On-line Wear Debris Analysis
Macom Technologies is a Scottish electronics engineering company established in September 1999 following a requirement by its owners, who were involved in the oil and gas industry, for a device to detect and measure wear debris on-line. After searching and finding nothing suitable, the company came across a new technology being developed by Edinburgh University. The sensor being developed had a unique patented screening technique which eliminates the false detection of air and water bubbles as metallic particles, thus giving a far more accurate trend of the machinery condition. Having identified the need for on-line wear debris sensors to compliment the ‘norm’, which was vibration analysis, along with off-line lab testing of oil samples, Macom was formed and was assigned the patented technology.By Matthew Hunt, Macom Technologies, UK