Measurement solutions for the energy industry

HBM has developed its extensive range of equipment both for structural analysis and continued performance across all energy sectors including renewable energy, nuclear, oil and gas. This makes HBM the ideal partner for the energy industry whether working onshore or off for any application.

There are many fields of application in the energy industry where HBM measurement technology ensures reliable results—in energy generation as well as in power networks and the development of plants.

Typical applications include:

Measurement data acquisition in high-voltage areas

Solutions for impulse tests, high-voltage tests.

Tests in high-voltage areas, such as lightning and switching impulse tests place extraordinary demands on the test equipment used. HBM high-voltage products enable reliable measurement data acquisition thanks to electrical isolation, electromagnetic immunity and many other features. The devices have been tried and tested and are used in thousands of applications worldwide. Typical applications include:

Testing of switching systems, such as switching devices and fuses
Lightning impulse tests, for example, for testing transformers, surge protectors, isolators and switching systems
Determination of current zero-crossing.

High-voltage data acquisition solutions

Tests on a blade of a wind turbine with optical strain gauges from HBM

Durability tests on components

Many structures in the energy industry are subject to high loads: pipelines, power poles or the foundations and towers of wind turbines. Experimental stress analysis is the ideal method to determine stress in materials.

HBM offers a wide range of strain gages and measuring amplifiers as well as professional catman®AP software for experimental stress analysis.
Especially useful for applications in the energy industry: the many possibilities of optical measurement technology using fiber Bragg sensors—measurement with light. Electromagnetic influences can no longer affect the measurement results.

Torque efficiency tests on generators

The demands on the efficiency of generators in all kinds of power plants are increasing dramatically.

Cost pressure and more stringent environmental regulations require knowledge of specific characteristic values reflecting the performance of your generators. HBM is the global market leader in torque measurement—and provides a range of powerful analog and digital torque transducers.

HBM's precise and robust torque transducers are the better choice—in particular in comparison to the indirect torque measurement methods widely used so far.

Weighing technology applications for the energy industry

Whether in gas tanks, with raw materials or in nuclear power plants: Load cells are used in many applications in the energy industry.

HBM's wide range of load cells and weighing indicators offers the right solution for every application—be it for tank weighing or in dynamic weighing processes.

Even in the demanding field of uranium enrichment with high temperature fluctuations, HBM's RTN load cells provide precise and reliable measurement results.

HBM nCode fatigue and durability software

System design, test automation

Test strain on your systems and structures already in the design phase!

HBM nCode's professional software solutions enable you to carry out "virtual tests" even before starting the production of prototypes. Save costs and increase your efficiency by performing durability and fatigue analyses already in the development phase. Many users from the energy industry, especially from nuclear and wind energy, rely on HBM nCode solutions.

HBM nCode Software Solutions

Wind energy applications

In Wind energy there are versatile applications such as the monitoring of the wind load in the blades of wind turbines in order to increase reliability and availability of wind turbines. The same system can be used to protect the wind turbine from high winds by stopping the machine and turning the blades into a safe position.

Another example for applications in wind energy is power measurement. The mechanical power e.g. of generators needs to be measured accurately with HBM high precision torque transducers according to the standard IEC 60034.

Wind turbine testing with HBM

Pictures by Jan Ortgies & Gernot Grundey - Photocase

Solutions for wind turbine testing

HBM offers many professional solutions for tests in the wind energy industry—during the development of plants, but also for structural tests of existing wind turbines.

Wind turbine testing solutions from HBM