Accelerometers for Condition Monitoring

Slentech offers Safe energy future with accelerometers from ASC Accelerometers. For years, customers from the field of renewable energies have been placing their trust in our sensors. When it comes to monitoring vibrations in a wind turbine’s tower and nacelle or its foundations, or measuring vibrations on the blades, our wide portfolio of piezoelectric and capacitive accelerometers and our gyroscopes have precisely the qualities demanded by such special measurement applications. ASC sensors for offshore applications are IP68 certified.

We offer high quality sensor solutions in the renewable energy industry for the following applications:

Condition Monitoring

The response behaviour of our capacitive MEMS accelerometers offers a frequency response up to 0 Hz. This helps with monitoring the wind energy main output shaft and the transmission mount at speeds below 0.5 Hz: an industry-specific basic requirement for wind turbine monitoring systems.

Hermetically sealed acceleration sensors like our capacitive low-noise (LN) acceleration sensor OS-115LN are used to monitor very low-frequency tower vibrations and seismic movement of the sea bed. Our customers typically use an accelerometer like the ASC 5511LN, which works from DC up to 1 kHz (±5% amplitude response) to monitor the condition of the tower and nacelle.

Our piezoelectric ASC acceleration sensors, IEPE, are suited to frequencies in the range of 0.3 Hz and above, up to the high frequency responses of more than 10 kHz. The ASC model P401A15 has an almost flat frequency range (± 10%) of 0.5 Hz to 15 kHz and is very popular for measuring vibrations over the whole wind turbine, including the low frequency end and the gear stages and generator.

Accelerometers from ASC, like the piezoelectric IEPE model P311A25 are also often used to monitor vibrations on cooling fans or cooling towers and HVAC systems. Our IEPE accelerometers like the P203A12 only weigh 6 grams on account of their titanium housing and are perfect for checking the structural integrity of the wind turbine blades.

The MEMS gyroscopes from ASC are used in the wind turbine control system. For example, for the detection of the angular position of turbine blades, including monitoring the blade and blade tip deflection. This is possible thanks to its excellent preload stability over temperature and time, as well as its low noise (ARW) and broad operating temperature range from -40°C to +85°C

Our triaxial capacitive MEMS acceleration sensors ASC 5521MF are used for the Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of rotor blades, including the detection of structural changes in the event of any ice formation on the blade because of their low weight and their excellent temperature stability.