The established range of Capacitive Air Gap Transducers available from machine monitoring specialist SENSONICS, have been developed to meet the critical measurement requirements driven by the need to understand the dynamic relationship between the rotor and stator in hydro power generation applications. These CS probe and driver combination sensors are designed as a non-contact dynamic position transducer utilising a capacitive technique to provide an accurate displacement measurement from the sensor face to the generator rotor bars (a metal target).
The key advantage of the capacitive technique in generator applications is the high immunity to magnetic fields, while the CS series also provides high resolution and relative insensitivity to different (metal) target materials.
The sensor is available in a robust strip-line mechanical arrangement, ideal for mounting with specialist adhesive on the stator wall. It features separate transmit and receive integral coaxial cables which are routed over the stator wall or through ventilation holes to the driver which provides the transmission signal for the strip line and receiver detection.
Linearised opto-isolated outputs are provided in both voltage and current format which can be configured to represent various rotor pole measurements with respect to the stator. These include pole and rotor profile as well as an overall minimum gap output.
The CS probe and driver combinations are now available for an increased measurement range covering 7mm,15mm, 25mm, 50mm and 75mm to ensure highly effective monitoring for the smallest, up to the largest hydro generators.
More at: https://www.sensonics.co.uk/blog/capacitive-air-gap-sensors-how-used
