The Engineer

Eyes for oil: condition monitoring in lubrication

In-Depth

A new sensor is able to monitor every aspect of oil’s condition, from contamination through to oxidisation

A new oil degradation sensor can pre-empt failure in everything from wind turbine gearboxes to diesel generators.

Lubricating oil in wind turbine gearboxes has to be checked a couple of times a year to make sure it is still doing its job in reducing friction between large rotating cogs.This process involves sending an engineer up a 90m-turbine tower and turning the moneymaking turbine off for at least an hour, following an incident where an engineer was killed after being pulled into a gearbox.

When today’s engineer finally makes it to the breezy summit of the temporarily redundant wind turbine, they may be frustrated to find that the gearbox oil is absolutely fine and doesn’t even need changing.

Tan Delta claims that its OQS oil sensor could save engineers wasting their time on such pointless trips up and down turbine towers. The stainless steel, palm-sized sensor that has been developed in Rotherham can provide real-time information on the condition of gearbox oil in wind turbines.

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