Simmonds Precision Products, Inc.

Nrg Systems, Inc.

Eric Robert Bechhoefer

John T Taylor

Michael Anthony Lynch

Mokhtar M Sadok

Robert Zeliff

Radoslaw Romuald Zakrzewski

Eric Carter

David Hochmann

Dan Hiatt

Charles Samuel Ventres

Generally, a system and method consistent with the present disclosure may provide a relatively low cost, relatively robust data acquisition and analysis system useful for condition-based maintenance. The system may be useful for condition-based maintenance in industrial applications, e.g., of equipment and/or machinery. The industrial monitoring system may be used, for example, to monitor a condition of rotating machinery, e.g., a wind turbine. The system and method may include data analysis that may be useful for anticipating a need for maintenance, repair and/or replacement of one or more components.

Data acquisition system for condition-based maintenance

Described are techniques for selecting options used with current sensor data characterizing vibration caused by rotating blades. Sets of other sensor data are evaluated to determine a first of the sets of other sensor data that is a best match for said current sensor data. Each of the sets of other sensor data is associated with one of a plurality of option sets. Each option set includes options used in determining one or more adjustments that may be applied to the blades to reduce vibration. The one or more sets of other sensor data are evaluated to determine a first of the sets of other sensor data that is a best match for said current sensor data. A first of the plurality of option sets associated with said first set of sensor data is used in determining adjustment(s) that may be applied to the blades.

Techniques for use with rotor track and balance to reduce vibration

A health and usage monitoring system for use in monitoring health and usage of one or more components of a vehicle. In various embodiments, the present invention uses at least one roving wireless sensor that can be temporarily placed in a first position to monitor one or more components of the vehicle and then moved to another position to monitor one or more other components of the vehicle, thus reducing the total number of sensors used to monitor the vehicle. In some embodiments, a system according to the present invention may comprise at least one or more roving wireless sensors. Other embodiments may comprise one or more roving wireless sensors used in conjunction with one or more wired sensors. The present invention also provides similar embodiments for a method of monitoring the health and usage of one or more components of a vehicle.

Roving wireless sensor and method for use in a vehicle health and usage monitoring system

Determining health of a component includes using at least one processor to perform processes including acquiring a plurality of measured values corresponding to the condition indicators. Synchronous noise components are removed from the measured values to provide revised measured values, and the revised measured values are used to determine noise-filtered condition indicator values. The noise-filtered condition indicator values may be used in algorithms to determine the health of the component. Removing synchronous noise components may include determining a predicted value thereof using covariance and autocovariance of the measured values. The component may be a split torque gearbox.

Quantification of condition indicators in the presence of synchronous noise

In vibration based mechanical diagnostics, algorithms may extract some feature of a component which may be used as a statistic of the components' health. A measured condition indicator corresponding to the analysis of the components' health may be a function of transmission error (TE). Because there exists a relationship between TE and the CI for a component that is faulted, the CI is correlated with power transmitted. In drive train components, power may be proportional to measured torque. In terms of diagnostics or trending of a component, it is desirable to reduce the scatter in the measured CI and account for this torque. The relationship between measured CI and torque may be captured over time. An increase in the correlation of torque with the CI would indicate an increase of TE which indicates the propagation of a fault.

Trending of vibration data taking into account torque effect

A health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) and method for monitoring the health and/or usage of one or more components of a vehicle. In various embodiments, the present invention uses a plurality of wireless sensors configured, when activated by a vibration of the vehicle, to monitor one or more components of the vehicle and to communicate health and/or usage data of the one or more components of the vehicle to a data access point. The data access point may relay real-time health and/or usage data to an operator of the vehicle, or the health and/or usage data may accessed later. Such a system allows critical components of the vehicle to be monitored so as to reduce failures, and so that repairs to, or replacements of, the critical components of the vehicle may be planned, thus reducing unscheduled downtime.

