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WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY MC Totco and Wilcoxon Research, Inc. has just successfully completed the first wireless BlueLynx™ field trial on an onshore drilling operation. A domestic drilling contractor uses ultrasonic level instruments, with loop powered 4-20mA signals, to measure the level of its mud pits. During the drilling operation, mud and water are pumped into the hole to help lubricate and clean the drill bit. The resulting cuttings are pumped out of the hole into pit tanks on the far side of the location. The level of the mud is measured to determine what is actually happening in the hole. For example, rapid change in the level of the pit tanks would indicate potential problems downhole, potentially life threatening, if not for the responsiveness of the level instrumentation and the actions of the rig personnel. The 4-20mA signals were previously transmitted to an industrial computer, via signal cable installed using whatever means necessary around the location, which included tie wrapping to handrails and other obstacles. The BlueLynx BLM unit allowed MD Totco to transmit the data and eliminate the signal cable from the level transmitter units to the controller. The 4-20mA signals were transmitted via Wilcoxon's Industrial Strength Bluetooth™ BlueLynx BLM transmitter to a BlueLynx BLM receiver. This saved installation costs by reducing or eliminating the cabling around obstacles and allowed the receiver to be placed on the side of the drilling location with the other monitoring equipment. Cable maintenance and the chance of the cable damage requiring an expensive shut down and troubleshooting is also reduced or eliminated. This installation was an excellent test of wireless technology in a demanding industrial environment. "The temperatures ranged from 32° to 120°F with 100% humidity, as well as drilling mud spray, a harsh environment for any measuring device", according to one Field Engineer at MD Totco. "The units were about 50 feet apart, but the line of sight was not direct," he said. The transmitter was in the pit tank area and the receiver was attached to the industrial controller on the other side of the drilling location. "The test showed that the product worked as designed. No condensation or build-up appeared inside the box and the data was received reliably," commented the engineer. "It is always a rewarding experience to learn that an equipment design performs better than expected in real world applications. The demanding temperatures plus the humidity, mud and water spray on the exterior of the NEMA enclosures did not affect the performance of the BlueLynx milliamp system. We did discover that our NEMA enclosure needs to be larger and be equipped with larger signal connection terminals to allow users with glove encumbered hands to more easily connect the system," said Bill Drake, the manager of the Process Control Group for Wilcoxon Research, Inc. "We are committed to customer satisfaction and are working to improve our system in response to customer input," he said. This application also showed that monitoring sites that previously were inaccessible, environmentally restricted, or just difficult is now possible by using Bluetooth wireless technology. Wilcoxon Research, Inc. FASTENER/JOINT DESIGN
SOFTWARE Scott McGrath is a Continuous Improvement Engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt at AERCO International, Inc. tasked with quality assurance in the design and production of the company's commercial water heaters and boiler systems. The company's signature steam-fired product is a high-efficiency, self-descaling water heater that uses vertical stacks of helical coils which share a common steam riser and condensate return pipe. To keep field repairs and coil replacements simple and cost-effective, each independent coil set is connected to the common pipes via a threaded nut connection. The longevity of the heat exchanger is critically dependent on the integrity of these connections. The ongoing quality inspection of these threaded connections using Six Sigma methodologies recently led McGrath to Sensor Products' fastener/joint analysis software package BoltFAST®. "The threaded nut connections are essential to the product's longevity," McGrath says. "BoltFAST® enables us to confirm the upper and lower torque values and the capabilities of our connection. It also helps us accurately quantify the effects of prevailing torque on the joint components caused by braze in the connector threads. The program facilitates our joint assembly analysis and confirms a very expensive finite element analysis performed by the company. As a result, we can quickly validate as many as 16 different dimensional aspects of our threaded connection design." "We consider BoltFAST® a mission critical tool in our Quality Control and New Product Development toolset. The knowledge derived from the program is put into action throughout AERCO," McGrath notes. "Its influence extends far beyond the product design team. BoltFAST® helps not only the brazing and assembly operation, but also influences materials storage, lubricant sourcing, as well as testing and inspections. The ultimate impact of BoltFAST® also extends to our customers; it is an integral tool we use to ensure that our products are designed well and manufactured with unprecedented precision and quality." BoltFAST® software is the most comprehensive bolted joint analysis software package available. By combining a large database of fastener and interface materials and their physical characteristics, the program determines the fatigue endurance limit of a thread, the amount of embedding anticipated in a bolted joint, and the optimal tightening torque for given friction conditions. As in AERCO's case, engineers can quickly, efficiently and accurately evaluate quality of a bolted joint or fastener assembly. The software specifically evaluates joints, threads and torque. The joint analysis program determines if a bolted joint can sustain the forces acting upon it; the thread analysis program calculates the force necessary to fracture a fastener and strip the internal and external threads; the torque analysis program helps determine correct tightening torque and resulting anticipated clamp force for a threaded fastener. Sensor Products' sensors are also used in applications as diverse as tire testing to semiconductor manufacturing and from R&D labs to space missions. Sensor Products Inc.
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Canadian Industrial Equipment News December 2004 |
May 15, 2008
