The Best and Brightest Enabling Technologies May
Already Be Decades Old, and Just Waiting to be Rediscovered

By Jesse Bonfeld, VP Business Development, Sherborne Sensors

"…Foul-cankering rust the hidden treasure frets,
But gold that's put to use more gold begets…"

William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis

Sensors are an integral component of any measurement and automation application in the shipping and marine industry to ensure accuracy, reliability, efficiency and communications capability. This has fuelled research and development into the sensors industry and the continued innovation in sensors technology has ensured a thriving market and a growing demand for custom solutions.

According to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, the sensors market in Europe is estimated to reach $19 billion by 2016, creating opportunities for technological advancements and ultimately new applications for sensors. 

Shipping and marine companies continue to benefit from ongoing efforts to develop innovative, new sensor technologies needed to meet the ever expanding challenges of the industry. Ultra-reliability and long-life precision sensors such as inclinometers, accelerometers and load cells are common place in a number of marine and shipping applications. Load cells for example are used to convert a force into an electrical signal and offers measurement of tension, compression and shear forces. The majority of today's designs use strain gauges as the sensing element and feature low deflection and high frequency response characteristics, which are especially beneficial for both materials testing and high‐speed load measurement applications, particularly where peak forces are being monitored. In the marine industry they are often used for hoist loads, platform retention, towing forces and mooring loads and systems.

Many common trends can be seen across the sensor marketplace and application portfolio, including the use of wireless communications technologies, improvements in the ability of sensors to operate in extreme conditions (temperature, shock, pressure, EMF, RF, radiation); bundling of capabilities to process multiple inputs and outputs on a single platform; and the development and use of novel materials to enhance sensor performance, longevity and accuracy.

Over the last few years, however, the shipping and marine industry has been under constant pressure to improve efficiency and reduce cost in the face of the worst global economic condition in decades. Consequently companies have a tremendous incentive to re-examine equipment and technologies that they already have at their disposal, and investigate ways to utilise these readily available resources to meet new application requirements. This approach, of re-examining existing patent portfolios and technologies as possible enablers or outright solutions to current and future technology development challenges is being used more and more and with significant success. Companies in the shipping and marine industry, and public entities responsible for operating and maintaining marine fleets are examining and recognising the value of existing, field proven technologies as at least a partial solution to reduced budgets, and an opportunity to cost effectively facilitate meeting near and mid-term revenue and profit goals. 

There are several advantages to this approach.  Existing technologies are already by in large developed, so available IR&D budgets can be better utilised to modify these technologies to meet specific application requirements.  In many cases some level of field test data already exists, minimising the risk and cost of proving that the basic premise of the technology actually works, and costs to validate that the technology is robust enough in its basic format to be put into the field.  There may already be familiarity with the technology itself, or the concepts behind it, amongst the user and customer base, adding greatly to their comfort level in directing and committing funds to have it further developed and ultimately put in the field. 

There are already several examples of inertial sensors supporting applications in the marine industry where field proven technologies are addressing new and more challenging applications.  Inclinometers, sometimes also known as clinometers, monitor how much a vessel is pitching or rolling while both in still water and rough weather.  If a ship lists excessively in an active wave environment then it could lead to a ship capsizing. With the help of inclinometer technology that has been in existence for many years it becomes easier to determine whether the tilting of the ship is dangerous or within the danger-free limits. The well understood accuracy, repeatability, and robust design of these existing sensors now allow owners and operators to further extend the ability to work at or near the limit of their equipment, maximising profitability, minimising downtime, and maintaining the highest possible productivity.

With depths of offshore oil wells now well beyond five miles, the attitude control of oil rigs and other offshore structures while being deployed is a very critical process, which becomes more challenging as exploration and production depths continue to increase. The leveling of these semi-submersible structures relies heavily on the tilt information obtained from existing precision inclinometer technologies, which ensure stability, control and accurate positioning with only minor modifications allowing them to operate in a very difficult and aggressive environment.

Another application for proven inclinometer technology is found in ballast transfer systems for offshore barges, ships and other marine applications. Here inclinometers check the load balancing of a vessel for both safety reasons and to ensure optimum trim, thus reducing drag and energy requirements, improving efficiency and profitability.

As the above examples demonstrate, trying to develop new technologies to address the most current application challenges is not always the most cost effective approach.  Often, existing, field proven solutions can be translated to these applications, completely intact, or with only minor modifications.  Given the current economic conditions, and global competitive environment, engineers and product managers in all industries, including marine, need to keep an open mind when contemplating novel sensor solutions to their most difficult applications.

