The invention relates to a bearing for supporting a shaft, in particular a rudder shaft, or a rudder blade, by means of which bearing the bearing clearance or the bearing wear can be continuously monitored, determined, and optionally documented. According to the invention, for a bearing for supporting a shaft, in particular a rudder shaft, comprising a first bearing element and a second bearing element, wherein the first bearing element has a sliding surface for contacting the second bearing element in a sliding manner, and a measurement-value sensor having a wear surface for contacting the second bearing element in a sliding manner, the at least one measurement-value sensor is not pin-shaped.

A device adapted to measure the wear of a ball-and-socket joint. The ball-and-socket joint comprising a first ring, which delimits a spherical housing, a second spherical ring, which is positioned concentrically in the housing of the first ring, and a lining, which is made from an elastically insulating material and is inserted between the second ring and the spherical housing of the first ring. A wear measuring feature includes at least two electrodes provided to be connected to the first ring and the second ring, respectively, or to the lining, so as to form a capacitor structure and a capacitance measuring device for measuring the capacity of the capacitor thus formed. The device further comprises an electronic circuit, which is a resonant circuit including the capacitor, an inductance and a resistance positioned in series.

The invention relates to a bearing for supporting a shaft, in particular a rudder shaft, or a rudder blade, by means of which bearing the bearing clearance or the bearing wear can be continuously monitored, determined, and optionally documented. According to the invention, for a bearing for supporting a shaft, in particular a rudder shaft, comprising a first bearing element and a second bearing element, wherein the first bearing element has a sliding surface for contacting the second bearing element in a sliding manner, and a measurement-value sensor having a wear surface for contacting the second bearing element in a sliding manner, the at least one measurement-value sensor is not pin-shaped.

A mechanical device is provided for amplifying relative displacement between first and second mechanical structures operatively connected to opposite sides of a bearing. The relative displacement is caused by a thrust load on the bearing. The device includes a first bracket portion attachable to the first mechanical structure. The device further includes a compliant mechanism which extends from the first bracket portion to make contact with the second mechanical structure. The compliant mechanism is configured such that a measurement end of the mechanism moves in response to relative displacement between the first and second mechanical structures. The compliant mechanism is further configured such that the movement of the measurement end amplifies the relative displacement. The device further includes a sensor which measures the mechanically amplified movement of the measurement end.

Monitoring a thickness of a lubricant film in a journal bearing of an epicyclic gear system in an operating gas turbine engine is provided. The method comprises receiving, by a signal processor from a sensor, an electrical property measurement across the lubricant film. The electrical property measurement is converted by the signal processor into a calculated lubricant film thickness measurement. Whether the calculated lubricant film thickness measurement is below a predetermined minimum lubricant film thickness is determined by the signal processor. An alert is outputted if the calculated lubricant film thickness measurement is below the predetermined minimum lubricant film thickness.

The motor bearing wear monitoring device (5, 5A) monitors wear states of bearings (32, 33) with detection coils (C1 to C8). The device includes a storage (56, 56A) storing correspondence information on wear amount of the bearing and a voltage value corresponding to the wear amount, a wear amount detection unit detecting the wear amount of the bearing, based on differences between each of the detection coils (C1, C3) and between each of the detection coils (C5, C7), and a difference between a combined signal of the detection coils (C2, C4) and a combined signal of the detection coils (C6, C8); a signal generation unit (53, 553) generating an amplitude signal, based on the detection signal or the combined signal that are used for generating the difference; and a correction unit (551, 554) correcting the difference or the correspondence information depending on a driving frequency, based on the amplitude signal.

The invention relates a capacitive sensor device for determining a distance between a rigid body and another rigid body in a system for contactless linear displacement along a linear displacement path of the rigid body relative to the other rigid body, the capacitive sensor device comprising a capacitive sensor component with a first sensor node mounted to the rigid body and a second sensor node mounted to the other rigid body; a transmission component having at least a first input node for receiving an input signal as well as an output node for providing an output signal representative of the distance; a frequency-dependent input signal generator operatively connected to the first sensor node of the capacitive sensor component and the first input node of the transmission component being operatively connected to the second sensor node of the capacitive sensor component.

A device for determining expansion of a rotor (3) of an electric machine, where the rotor is supported by at least one magnetic bearing (4, 5). The device includes an inductive position sensor (7, 8) measuring a position of the rotor (3), a first determining means (11), a second determining means, and a third determining means (12). The first determining means (11) determines a gap width (J) separating the rotor from said inductive position sensor. The second determining means determines the value of a current representative of the power being supplied to the inductive position sensor. The third determining means (12) determines the value of the expansion of the rotor (3).