Vehicle health and usage monitoring system and method

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for determining a future time associated with a component, where the future time can be indicative that some action can be taken with respect to the component. In some embodiments, the future time can be indicative of a component's remaining useful life or time until maintenance is required. The future time can be determined as a function of a health indicator and a material constant. In some embodiments, the functional relationship between the future time, the health indicator and the material constant can be based on the functional relationship of Paris' law for fatigue crack growth.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for determining a future time of a component

A proximity sensor for determining a position of an object. The proximity sensor includes a SAW device having a load end and an input end for receiving an input pulse. A sensing section connects to the load end of the SAW device. When the object is in a first position, the sensing section provides a first response indicative of the first position and, when the object is in a second position, the sensing section provides a second response indicative of the second position such that the position of the object can be determined based upon the response to the input pulse.

Radio frequency surface acoustic wave proximity detector

Determining adjustments to decrease vibrations caused by rotating blades from a plurality of rotors includes determining a first plurality of adjustment normalization values for a plurality of possible adjustments of blades of a first one of the plurality of rotors, where the first plurality of adjustment normalization values normalizes different types of adjustments having different units, determining a second plurality of adjustment normalization values for a plurality of possible adjustments of blades of a second one of the plurality of rotors, where the second plurality of adjustment normalization values normalizes different types of adjustments having different units and where, for a particular adjustment type, an adjustment normalization value of the first plurality of adjustment normalization values is independent of a corresponding adjustment normalization value of the second plurality of adjustment normalization values for the particular adjustment type, providing coefficient of vibration data that corresponds to effects on vibration caused by adjustments to the blades, receiving a plurality of vibration values corresponding to vibrations caused by the blades, applying the coefficient of vibration data and the first and second plurality of adjustment normalization values to the vibration values to provide a set of total normalized vibration values corresponding to sets of possible adjustments to be applied to the blades, and selecting a set of adjustments having a total normalized vibration value less than a predetermined value and corresponding to a lower total amount of adjustment than other sets of adjustments having a total normalized vibration value less than the predetermined value. The predetermined value may correspond to an expected value of all errors.

Reducing vibration using QR decomposition and unconstrained optimization for a multi-rotor aircraft

Described are techniques used in a wire diagnostics system to detect events, such as defects, that may occur within a wire or cable under test. An incident voltage signal is sent out on the wire and a measured voltage signal is obtained which includes the incident voltage and the reflected voltage. Compensation processing is performed on the measured waveform to remove unwanted reflective components. Additionally, the waveform is then subject to attenuation processing and event detection processing. Detected events, such as defects, are classified and output as results. Events are classified by parametric classification using a library of known events or faults. The library of known events or faults is previously generated using empirical analysis and modeling techniques. Additionally, joint time-frequency domain reflectometry (TFDR) techniques are described for event identification and classification for a wire under test.

Wire fault detection

Determining a shaft balance adjustment includes measuring an initial vibration of the shaft, determining if the initial vibration is greater than a predetermined value, and, if the initial vibration is greater than the predetermined value, determining an adjustment by choosing a best adjustment for each possible location for adjustments. Choosing the best adjustment may include choosing an adjustment that causes a lower amount of vibration than adjustments not chosen. Measuring an initial vibration may include using an accelerometer. Measuring an initial vibration may include using conditioning electronics in connection with the accelerometer. The predetermined value may be 0.01 ips.

Optimal shaft balance using integer programing to handle discrete adjustment

Classifying a portion of an electrical signal propagating through a conductor includes digitizing the electrical signal to provide a digitized signal, providing a plurality of stored digitized signals, wherein each stored digitized signal corresponds to a type of fault for the conductor, comparing the digitized signal to each of the stored digitized signals to determine a score therefore, if the score is less than a predetermined value for a particular one of the stored digitized signals, classifying the portion of the electrical signal as a fault corresponding to the particular one of the stored digitized signals, and, if none of the scores are less than the predetermined value, classifying the portion of the electrical signal as having no fault. Classifying a portion of an electrical signal may also include converting the digitized electrical signal to reflection coefficients.

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New Haven, VT, United States of America

Eric Robert Bechhoefer