Monitran, the developer and manufacturer of transducers for the measurement of vibration, proximity and displacement, is providing specialist engineering services to the Oxford Turbine Research Facility (OTRF), part of the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford.
The company has designed and is supplying high-accuracy signal conditioning units for interfacing with hundreds of thin film heat transfer gauges; which the OTRF has fitted to a full working section of a turbine in order to investigate a variety of turbine blade cooling techniques.
Kam Chana, commercial and technical director of the OTRF, said: “While we could have outsourced to a traditional CEM we selected Monitran because of their engineering professionalism when it comes to taking on specialist projects and their considerable experience in conditioning small signals.”
Working from schematics provided by the OTRF, and using appropriate CAD software, Monitran designed a double-sided, eight channel analogue circuit board.
Each channel is isolated and particular attention was paid to the use of ground planes to screen signal paths into high gain amplifiers. The boards, which are housed in a 19-inch rack system, have been tested at sample rates of 1MHz, as the rationale behind the OTRF’s use of thin film heat transfer gauge sensors is that they have response times in the order of 1μs.
Andy Anthony, managing director of Monitran, commented: “This was and continues to be a very interesting project for us and we’re pleased to be supporting the Oxford Turbine Research Facility and the University of Oxford in their investigations into future aero-engine technologies. Also, the service we’re providing gives further testimony of our ability to undertake bespoke projects and deliver professionally engineered ‘turnkey’ solutions.”
To date, Monitran has manufactured 20 signal conditioning units for the OTRF and is on hand to produce more if required; and another reason for the company’s selection by the OTRF was its ability to deliver consistent quality.
