May 25 2004
Maintaining large rotating equipment isn’t easy or cheap. Take gas turbines used in power plants: Inspecting one of these behemoths for possible wear and tear costs about $500,000 in parts and labor. If companies skip on periodic checkups, they risk breakdowns averaging $4 million per incident.
Yet Atlanta-based Radatec Inc. is about to transform condition monitoring with a new breed of non-contact displacement sensor.
Scheduled for commercial release later this summer, Radatec’s sensors provide real-time information about critical mechanical components in areas that were previously off limits.
“We take the guesswork out of maintenance,” says Scott Billington, Radatec’s president and co-founder. “Instead of having to shut down heavy equipment, Radatec’s sensors allow operators to virtually see inside complex machinery and predict when repairs are needed.”
Based on microwave technology, Radatec’s innovative sensors measure motion by sending a continuous microwave signal toward a vibrating or rotating object. This signal is reflected back to a radio receiver in the sensor. A patented algorithm then compares the transmitted signal with the received one, calculating a measure of displacement.
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