Sherborne Sensors in profile
Sherborne Sensors is a global leader in the design, development, manufacture and supply of high precision inclinometers, accelerometers, force transducers and load cells, instrumentation and accessories for military, aerospace and industrial customers. Products offered under the Sherborne Sensors brand are renowned for their ultra reliability and long life precision within critical applications. The acquisition of synergistic technologies by Sherborne Sensors within its inclinometer, force and load cell offerings has allowed customers to benefit from expanded product lines, with the added advantage of engineering support, global sales presence, repair, refurbishment and calibration services, stocking programs and continuous product improvement.

For further information, e-mail: sales@sherbornesensors.com or view website: www.sherbornesensors.com  Refer to page 168

FDB-VDA2 variable earth leakage monitoring device
with alarm and trip for use with machinery incorporating
motors or other equipment with inherent leakage charateristics

The FDB-VDA2 is a variable earth leakage monitoring device with alarm and trip for use with machinery incorporating motors or other equipment with inherent leakage characteristics and incorporates an adjustment to compensate for this variable. It is ideal for panel builders and plant maintenance engineers and so is likely to be of interest to designers/specifiers, installers, original equipment manufacturers, service engineers and machine manufacturers.

The FDB-VDA2 has loss of supply protection when its control power is lost the VDA2 will trip on re-connection indicating a power failure has occurred. When specifying in a distribution system do not use on primary breakers other NFS relays in the FDB range should be specified.

The FDB-VDA2 incorporates an auto-reset (can be disabled) which is especially valuable for remote equipment such as telemetry seismological monitoring stations. This permits automatic restart in the event that the earth fault self-rectifies and so saves on spurious service costs. The function is as a relay, for example in the FDB12 to replace the fixed rating relay fitted as standard. The relay trips an associated circuit breaker or contactor placed in series with the trip contacts.

In operation the leakage current is monitored by an external differential current transformer, e.g. MU28 which is connected via terminals to the VDA2. All conductors to be monitored except the earth wire are run through the current transformer. In a fault free healthy circuit the sum of all the current is zero. In a fault situation current flows to earth which is detected by the current transformer and measured by the VDA2. Nominal control voltage is 24-230V AC/DC with tripping currents of 0.01A up to 10A and 0-10 Sec Time Delay.

A broken wire in the connection to the current transformer would disable this measurement enabling a protection circuit to detect this and so trip the VDA2.

The unit has two single pole changeover contacts: Terminals 11-12-14 for Trip; Terminals 21-22-24 for Alarm. Alarm is detected at 70% of the selected trip level. The VDA2 is auto-reset and the trip is not stored. By fixing an external bridge connection across terminals X1 and X2 the trip is stored and has to be reset by pressing the reset button or removing the auxiliary supply. Adjustable delay uses the same setting for both alarm and trip.

To avoid any unauthorised adjustment of the setting potentiometers the unit has a transparent cover that could allow these to be sealed with a lacquer. Holes in cover above test/reset buttons allow activation. Power on indication is by green LED and alarm/trip indication is via red LED's.

Further information on FDB Electrical products and services, view website: www.fdb.uk.com  Refer to page 162

Process monitoring system for 100% zero-defect parts quality assurance

Kistler, a worldwide supplier of precision sensors, systems and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque and acceleration, has introduced the Type 2869B0 Entry Level CoMo Injection, a four-channel process monitoring data acquisition system, designed to provide injection molders with cost-effective introductory cavity pressure monitoring for 100% zero-defect parts.

The fully modular Type 2869B0 system allows for the addition of cost-effective monitoring capabilities and functionality enhancements based on actual molder job fulfillment requirements. Supplied hardware allows for the acceptance of inputs from up to four piezoelectric cavity pressure sensors.  The system offers real-time visual display of cavity pressure curves during the actual injection molding process. Available user-selectable capabilities include monitoring functionality, digital output functionality, real-time threshold capability, and the ability to export cavity pressure information directly to Kistler CoMo DataCenter data collection software.

With its unique performance specifications, the Kistler Type 2869B0 is ideal for introductory quality assurance (QA) monitoring of cavity pressure injection molding activities within automotive, aerospace, consumer product, electronics and medical component manufacturing operations.

For additional details and specifications, please contact Kistler North America toll-free (in the US & Canada) at 1-888-KISTLER, via email at: sales.us@kistler.com or view website: www.kistler.com  Refer to page 263