A Vision-Based Technique for Lay Length Measurement of Metallic Wire Ropes

The lay length of metallic wire ropes is an important dimensional quantity whose analysis is useful to highlight rope deformations due to distributed damages. This paper describes a measurement system that is based on a video camera and on an offline processing algorithm. The camera acquires an image sequence of the running rope; then, an image processing algorithm extracts the rope contour and measures both the distance among rope strands and the whole distance covered by the rope during the test. A mathematical model of the rope contour has been developed and employed to test the proposed algorithm with simulated data. Field tests have been carried out with the proposed system on a working aerial cableway using a general-purpose camer

A Traveling Standard for the Calibration of Data Acquisition Boards

The large use of measurement systems based on data acquisition boards makes the traceability-chain assurance a tricky problem due to the difficulty in consistently calibrating such boards. In this paper, the authors describe a traveling standard which can be used for the calibration of many commercially available acquisition boards. By employing such a traveling standard, the calibration procedure can be remotely exercised by a calibration laboratory through the personal computer which hosts the board that has to be calibrated. In such a way, the calibration results refer to environmental, software, and hardware conditions that exactly match the board-operating conditions. Furthermore, the board unavailability time is drastically reduced, with a consequent economic advantage for the board owner. The traveling standard is based on a microcontroller which is responsible for the communication with the PC that hosts the board and for the board-stimulus generation, and on a digital multimeter, which acts as a reference standard

A Fiber Optical Sensor For Non-Contact Vibration Measurements

This paper describes an intensity based optical sensor for the evaluation of accelerations from non-contact displacement measurements. Plastic optical fibers are used to collect the reflected light from several points on the vibrating surface, allowing the reconstruction of the vibration distribution. Two compensation techniques to reduce systematic effects due to the target reflectivity are also described and compared: one is based on the spectral analysis of the received optical signal and the other takes advantage of a reference displacement sensor. Experimental results in real conditions during vibration tests have demonstrated the capability to measure sub-micrometer vibration amplitudes up to about 40 kH

A Wireless Sensor Network for Cold-Chain Monitoring

This paper deals with a wireless sensor network that was specifically designed to monitor temperature-sensitive products during their distribution with the aim of conforming to the cold-chain assurance requirements. The measurement problems and the constraints that have been encountered in this application are initially highlighted, and then, an architecture that takes such problems into account is proposed. The proposed architecture is based on specifically designed measuring nodes that are inserted into the products to identify their behavior under real operating conditions, e.g., during a typical distribution. Such product nodes communicate through a wireless channel with a base station, which collects and processes the data sent by all the nodes. A peculiarity of the product nodes is the low cost, which allows the information on the cold-chain integrity to be provided to the final customer. The results that refer to the functional tests of the proposed system and to the experimental tests performed on a refrigerated vehicle during a distribution are reporte

Evaluation of Radiation Thermal Resistances in Industrial Motors

This paper deals with the role of the radiation thermal resistances in industrial motors and describes a test set useful for the resistance evaluation. The test set is based on a vacuum chamber and on a numerical acquisition system, and the resistances are obtained by monitoring motor temperatures during a heating test. An analytical model that describes how the radiation resistance depends on the motor temperature is also provided. Experimental results obtained on a totally enclosed fan-cooled 150-W induction motor are shown and discussed

Outdoor Experimental Laboratory for Long-Term Estimation of Photovoltaic-Plant Performance

This paper describes an outdoor experimental laboratory that has been developed to estimate the performance of photovoltaic (PV) plants in operating conditions. The laboratory includes ten different plants and a data acquisition system that has been specifically conceived to monitor the actual behavior of the plants. The main goals of this laboratory are the comparison among the performance indexes of different PV technologies and the long-term drift estimation of the specifications of the plant components. In this paper, the first results that refer to a time interval of nine months are reported, which allow a comparison among the monitored PV plants to be performed. A description of the data-acquisition system is also provided by focusing attention toward its metrological management, which allows traceable results to be obtained that are qualified in terms of measurement uncertaint

Assessment of a Dual-Wavelength Compensation Technique for Displacement Sensors Using Plastic Optical Fibers

The paper analyzes the performance of a dual-wavelength technique devised to compensate power fluctuations in intensity-modulated plastic optical fiber sensors, which were specifically conceived for the measurement of displacements in industrial and civil applications. These sensors retrieve the displacement from the variation of the attenuation along the light path and use two signals at different wavelengths to compensate for the effects of parasitic quantities, such as temperature and strains along the fiber. The theoretical behavior of the compensation technique is presented, and the results of experiments carried out with different combinations of signal wavelengths and plastic fibers are reported. The experimental setup has proved that, by proper choice of the compensation signal wavelength, it is possible to monitor displacements in the range (0 to 10) mm, even for low received power and under severe perturbation conditions, thus significantly improving the long-term stability of the sensor

A Low-Cost Optical Sensor for Non contact Vibration Measurements

This paper presents a new noncontact method to measure vibrations by using a low-cost optical approach that is able to provide a submicrometer resolution. The transducer exploits a simple optical setup based on an intensity-detection scheme that is implemented with plastic optical fibers, whereas innovative non demanding spectral data processing allows compensation of the vibrating surface reflectivity and the gains of the measurement chain. The performance of the proposed system has been assessed, through comparison with other techniques, by performing several measurement tests that use targets vibrating at frequencies from a few hertz up to several tens of kilohertz and with different values of reflectivit

Measurement uncertainty issues in freeze-drying Processes

This paper deals with problems that have to be faced when performing mass and temperature measurements of substances subjected to freeze-drying processes. A brief description of a lyophilization process is initially presented and a deep investigation is performed in order to identify the main uncertainty contributions that affect mass and temperature measurements. A measurement system is then described that has been specifically conceived to work inside a freeze-dryer. Experimental results are reported that refer to the metrological characterization of the proposed measurement system and to its use for the monitoring of real freeze-drying processes. Experimental tests are also described that have been conceived to estimate the uncertainty contributions strictly related to this specific applicatio