The complete Industry News section from the February 2017 issue of PTE.

The complete Product News section from the February 2017 issue of Power Transmission Engineering.

Calendar of upcoming events

News from around the industry.

Two weeks ago I was invited to speak at Infolytica’s Engage 2016 conference (infolyticaengage.com). The company makes tools for f...

Recently our customers have indicated a great concern over power factors when starting new development projects for higher-efficiency motors. Wh...

News on the latest products from around the industry.

Until now the estimation of rolling bearing life has been based on engineering models that consider an equivalent stress, originated beneath the contact surface, that is applied to the stressed volume of the rolling contact. Through the years, fatigue surface–originated failures, resulting from reduced lubrication or contamination, have been incorporated into the estimation of the bearing life by applying a penalty to the overall equivalent stress of the rolling contact. Due to this simplification, the accounting of some specific failure modes originated directly at the surface of the rolling contact can be challenging. In the present article, this issue is addressed by developing a general approach for rolling contact life in which the surfaceoriginated damage is explicitly formulated into the basic fatigue equations of the rolling contact. This is achieved by introducing a function to describe surface-originated failures and coupling it with the traditional, subsurface-originated fatigue risk of the rolling contact. The article presents the fundamental theory of the new model and its general behavior. The ability of the present general method to provide an account for the surface–subsurface competing fatigue mechanisms taking place in rolling bearings is discussed with reference to endurance testing data.

Experienced operators can often tell if a machine is not working properly, on the basis that it does not ‘sound right.’ The same principle can be applied — using modern electronics — to identify the exact cause of the problem. Sensitive accelerometers can detect and analyze the vibrations from industrial equipment, highlighting problems such as misalignment or bearing imbalance. The technique is known as vibration analysis. It can identify bearing failure in the very early stages, when there is a microscopic defect on the raceway, for example. The problem is that the identifying signal is usually drowned out in all the other noise emanating from the machine.

For a 5-megawatt wind turbine prototype, aerodyn employs the latest control and software technologies, including a comprehensive PC-based control solution and the new modular TwinCAT Wind Framework. The TwinCAT Wind Framework features the latest software engineering and Big Data applications to extend current Industry 4.0 concepts to the wind energy industry. The modular software supports, for example, the direct provision of sensor data to the operator’s database, and in general enables the easy adaption of the wind turbine operation management to future requirements.