, such as the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) in England and the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) in Scotland, and partially financially funded by their respective national governments.

Broomhill, which is made up of 666 units, including townhouses, multi- story apartment buildings and three high-rise buildings, is located in Greenock, a town of 45,000 residents, northwest of Glasgow. River Clyde Homes is hoping the Broomhill IoT pilot project will provide a means for it to more easily monitor the community's energy use and safety systems. If it does, the nonprofit may deploy the technology permanently and expand it to more of the 6,000 properties it manages.

Approximately 300 multi-functional IoT devices that are being installed in both occupied and unoccupied dwellings at Broomhill to monitor a wide range of things are used in this project.

Vibration, temperature and humidity sensors are being installed inside elevators with the goal of helping River Clyde Homes better understand their usage patterns and improve their maintenance in order to avoid breakdowns, since both residents and contractors (who are performing work on unoccupied apartments or communal areas regularly) rely on the elevators. Elevator maintenance is a major cost issue for the landlord.
Temperature sensors are being added to communal water tanks in order to ensure the water is stored at safe temperatures—this is being done in an effort to prevent the growth of Legionella bacteria in the water, says Sharon Fleming, a lead associate consultant for business intelligence software provider HouseMark and the architect of the pilot project. Older people and those with respiratory disorders are especially vulnerable to contacting Legionnaires’ disease, so landlords such as River Clyde Homes are concerned about outbreaks.

Positional sensors on communal fire doors will alert staff if the doors have been left ajar for long periods of time.

Inside an unoccupied building, the sensors are being evaluated for public safety uses. "Unoccupied apartments, particularly in the low-rise dwellings are hot-spots for break-ins, [and they are sometimes used] as a route in to other dwellings," says Fleming. The empty units are sometimes vandalized, as well. Motion sensors and ambient noise sensors are being placed strategically in an unoccupied building at Broomhill and will be combined with video surveillance, says Fleming.

Sensors tracking temperature and humidity inside living units could help River Clyde Homes ensure that residents are not keeping their homes too cool or warm, and at a safe humidity level. Fleming says this information could be used to make sure not only that residents are not wasting energy but also that those with disabilities or respiratory illnesses, and the aged, are in a comfortable and healthy living environment.
High-rise social housing dwellings have restrictors on windows that prevent them from being opened fully, as a safety measure. In the past, children have died after falling out of windows with broken or compromised restrictors. Sensors will be placed on select windows at Broomhill to alert staff if the window is opened farther than a functioning restrictor would allow.

Carbon monoxide sensors with integrated cellular modems will also be tested in the pilot. If they detect dangerous CO levels, River Clyde Homes maintenance staff will receive SMS alerts on their mobile phones. Each detector also runs diagnostic tests each week and triggers alerts via SMS if the device is not functioning properly or its battery is low.

With the exception of the CO sensor, all of the sensor modules contain Sigfox radios. Sigfox is a networking provider that has developed a protocol for transmitting small packets of data over sub-GHz frequencies, on ISM bands (868 MHz in Europe and 902 MHz in the US) using ultra-narrow band (UNB) modulation. The data from the sensors is transmitted to a Sigfox base station, which has been installed on the roof of one of the high-rise blocks in the Broomhill neighborhood. The radios have a range of around 2.5 miles in urban environments. From the base station, the data will be transmitted across the Sigfox network in Greenock, which was deployed through a partnership with British telecommunications firm Arqiva.

IoT platform provider Flexeye is working with HouseMark to deliver the analytics, dashboards, visualization and reporting tools that are being used to collect and manage the sensor data.

Flexeye is also the leader of a consortium of companies developing Hypercat, a specification designed to support interoperability between Internet of Things services and applications. Hypercat has established a common language for resources—using a format called uniform resource identifiers (URI)—that are referenced in multiple systems that may have dissimilar data structures, but which all use the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Hypercat employs the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data interchange format and RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs). The data collected through this pilot project will be shared among the stakeholders using the Hypercat format.

Fleming says that all 300 sensors should be installed by the end of this month, and the pilot project will then run for six months, after which River Clyde Homes will decide whether to keep the sensor network deployed or remove it. She adds that if the River Clyde Homes decides to keep the network in place or expand its use to other properties, it will need to work with the technology vendors to establish some sort of payment arrangement, such as a subscription service.

Aside from monitoring the reliability and safety of different physical assets such as elevators, doors and windows, Fleming says that River Clyde Homes hopes the IoT project will enable it "to identify opportunities to improve services for its tenants as well as to reduce costs through proactive maintenance of buildings and equipment." The data may eventually be shared with insurance providers, as well, and be used to negotiate premiums.

Where the often quoted ISO 10861-21 falls short for CMS

There is dire need for the system certification of condition monitoring, mostly because current CMS vendors offer at least nine different approaches for basic sensor selection and placement. This confusion originally prompted the call for a certification for owners to assist in the selection of a viable CMS for wind.

