FEATURE | LOAD MONITORING
case, easily transportable, with foam compartments that hold a aluminium load link, a shackle load pin, two safety box shackles, a T24 HA Handset which can operate with both the load link and the pin, a centralising bobbin and a spare battery set. It can be easily customised for low head height situations. At the same time as it was earning its
Kings Award the Aberdeen-based company was forming a strategic partnership with leading Austrian chain manufacturer Pewag, and had been diversifying the applications that it serves. “Our global vision has been augmented by looking across sectors and diversifying into other industries which include entertainment, aquaculture, construction and renewables as well as traditional spheres such as oil and gas and subsea” said managing director Kirk Anderson. Monitor Systems Engineering is also based in Aberdeen. It was established rather earlier, in 1997, but happily has also won the King’s Award for Enterprise, which it gained last year. Its Engineering and Measurement
Technology division specialises in the design and build of electrical and electronic control and monitoring instrumentation systems for energy industry vessels such as jack-ups, semisubmersibles, platforms, drill ships, support vessels and FPSOs to industry compliant standards. But it too is diversifying: it now has contracts in onshore and offshore renewables, tank farms, food and drink, and factory automation. The division designs and manufactures rugged, multi-channel winch line control, wireline monitoring and tensiometer instrumentation. Products are used to control and monitor speed, payout, and tension - both cable and chain - in single- and multi-winch systems. Running Line Tensiometers come with sealed double roller bearings in standard sizes rated from 20 KIPS to over 800 KIPS - smaller capacity units also available - with 17-4 hardened stainless steel sheaves. Tension and payout sensors can be located for easy access. Software is windows-based, with data files easily exported into Excel for post-analysis and display units give clear real-time data, full programmability, and six alarms which
are independently linked to any high or low set-point parameters determined by the operator. Most strain gauges, as we have seen,
work on the principle of a strip of metal changing its electrical resistance when it is deformed. Aanderaa Data Systems AS, (part of Xylem Analytics), has a unique strain sensor called the Mipeg S-sensor that works on a different principle. The variable in this case is not electrical resistance but resonance: the natural resonant frequency of a piece of metal varies according to the tension in it. Pluck a guitar- or violin-string and it produces a higher note when it is strung more tightly. The S-sensor uses the same phenomenon. The heart of the sensor is an S-shaped
metal strip fixed at both ends to the inside of a metal ring. When the ring is deformed, the tension of the strip changes; so therefore, does the frequency with which it naturally vibrates. The frequency is detected as an AC
voltage in a coil positioned close to the strip. The vibration is started (‘excited’) by a short pulse of electricity in that same
LARGE AND SMALL LOAD MONITORS FROM LCM
A tiny load link was recently despatched by LCM Systems to a customer in the Netherlands. Due to space restrictions the load link needed to be as small as possible while still achieving a load rating of 5 tons; at just 130mm long by 69mm wide, LCM managed Another example from the same company is smaller still, at less than half that size. At just 75mm by 18mm it is one of the smallest load cells they manufacture. The stainless-steel dual cantilever beam load cell has a load rating of 50kgs, but is also available in load ratings as low as 2kgs. Widely used in tensile test machines and hopper/vessel weighing systems, this load cell will be going to a UK research facility that supports industries that handle powder or granular materials as part of their processes. The dual cantilever design of the BF2
A wireless ATEX- certified load pin
ensuring maximum accuracy for applications where the weight is unevenly distributed. As with most LCM standard product ranges, ratings, electrical connectors and dimensions. At the other end of the size and capacity scale, LCM have supplied a 9000kN (900 ton) rated load pin, which was shipped in September to an engineering company in Spain, where it will be used for fatigue testing. Weighing in at 230kgs, this 250mm diameter by 600mm long load pin will be installed in an assembly to monitor the applied forces/stresses it is subjected to during operation, allowing engineers to assess how it responds to repeated loading. By analysing the data the structures endurance limit, fatigue life and stress behaviour can be determined.
Aubmersible load pins
36 | January 2025 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
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