Innovative Sensing Solutions, dramatically ...

SENSeOR: Our future will be conditioned by how well we handle the available resources and how we use them to improve our everyday life without degrading our environment. All industries face the challenge of producing more - or better - with fewer resources, with reduced energy consumption while increasing productivity and safety. Consumers should also reduce their environmental impact in all their actions.

Sensor and measurement technology play a significant role in implementing a sustainable way-of-life for the future, providing the information required to monitor and control equipment optimally and improve production process efficiencies.

Innovative solutions for demanding applications

SENSeOR’s break-through sensing solutions are based on SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) sensors. They are wireless and require no direct power source. Sensors are indeed only powered by the energy of radio waves emitted by the associated reader unit when remotely interrogating the sensors in real-time. Benefits for the most demanding, and previously impossible industrial applications are unique.

By avoiding problematic wires, these maintenance-free and light-weight sensors can either be mounted onto an extensive range of rotating and moving machinery parts or be implemented in inaccessible places. Without any batteries or active electronic components at the sensor level, these cutting-edge sensing solutions are perfectly appropriate for use in explosive atmospheres or irradiated environments at temperatures reaching +175°C today (current in-house R&D efforts target +350°C) with almost unlimited autonomy. Temperature, pressure, and/or strain measurements can be performed.

Technology principle	SED 100 Thermowell packaged temperature SAW sensor

New applications for improved energy efficiency

SENSeOR’s innovative solutions allow previously impossible measurements with numerous high-value proposition applications in almost all aspects of energy creation, distribution, and use. For example:

• Transport: temperature monitoring of bearings on moving crankshafts in ship engines to avoid engine problems and costly repairs and downtime; temperature monitoring in electrical motors to optimise performance and reduce safety margins; TPMS for optimal safety and less fuel consumption.
• Environment: condition monitoring in compressors used for wastewater treatment for improved uptime & structural health monitoring of bridges, rails, pipelines
• Consumer and Industrial goods: temperature monitoring in cooking pans – keeping temperature within correct limits and avoiding energy waste; instrumented valves for reading of internal pressure without having to connect a manometer; process control in environments where cables present problems – like sterilisation, powderization, plastics forming.

More specifically, SENSeOR’s systems meet all the requirements of improving efficiency all through the energy production and distribution cycle: condition monitoring on rotating parts in generators and turbines for improved uptime and shorter service time; monitoring of transformer and power line conditions to enhance capacities of existing equipment.

To position the strategic importance of solutions which could help improve energy efficiency, Mr. FREI states in “Living Energy/Siemens/Nov2009”: “[...] developed world should actually be able to meet a large share of its slightly growing energy demand from increased efficiency – and meet possibly up to 40 or 50% of the current Kyoto targets through efficiency measures. [...] mobility is another growing area of interest [for potential gains through energy efficiency]. And roughly 50% of our electricity is consumed in electric motors, which generally do not run optimally, so the potential is great here.” SENSeOR’s first target application is the measurement of temperature on rotating parts and in environments where very strong electromagnetic fields prevent use of other sensor technologies.

Measuring temperature of the crankshaft bearings in ship engines has been a production application for 3 years now and is becoming a standard. Results clearly show the added value – specifically very early warning allowing the engine to be stopped and maintained before serious damage is caused.

Condition monitoring indeed allows planning maintenance operations only when necessary. Andreas Jagtøyen, General Manager Machinery Instrumentation at Kongsberg Maritime AS (Norway), a partner who has industrialized a SAW-based in-engine bearing temperature sensor for vessel motors, confirms “we have installed thousands of systems working in the toughest conditions – and none of the sensors has ever failed. We will use this technology for other break-through applications”.

For more detailed information on SENSeOR’s sensing solutions, please feel free to contact us at +33 (0)4 97 23 13 20 or by email at contact@senseor.com and visit www.senseor.com.

About SENSeOR

Dedicated to delivering the promise of SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave)-based sensing, SENSeOR is a technology company located in Sophia-Antipolis (near Nice) and Besançon, FRANCE. Top competencies for all required domains, strong partnerships with world-class research institutes, an outstanding portfolio of technology bricks and IP and industrial production partners allows the high-tech firm to develop and design innovative solutions based on this revolutionary technology for optimal customer value. Its growing product portfolio delivers high-ROI solutions for end-users, system integrators and OEMs, in the measurement of temperature, stress, and pressure.