THE ROANOKE REGION OF VIRGINIA

About the Award

For 47 years, the prestigious R&D 100 Awards have identified revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market. The winning of an R&D 100 Award provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year. Synchrony was a winner in the Mechanical Devices category for it's Fusion Magnetic Bearing.

The Award Winner, Synchrony Inc. Roanoke, VA!

Magnetic bearing systems are common to large compressors and turbines in the oil and gas industries, but great complexity and cost, as well as bulk, has greatly hindered their widespread usage. To help companies experience some of the savings in mechanical wear, energy usage, and the lack of need for lubrication, Synchrony Inc., Roanoke, Va., developed its Fusion Magnetic Bearing. Through design innovations, the complexity of the magnetic bearing system is hidden both to the designer and operator of the machine. The maze of electromagnets, sensors, electronics, and wiring remains internal to the magnetic bearing. The required connections are simply 48 VDC of power and optionally an Ethernet cable. The overall size of the magnetic bearing remains smaller than conventional systems that require an external control system. Sensor data sampling occurs at a rate of 15,000 times per second, which allows the magnetic bearing to provide real-time continuous health monitoring of the rotor-dynamic health of the machine. Vibration data may be presented as time-based waveforms, as spatial orbits, or as spectral data. Conditions that can be identified include unbalance, misalignment, shaft bow, cracked rotor, and seal instabilities.

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