Partner Stories

Antti Ouni, Senior Development Manager, and Jari Pellinen, Development Manager, of Structural Dynamics Team at Wärtsilä Energy Business, are experts in performing vibration measurements for engine-generator sets before they are shipped to customers as well as at their final installation locations. Generator sets are massive; their length can be over 18 meters (59 feet), and their weight often exceeds 400 ton (880 000 lbp). They comprise a generator and a reciprocating engine mounted on a common base frame and are used in power plants and for powering vessels. Generator sets’ electrical outputs can be up to 23 MW.

One of the critical steps to ensure each generator set's reliable functioning for decades is verification of the set’s dynamic behaviour through synchronized multi-channel high-sampling-rate vibration measurements. For many years Antti ja Jari have been carrying out the measurements using wired data acquisition systems. Installation of vibration sensors together with related cables in hard-to-reach areas has been time consuming. Also, the expensive and sensitive cables can get damaged during measurement, causing additional expenses and loss of time.

The Solmu DAQ system and use of Solmu Module 910 data acquisition devices helped to address this issue. "Access to the generator set is limited due to tight schedules. Measuring with Solmu's DAQ Module 910 instead of a wired system brings substantial time savings, enabling us to do more measurements within the same time period. Furthermore, now we can easily add even more measurement channels, which has been in our wish list for a long time", says Antti.

Solmu and Wärtsilä have been collaborating for several years now, and with the release of DAQ Module 910, the co-operation between companies is expected to increase even further. "Based on fruitful discussions with Wärtsilä, we have identified several major features to be added to our products to help our customers save even more time and money", says Janne Janhunen, CEO of Solmu, with full of enthusiasm.