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Home > About Us > Press Center > 2004 Press Releases : Press Release |
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GE Energy Adds New Air Gap Sensor to Its Comprehensive Hydro Condition Monitoring Solution MONTREAL, CANADA (August 18, 2004) — GE Energy announced the addition of the new Bently Nevada® Air Gap Sensor to its hydro turbine generator condition monitoring solution today at HydroVision 2004 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Monitoring the air gap provides operations and maintenance personnel with an early warning of impending problems and facilitates condition-based maintenance by allowing users to efficiently schedule and plan for repairs. The Air Gap Sensor is a specially designed capacitive proximity probe that mounts on the inner bore of a hydro generator stator. Multiple sensors provide in-service measurements of the distance between the rotor and the stator in both new and existing generators. Monitoring air gap is critically important because the shape and location of the rotor and stator on a large hydro generator are affected by operating centrifugal, thermal and magnetic forces. Understanding the rotor and stator shapes, positions and minimum air gap dimensions provides the operator with the information needed to remove a machine from service before serious damage from magnetically induced overheating or rotor-to-stator rub occurs. "Many hydro machines are no longer operating continuously at base load, but are instead subject to frequent speed and load changes that introduce thermal, mechanical and electrical stresses not anticipated in the initial design," said Ricardo Artigas, president of energy services for GE Energy. "By implementing our hydro condition monitoring solution, customers are able to lower maintenance costs through better planning. Downtime is minimized and productivity is increased." The new Air Gap Sensor is part of GE Energy's proven hydro condition monitoring solution that includes the Bently Nevada 3500 Series 46M Hydro Monitor and powerful System 1® optimization and diagnostic software that provides comprehensive condition monitoring capabilities including advanced plots and sophisticated data analysis tools. This news release is available for download at http://www.bently.com/news.htm and also available to be viewed at http://www.gepower.com. Bently Nevada products and services provide global leadership in assessing and ensuring the mechanical and thermodynamic health of industrial machinery. With operations in Minden, Nev. and offices in the principal industrial centers of over 40 countries, the highly experienced Bently Nevada product team serves a broad base of more than 25,000 global customers in the power generation, petrochemical and other industries. Bently Nevada is a GE Energy (www.gepower.com) business. About GE Energy GE Energy (www.gepower.com) is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technology, with 2003 revenues of nearly $18.5 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy provides equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, transmission and distribution, distributed power and energy rental industries. For more information, contact: GE Energy: Dennis Murphy GE Energy +1 678 844 6948 dennis.murphy@ps.ge.com Gina DeRossi or Howard Masto Masto Public Relations +1 518 786 6488 gina.derossi@mastopr.com howard.masto@ps.ge.com > Press Contacts > More 2004 Press Releases |