Systems and methods for testing steam traps or other similar devices in a hot water or steam system are described. A tester includes a wand that is handheld that can communicate with a handheld electronic device which in turn can communicate with a central monitor for storing and compiling readings as historical profile data. The wand includes a probe to physically contact the device to acoustically sense the performance of the device. The probe includes a probe tip and a stack of acoustic elements, an electrode, a stack mass, and a head to covert the acoustic signal into an electrical signal. The handheld device includes circuitry to process the information, interact with the user, and transmit information to and from the handheld electronic device and/or the central monitor.

A method of processing a signal is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a signal obtained from measuring a structure under a given set of environmental and/or operational conditions, the signal comprising a set of amplitude values which depend on position in the signal and adjusting the amplitude value each of at least two of the amplitude values independently according to the position of the amplitude value in the signal and according to the given environmental and/or operational conditions.

A predictive diagnostics system for monitoring mechanical seals. The system autonomously detects a loss of lubrication within a sliding seal interface of a mechanical seal, the system including a loss of lubrication failure mode logic module configured to monitor data sensed by one or more sensors and diagnose conditions relating to a loss of lubrication within the sliding seal interface, and a plurality of other failure mode logic modules configured to monitor data sensed by the one or more sensors and diagnose conditions relating to specific types of mechanical failures known to occur in mechanical seal systems, the loss of lubrication failure mode logic module configured to determine which of the plurality of other failure mode logic modules are activated during the diagnosis of conditions related to a loss of lubrication within the sliding seal interface.

A system includes an inspection robot for performing an inspection on an inspection surface with an inspection robot, the apparatus comprising a position definition circuit structured to determine an inspection robot position on the inspection surface; a data positioning circuit structured to interpret inspection data, and to correlate the inspection data to the inspection robot position on the inspection surface; and wherein the data positioning circuit is further structured to determine position informed inspection data in response to the correlating of the inspection data with the inspection robot position, wherein the position informed inspection data comprises absolute position data.

A device (1) including an ultrasonic measuring unit (7) that sends an ultrasonic signal (S1) into a structure (2) and measures the amplitude of the ultrasonic signal (S2) reflected by the structure (2), a processing unit for determining the thickness of the interposition mastic (3) from the measurements of the ultrasonic measuring unit (7) and with the aid of a propagation model of the interposition mastic (3) which provides a thickness value of the interposition mastic (3) depending on the propagation time of the ultrasonic signal in the interposition mastic (3) as well as auxiliary data, and a processing unit for deducing a conformity or a lack of conformity of said interposition mastic (3) and the presence of cuttings from the thickness of the interposition mastic (3), the device (1) carrying out a conformity checking that is accurate, fast and reliable without having to disassemble the structure (2).

This invention discloses a system to automate a non-destructive test (NDT) for measuring stress or stress change developed within an object during a certain time period by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and ultrasound technique. The system comprises a ground control station (GCS), UAVs and reference positioning modules as its basis. Given a test plan containing test points over a surface of a test object in 3D point coordinates, UAVs can fly autonomously to the points and perform ultrasound measurements on them with a single or a plurality of ultrasound transducers in an automated manner. Moreover, after receiving trigger signals from the GCS, a UAV can also perform the flight and the measurement synchronously with other UAVs. After a measurement, an acquired ultrasound echo signal is taken with another echo signal acquired at a different time point to compute stress or stress change.

A gas analyzer uses continuous sonic signals through a conduit to determine the composition of a gas in the conduit. A transmitting transducer drives sonic signals at a fixed frequency and a second transducer receives the sonic signals. The phase shift between two signals corresponds to the speed of sound through the gas and is related to the composition of the gas. The electronic versions of these signals are processed by lowering, or dividing, the fixed frequency which expands the range of phase shift measurement and allows the determination of an expanded range for the gas composition. In an ozone generation system, the gas analyzer is highly suitable for determining the composition of gases derived from air as a gas of known composition and a calibration point.

The invention pertains to a method for respectively determining the neutral temperature or the stressfree state in a rail section (1), wherein an ultrasonic signal is coupled into a representative volume of the rail profile perpendicular to its longitudinal direction, wherein the volume is subjected to stresses in the longitudinal direction of the rail section (1), wherein the stresses are measured, wherein an ultrasonic signal influenced by these stresses is decoupled, wherein a function describing the functional dependence of the decoupled ultrasonic signal on the introduced stress is determined, and wherein the stressfree state is determined based on the course of this function.

A gas sensor includes a piezoelectric substrate; a resonator in an electrode region on an upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate, the resonator including interdigital transducer (IDT) electrodes and IDT pads connected to the IDT electrodes, the IDT electrodes configured to generate a surface acoustic wave in a center region of the electrode region, the surface acoustic wave propagating in a first horizontal direction; a sensing film in the center region of the electrode region on the upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate, the sensing film including a sensing material that interacts with a target gas; and a heater in an edge region surrounding the electrode region on the upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate, the heater including heater electrodes configured to heat the sensing film and heater pads connected to the heater electrodes, the heater electrodes and the heater pads forming a closed conduction loop.

A method for determining the moisture within a cooking chamber of a cooking device has the following steps: a) an acoustic oscillation generating in a resonance chamber, b) a control unit receiving the signals picked up by a microphone in the resonance chamber, c) the control unit determining the frequency spectrum of the acoustic oscillations present in the resonance chamber on the basis of the received signals and determines the speed of sound within the cooking chamber on the basis of the frequency spectrum, d) the control unit receives receiving a temperature value; and e) the control unit determines the moisture within the cooking chamber by means of the temperature value and the speed of sound.