After speaking at recently NREL and UVIG events, I was asked if there was a certification for CMS systems in the wind industry. The answer is yes…and no. To investigate further, we will go through the available standards for CMS in wind to find what is helpful.

The standard for vibration in wind turbines is listed as ISO 10816-21. This ISO standard states it “does not apply to diagnostics or fault detection.” It also states that the vibration “evaluation zone boundary values are not intended for use as acceptance values. These must be agreed upon between the manufacturer and user.” So how does the standard help?

To be clear, if you adhere to ISO 10816-21, there is no guarantee you will have a successful CMS program. Also note that the standard applies to a rather wide range of wind turbines, from 200 kw up to 3-MW ratings.

So, what does the standard suggest regarding monitoring? It suggests the use of piezoelectric accelerometers and separates equipment into rotating and non-rotating components.

For rotating components, the standard suggests:

Sensor placement – For rotating components (drive train is a given), it advises the use of sensors in three axis across the drive train. This is not standard for many reasons. Using accelerometers in three axes is not beneficial in determining a failure component. A single sensor can work except when determining some defects. However, as this standard states, its purpose is not intended to measure specific defects.

The main bearing – Three-axis measurements are recommended but not demodulated readings for detecting early bearing defects, nor time waveform measurements. The standard makes no suggestion for the number of lines-of-resolution in the spectrum, averaging, or overlap.

Gearbox – Three-axis measurements again but no demodulated reading for early bearing defect detection nor time waveform measurements. No suggestion for lines-of-resolution in the spectrum, averaging or overlap.

Generator – Three-axis measurements yet no demodulated reading for early bearing defect detection nor time waveform measurements. No suggestion for lines-of-resolution in the spectrum, averaging or overlap.

Number of sensors

It is not practical to use the suggested 17 sensors across the drive train. Typically, most commercial CMS systems use 7 to 8 sensors. Seventeen of them are cost prohibitive. They will also generate too much data. Consider that 7 to 8 sensors installed on 100 towers will produce an annual data volume is in excess of two-million measurements based upon once-a-day intervals.

Using three sensors on a generator bearing to find a bad bearing within is simply not practical. Installation costs go up, data volume increases, hardware costs double, and network load increases as well to get the data out. So this portion of the specification is simply not practical.

On Non-rotating equipment:

Sensor placement – The standard suggests three axes in two locations to monitor the bedplate of the tower for structural purposes. This is more for a process and controls purpose than a condition-monitoring function. Most bedplate monitoring I have been involved with is at a prototype level, certainly not at a fleet level.

Number of sensors – The standard specifies installing eight low-frequency sensors. Again, as with 17 sensors on the drive train, adding eight expensive low frequency sensors is not a good suggestion. It is doubtful that any owner would install eight sensors per tower to understand the vibration of the structure.

Measurement parameters – The standard suggest performing evaluations in 10-minute periods. This really requires specialized equipment. It is certainly not something that is fleet advisable. At 10 minutes per tower, the data volume would be significant, and the data storage and analysis substantial.

Vibration levels – The standard suggests measuring only acceleration and velocity. The accompanying chart (above) shows overall vibration levels in velocity measurement units.

Other standards

ISO 10816-21 standard does not give the end user guidance for acceptable vibration levels, diagnostics, or fault detection. So what can it offer the owner? It does advise as to structural vibration measurements and parameters as well as sensor types and placement. To be clear, not one CMS system commercially available today, marketed and installed, meets this standard.

However, portions of two other suggested standards might be helpful to owners. They are:

• VDI 3832, for rolling element bearing noise and vibration. This also has a wide range of application in wind turbine size. And,

• ISO 13373-2, techniques for bearing and gearbox defects analysis.

So between rotating and non-rotating components, the suggested 25 sensors per tower is literally three times the amount normally installed. Owners show pause at the current eight-accelerometer pricing per tower. Twenty-five is likely not realistic.

Here is what’s missing and crucial to a successful CMS program:

Quality of the sensors – There are at least 10 to 12 sensor factors that are not covered. Cables are not even discussed.

Ability of the software – There are no specifications on measurement parameters, measurement types, resolution, averaging, and a dozen other measurement factors.

Ability of the analyst – There currently are three companies that certify vibration analysts. It certainly makes sense to have an analyst who is certified but this is no guarantee that the person is a good analyst. Ironically, the certifying bodies that teach the theory and background of vibration analysis measurements, teach very little on actual vibration analysis.

We will discuss these important factors in a following article. We will also look at what makes sense for a standard for CMS installs to benefit the owners, ISPs, and manufacturers. 

Source: http://www.windpowerengineering.com/featured/often-quoted-iso-10861-21-falls-short-cms/