Sensor Technology Ltd

A team of Dutch engineers competing to develop the world’s most efficient hydrogen fuelled car has used a British torques sensor to determine that their next generation vehicle needs a custom designed and built hub motor. To measure the efficiency of the car's drivetrain, Green Team Twente has built a bespoke test rig based on the TorqSense torque sensor made by Sensor Technology Ltd of Banbury in the UK.

Behind the rise and rise of English wine, British engineers and technologists are busy developing new systems and aids for the vine growing industry. Here, Tony Ingham of Sensor Technology tells his part of this astonishing success story, as english wine is taking off, with more and more people recognising its award winning quality and production growing by the year.

The evolution of the UK’s power distribution network holds the key to harnessing the benefits of variable power sources such as wind, tidal and solar farms, as well as numerous other distributed power technologies. But connecting these various sources to the network is not without its challenges, and is the subject of research at the University of Warwick, where a test rig has been built to identify the requirements of a suitable power electronics controller. At the heart of this rig and playing an important part in the research is a wireless torque measurement device from Sensor Technology.

Made by Sensor Technology, the TorqSense rotary torque sensors are unlike the traditional slip ring transducers. To start wit they use a simple non-contact radio link for collecting real-time torque signals, letting machine builders and control engineers can do away with expensive and temperamental slip ring, therefore simply mounting the sensors and checking the radio connection is all that is required to set up a TorqSense.

This year the UK has seen brushfires rage across large areas of heath and moorland, a problem that may become increasingly common as climate change drives global warming. New techniques and increased levels of expertise will be needed to combat these fires.

Specialist industrial motor manufacturer Solutions Engineering in Stoke on Trent is able to test the performance of its motors, having built a test station to its own specification based around a piezo electric torque transducer. It manufactures a range of bespoke slip ring motors for driving equipment such as vibrators and pumps, currently in sizes 4kW to 55kW but with plans for larger units in the future.

  For an engineering education competition, called Formula Student, high performance electric cars are being developed across Europe. The team from Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal may have a secret weapon in the form of a test bench based upon a wireless torque sensor.

  TorqSense transducers are used to ensure caps are being properly fitted to pharmaceutical bottles in a high speed packaging line run by the Almac Group at its global headquarters in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, UK.

As Brexit progresses improving support for high tech engineering and technology businesses will be high on the agenda when Victoria Prentis MP (Con) for Banbury and North Oxfordshire meets staff at Sensor Technology Ltd during National Apprenticeship Week (5th-9th March 2018). Sensor Technology has a long-standing apprenticeship scheme and is an active member of many support groups such as the Engineering Industries Association and the Tradeshow Access Programme.

Analysing the long term performance and reliability of hard working valves and pumps, Bifold Group has adopted radio frequency based torque transducers from Sensor Technology for two of its specialist test rigs. An inter-generational commitment to advancing science and engineering has seen Bifold transform from a 19th century mining lamp maker into a leading manufacturer of instrument valves and accessories, piping valves and pumps for the oil, gas and wider industrial markets.

One of the best ways to assess the performance of plant and machinery, is to monitor torque in a drive shaft. However because drive shafts rotate, hard wiring a sensor into place usually requires the use of a delicate slip ring. An alternative solution is to use a non-contact radio frequency detector to monitor 'Surface Acoustic Waves' (SAWs), as Mark Ingham of Sensor Technology Ltd explains.

  Adopting radio frequency based torque transducers from Sensor Technology, serial innovators Manchester-based Bifold Group is going to use them to analyse the long term performance and reliability of hard working valves and pumps for two of its specialist test rigs.

The School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Sciences at Manchester University is developing technology in energy efficiency in the process industries, and researchers have incorporated TorqSense transducers into a test rig that is analysing losses in in-line mixers.

TorqSense wireless sensors from Sensor Technology are playing an important role in new product development for Hydraulic Projects Limited (Hy-Pro), one of the UK’s developers and suppliers of hydraulic drive units for marine steering and autopilot systems. The sensors, which accurately measure shaft torque in rotary drive systems, are providing the essential data that Hy-Pro needs to refine the design of the electrically powered pump assemblies used in the high-performance hydraulic steering systems that the company supplies for use in yachts and other small pleasure craft.

  Demonstrating the electricity supply infrastructure can be developed more quickly and cost effectively, Heli-Lift Services has pioneered the use of helicopters to remove and deliver poles and pylons in remote locations.

  Following a successful week at the Hanover Fair, plans to increase exports to China for UK specialist torque sensor manufacturer, Sensor Technology, have advanced. Sensor Technology of Banbury has always sold overseas and over the last few years has had a definite strategy of building up its export business significantly.

The heli-lifting of a golden statue of an angel to be return to the top of the church spire where she came from in Surrey has been aided by an intelligent cargo hook. The church built back in the 1950s, had the statue added as part of a recent major refurbishment and extension project. The cargo hook was fitted with a HeliNav LoadMaster made by Sensor Technology. This feeds the pilot with live information about the load hanging beneath his aircraft, making complex operations safer, easier and more efficient.

  Sensor Technology is expecting this year’s Hannover Messe, taking place 24th-28th April to generate several potential new clients and also some new distributors. The company will be showing its full range of products and capabilities on its stand, hall 11, stand F33.

Exporters are now required to verify the weight of packed shipping containers, after the three month grace period on the amended Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Regulations has expired. Sensor Technology is able to provide a simple, retrofittable solution for SOLAS compliance, and the company has already worked with a number of exporters who admitted to being ‘caught out’ by the implementation of the legislation.

Dry bulk cargos have to be loaded and unloaded quickly, efficiently, cost effectively and safely if shipping operations are to be profitable.  Author: Tony Ingham, Sensor Technology