Sodar measures wind speeds up to 700m up

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Excerpt: The 2000 series SoDARs are intended as high-altitude sensors. These use three parabolic dishes in three separate enclosures. The 2000 series can operate in lower power consumption mode, pulsing each antenna at different time intervals. Or, they can be configured to sample all three beams simulta …

Large aperture design makes it easy to monitor circuit to 1,200A

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Excerpt: The DT Series Large Aperture Current Transducers combines a hall effect sensor and signal conditioner into a single package for use in dc-current applications up to 1,200 amps. Factory calibrated ranges simplify operation and eliminate zero and span pots. Industry standard 4 to 20 mA, 0 to 5 Vdc …

Sensors 101

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Excerpt: Wind farms run on sensors. They make condition monitoring and SCADA systems possible. Without sensors, no system can be controlled. One pearl of wisdom often dropped by control engineers says that a control is only as good as what it measures, and an event cannot be controlled if it cannot be measur …

Wind lidar equipment ready for U.S. wind projects

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Excerpt: ZephIR 300 wind lidar, remote sensing for U.S. wind energy market, will be available in the U.S. through Campbell Scientific. The wind sensor is said to provide accurate wind data across all stages of a wind farm project. Manufactured by Zephir Ltd. of the UK, a subsidiary of renewable energy gr …

Catalog helps select the right sensor

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Excerpt: Pepperl+Fuchs has introduced edition 1.0 of the company’s North American Sensor Catalog and Selection Guide. This nearly 1,200-page resource details the company’s family of capacitive, inductive, weld immune, special application, NAMUR, ultrasonic, and photoelectric sensors. It also details …

Hollow-shaft version of magnetic rotary encoder

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Excerpt: The Magnetocode (MCD) absolute rotary encoders feature reliability, accuracy, and adaptability. Now, a new hollow-shaft version of the MCD encoder makes it easy to mount these devices on shafts up to 20-mm dia. The recent devices are available with analog (voltage/current) or digital electrical …

Hall effect series with 4 to 20mA output

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Excerpt: The continuous shortage of Hall Effect sensors is trouble for manufacturers. But Premo’s family of Hall effect sensors have an output current with a fixed range of 4 to 20mA. The new series provides a linearity <0.5% with a ±1% accuracy levels. The bandwidth is up to 6kHz with a response time …

Magnetic-tape encoder mounts to large shafts for speed and position monitoring

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Excerpt: For speed and position monitoring on large diameter shafts, manufacturer Baumer introduces the HDMag line of high-precision, bearing-less, and contact-free magnetic tape encoders. Replacing expensive and complicated specialized solutions that require belts, gears, couplings, and linkages, the HDMag …

Rotor blade “fingerprint” prevents false alarms – a case history

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Excerpt: Hoarfrost, ice, and storms are frequent winter events in the Sternwald Forest at a thousand meters above mean sea level and on the border between Austria and the Czech Republic. Despite this, seven wind turbines faithfully work there without unnecessary downtime. Credit for this success goes …

Pressure sensors critical for accurate O&M of wind turbines

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Excerpt: Because of the remote location of many wind turbines, sensors serve as critical components in their operation, maintenance, and safety. Pressure sensors monitor yaw brake, lubrication oil, cooling circuit pressure, and level in gear boxes. Differential-pressure sensors monitor filter conditions. …