Issue link: https://te.mouser.com/i/1349224
TE CONNECTIVITY SENSORS /// TREND PAPER THE DRIVE TO GO FROM WIRED TO WIRELESS WIRELESS VIBRATION SENSORS FOR CONDITION MONITORING Condition-based monitoring of rotating equipment assets is a proven method of managing plant reliability and safety that has been practiced for decades. Vibration monitoring is a dominant portion of that. Traditionally, vibration sensors have been installed on the machine and hardwired back to a central machinery protection system (e.g. vibration monitor). While reliable, this technique is expensive and therefore usually reserved for large rotating machines; typically steam driven turbines or large combustion (gas) turbines, deemed "critical" to the plant's operation. For less critical assets (the so-called balance-of-plant machines), such as centrifugal pumps and compressors, the business case for installing such a condition monitoring system is less clear, or even untenable. The loss of availability of such machines, however, are in some cases no less important to the safe, reliable operation of a plant. There still exists, then, a need to economically condition monitor balance-of-plant machines. As a solution, wireless vibration sensors have been proposed for over a decade. Many commercial implementations have met with mixed results, for a number of reasons. TE Connectivity (TE) feels that technology and market forces have converged sufficiently, however, to introduce such a wireless sensor. We see at least four drivers shaping this market space: 1. Driver 1: Ever-increasing demand for data by plant operators at an economical price 2. Driver 2: Continued electrification has dramatically improved battery performance 3. Driver 3: The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has improved digital radio performance 4. Driver 4: Edge computing in IoT devices further enhances wireless communications FIGURE 1. 8911 WIRELESS ACCELEROMETER FOR PROOF OF CONCEPT* FROM TE CONNECTIVITY *This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission.