MacGregor plans to use crane- and lifting technologies from the offshore industry to automate and improve processes in the construction industry. The ambition is to let robots mount facade plates in Norwegian construction processes already in 2020.
See this article at the Norwegian Research Council (in Norwegian): https://www.forskningsradet.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Informasjonstekst&cid=1254028353572&pagename=ForskningsradetNorsk%2FHovedsidemal
Photo: Arne Roger Janse.
SFI Offshore Mechatronics participated in the GCE NODE event Energy Outlook 2017, see: http://gcenode.no/news/energy-outlook-i-am-glad-i-came
MIL and Teknova invest in a rope-testing machine to better understand how to predict remaining life of steel and fiber ropes.
“The machine lets us reproduce specific failure mode of a rope. By constantly running the rope over a sheave in a controlled environment, we are able to observe how the rope deteriorates and analyze sensor information to learn which data is important for understanding the road to failure. As a result, we will be able to predict, with greater precision, the remaining life of a rope,” says Thomas Meyer, Business Development Manager at Teknova.
The research institute Teknova, based in Grimstad and Kristiansand, is the leader of Work Package 5: Condition Monitoring Technologies in the Center for Offshore Mechatronics – an eight year long research program funded by the Research Council of Norway and hosted by the University of Agder.
WP5 aims to improve offshore maintenance operations by developing technologies and methods that enable condition-based maintenance strategies. Two of the five subtasks studies large diameter steel and fiber ropes, typical for the offshore industry.
“Our goal is to develop diagnostic and prediction algorithms that will replace human judgment by online monitoring technologies calling for maintenance weeks before failure occurs,” says Meyer.
The rope-testing machine is part of the first key equipment to be installed in the Mechatronics Innovation Lab (MIL), which open in Grimstad August 16, 2017.
“The machine will make MIL an interesting venue for producers of ropes and cranes. Heave-compensated cranes rely on a number of ropes that are constantly run back and forth over a sheave. A better understanding of how ropes perform over time, is of great interest and value,” says Meyer.
With a pull force of 30 tons, the 12 meters long machine manufactured in France, is designed to test ropes with a maximum diameter of 3 centimeters. Since most offshore ropes are thicker, Teknova has already applied for funding for a bigger machine, which would be able to test ropes with diameters up to 12 centimeters.
“Such a machine would be the largest in the world. It would instantly propel MIL to be an international test laboratory for offshore rope testing,” says Meyer.
FACTS:
Bending fatigue test stand
Length: 12 meters
Height: 2.2 meters
Width: 1.3 meters
Weight: 7 tons
Line pull: 30 tons
Producer: DEP Engineering (France)
Professor Jing Zhou at the University of Agder plans to organize and co-chair an Invited Session for the 2017 International Conference on Advanced Mechatronic Systems (ICAMechS 2017) held from December 6 – 9, 2017 in Xiamen, Fujian, China. The deadline of the paper submission is September 01, 2017. The website of the conference： http://icamechs2017.hqu.edu.cn/index.htm. If you would like to contribute, contact Prof. Zhou before 20 August.
Ellen Nordgård-Hansen graduated from in NTH in Trondheim in 1995 with a Master’s degree in Physical Chemistry. She received her PhD from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, in 1997 with the thesis “Modelling of Aluminum Electrolysis Using Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics”. Since then, she has worked with modelling, control and project management in various settings. Some examples from her 13 years at Prediktor in Fredrikstad are silicon refining modelling, control of the water discharge of the Vøringsfossen waterfall, multivariate analysis, and programming in C++, Matlab and Excel. Working as a project manager for introducing material tracking systems, she got acquainted with the solar cell industry, from raw material to solar cells. From 2009 to 2014 Ellen worked as a thermal designer at projectiondesign in Fredrikstad, doing in calculations, simulations and measurements related to natural and forced air convection, multi-phase cooling, thermoelectric cooling and acoustics. Ellen has been employed as a senior researcher at Teknova since 2015, working with silicon refining, magnetic field modelling, carbon paste baking and condition based maintenance.
SFI Offshore Mechatronics has started using GitHub for management of software. Both private (partners only) and public software repositories will be used. The GitHub account is also integrated with Slack. The GitHub account can be viewed here: https://github.com/SFI-Mechatronics
SFI Offshore Mechatronics has started using Slack as a tool for software development and collaboration, both internally between the researchers, but also including engineers in the industrial partners. Researchers and engineers in the SFI Offshore Mechatronics partner companies and institutions can send an email to sfi@mechatronics.no and ask for access.
The annual conference was held at the University of Agder, Campus Grimstad on May 9-10. The final programme of the annual conference of SFI Offshore Mechatronics is available here, SFI-Programme-May-Conference-2017.pdf
A total of 76 participants participated. The list of participants is available at SFI-OM-Conference-Participants.pdf
Below are some photos from the conference.
The final programme of the annual conference of SFI Offshore Mechatronics is now available, SFI-Programme-May-Conference-2017.pdf
A total of 76 participants have signed up. The list of participants is available at SFI-OM-Conference-Participants.pdf
Geir Hovland, Rachel Funderud Syrtveit, Leif Haukom and Silje Bartholdsen from SFI Offshore Mechatronics attended SFI Forum 2017 at the Research Council, Oslo, Norway on April 27, 2017.
The program and list of participants is available here: SFI-Forum-20170427
SFI Forum’s web-page is available here: http://www.forskningsradet.no/prognett-sfi/SFIforum/1224067097222
