Oxford YASA Motors is finding that a TorqSense non-contact speed and torque sensor from Sensor Technology is an invaluable aid in the refinement of its world-leading motor designs. Used in a test rig to evaluate prototype motors, the sensor provides accurate and dependable real time information in a readily accessible format.

The automotive sector is proving to be a powerbase for the reviving manufacturing economy. Volume car makers have full order books and specialists builders are enjoying record exports. But to maintain this vital economic activity, constant innovation is needed particularly on reducing vehicles’ environmental impact

Research at the University of Manchester has demonstrated servo systems with vastly improved dynamics with the most challenging of loads. The key to the increased performance is a torque transducer from Sensor Technology employing Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) techniques to deliver high-bandwidth, non-contact solution.

With theatres striving to create breath-taking spectacles and leave the audience gasping for more, there is often world-class engineering behind the scenes. A British company is developing technology to ensure safety when excited performers and heavy machinery share the same space.

TorqSense transducers from Sensor Technology are playing an important role in new product development at Gloucestershire-based Lister Shearing, the oldest and one of the most successful suppliers of animal shearing and clipping equipment in the world. The sensors, which are based on SAW (surface acoustic wave) technology, are being used by the company as an aid to evaluating the performance of miniature electric motors.

A smart load sensor developed in the UK by Sensor Technology provides all the information needed to optimise efficiency and increase profitability of a wide range of industrial operations. The new development allows weighing processes to be fully integrated with handling operations. All live data is captured in real time and can be transferred to a database, stored, totalised and analysed.

Total traceability extends to packaging as well as product in the rarefied world of pharmaceuticals. Capcoder Ltd has adopted a novel torque sensing system as the core of the datalogging capabilities of its bottle sealing machines.

Non-contact torque sensors from Sensor Technology are playing a key role in the development of commercial-scale in-stream tidal turbines produced by Irish company, OpenHydro. The company is using these novel sensors, which are based on surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology, to accurately measure rotational speed and frictional forces in a simulator for the turbine bearings, thereby allowing it to optimise the performance and reliability of its i...

The electrical machines laboratory at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has greatly increased in its effectiveness as a teaching resource since TorqSense non-contact torque sensors from Sensor Technology have been fitted to five machine sets. The new sensors replace an existing system of machine monitoring that had proved inaccurate.

TorqSense RWT310/320 provides non-contact measurement of torque, speed, power and position of rotating shafts, such as machine drives. It uses tiny piezo-ceramic combs fixed to the shaft that distort in proportion to the instantaneous torque level. These create data signals that are transmitted via a radio frequency coupling rather than by conventional but clumsy slip rings. Because piezo technology requires so little power, this is also supplied...

The latest model of TorqSense, the non-contact digital torque measuring system, incorporates an integral sprocket or pulley, allowing easy fit-and-forget mounting in a vast range of plant and machinery such as drum mixers, generators, pump, dynamometers and conveyor drives.

Soon to be announced is TorqSense RWT330/340 series, designed for use in applications where space is limited. Like other units in the TorqSense family, the RWT330/340 provides non-contact measurement of torque, speed, power and position of rotating shafts, such as machine drives, drive shafts for pumps, fans, mixers etc, and in the critical axes of test rigs.

A test rig built at Centa Transmissions in Shipley is allowing the company to guarantee that the precision gearboxes it supplies to nuclear industry will never fail prematurely. Despite its critical role, the rig is essentially quite simple, in that a motor drives the test unit against a load created by one of Centa’s own industrial disc brakes. The test runs initially for three hours at the full working load, and then is increased to 300 p...

Sensor Technology has received the Investors in People Award, recognising its commitment to training and its record of staff retention.

A bench top extruder developed at Bradford University is able to collect data about its own operation and to determine a wide range of characteristics of the material with which it is working.

Development of a vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle is nearing completion, thanks in part to a non-contact digital torque sensor, TorqSense, which proved the only viable option for use on the test rig.

The secrets of climate change and the formation of giant lava flows on Mars may soon be revealed to a British professor and his research team, as they investigate the lava flows from Mount Etna.

High performance torque measurement is helping to improve the energy efficiency of domestic washing machines, enabling consumers to make greener purchase decisions. The Eco Rating stickers that provide potential buyers with a clear assessment of white goods' environmental performance now play a major role in retail sales. Manufactures want to achieve the best classification possible, so are redesigning their machines to reduce power consumption.

Machine designers have been presented with a significant new technology for measuring power in drive shafts and other rotating machine elements, following the launch of the RWT310/320 series of TorqSense Rotary Torque Sensors by developers Sensor Technology Ltd.