New generation condition monitoring unit launched for turbines

With its beginnings in orchards, this company has returned to its green roots by machining large parts for the wind-power industry.

4785

After a period of customer surveys and research, followed by an intense development phase, B&K Vibro recently introduced the new condition monitoring unit: the DDAU3 (diagnostic data acquisition unit).

As one of the world’s largest suppliers of condition monitoring systems and condition monitoring services for the wind-turbine market, B&K Vibro has developed the new DDAU3 based on extensive experience. Since the beginning of this century, the company has monitored almost 12,000 wind turbines all over the world from their condition monitoring and diagnostic centers. In addition to this, it also delivered almost 20,000 wind-turbine condition monitoring systems to customers, based on the successful DDAU2. All this experience, plus the many years of close collaboration with owners, operators, service providers, and manufacturers, has resulted into DDAU3 as the next generation wind-turbine condition monitoring unit.

%%0418-BK%%

DDAU3 is a condition monitoring platform designed with the newest technology to meet the condition monitoring challenges of today and many years to come. It will help customers with their increasing need to optimally reduce downtime and overall life-cycle costs of wind turbines by implementing enhanced condition monitoring methods, easy system integration, built-in cyber security, and simple IT solutions.

DDAU3 is backward compatible to existing DDAU2 devices and has a seamless interface to the VibroSuite Condition Monitoring Software or popular data historians. DDAU3 is flexible and scalable and offers application/machine specific monitoring strategies as well as customized solutions.

The DDAU3 functionality and design concept make it the ideal device for nearly any remote condition monitoring task:

  • True IoT edge computing with direct compatibility to Microsoft®Azure IoT Hub.
  • Standardized interface protocols such as OPC UA, MODBUS TCP/IP, MODBUS RTU.
  • A holistic condition monitoring approach. DDAU3 is not limited to vibration data but accepts direct input from a large variety of sensors, devices, and data interfaces.
  • Onboard storage of large amounts of data in case of a network outage.
  • Stand-alone operation for off-line data recording.
  • Remote update of application specific monitoring strategies and software updates, with complete cyber-security.
  • High computational power and onboard intelligence reduces load on the central monitoring servers.
  • 60 years of condition monitoring experience translates into a wide range of scalar descriptors, advanced statistical analysis techniques, and array measurements, which include FFT spectra, envelope spectra, cepstra, and time waveform recordings for detailed analysis.
  • Proprietary measurement techniques for early fault detection of rolling element bearing faults and complex gearboxes.
  • Advanced process dependent onboard alarming.

“DDAU is a key element in B&K Vibro’s comprehensive condition monitoring solution for wind turbines” said Dr. Christian Klostermeier, business line manager at B&K Vibro. “Within a service agreement, we can work directly with the customer maintenance team to help them to make the correct asset decisions reliably and quickly, based on the right information. This is made possible by the remote monitoring and analysis capabilities of DDAU. The same DDAU system, together with the VibroSuite monitoring software or data historian, offers a versatile database server, customized user dashboard, and advanced diagnostic tools that can be used by customers with all levels of in-house monitoring expertise.”

DDAU3 is supported by a world-wide network of sales and service offices and partners. B&K Vibro’s renowned monitoring and diagnostic centers are in Denmark;, Houston, Texas; and China. Other services also are offered for installation, commissioning, and training.

Source: B&K Vibro

For more information, go to www.bkvibro.com