Dillon Tensiometer (Dynamometer) Upgrade for NDT Pipeline Pigging & Inspection Services

We recently completed a refurbishment and upgrade to an older Dillon Tensiometer model owned by NDT Services. Frank Vignall, from NDT, has been using a 40KIP Dillion Tensiometer for many years to support his pipeline inspection services. In his work he mounts the tensiometer on a cable used to pull a package through a test pipeline to determine how much pressure it will require to push a similarly-sized scientific package through a fluid or gas pipeline for customers. NDT Services sends their scientific packages through pipes to find defects and identify pipe locations where repairs need to be made. Their old Dillon tensiometer had parts that were worn out and no longer serviceable. You can see in the pictures below that in our upgrade we installed modern wiring, a strain gauge module and a Hall Effect sensor to measure cable payout.

The load cell on the Dillon unit was still functional but the rotational sensor had failed. MTNW designed a special gear tooth sensor and mounted it to the spur gear on one of the outer sheaves. In this manner we were able to obtain a digital quadrature pulse train that MTNW’s LCI-90 processed into a real-time display of speed, payout and cable direction. In the course of this retrofit MTNW worked with engineers from Dillon, the spur gear manufacturers, and our rotational sensor manufacturer. In the end we were able to measure 72 pulses per sheave rotation with a highly accurate payout resolution. The existing load cell was found to be functional and when connected to our LCI-90 display found to be very accurate in calibration. We also installed new bulkhead connectors on both the tensiometer and display units.

This Dillon Tensiometer is over 10 years old and came from the original Dillon series. It weighs about 350 lbs. As you can see in the picture below, we now make comparable tensiometers (dynamometers) which weigh less than 1/3 of the original Dillon model but which can support a similar tension range. Our RL-60 frame size (shown below) can accommodate a tension range from 0-60KIPS. For greater accuracy, we have used custom load pins in this frame size for lower (0-20 & 0-40 KIPS) maximum loads.

We also paired this older Dillon unit with our WinchDAC software for PC logging and remote viewing of operational data. Now NDT can build and send data directly out of WinchDAC into Excel for further report building. See our WinchDAC Software for Single Winch images below.

Given that Dillon was one of the first tensiometer manufacturers in North America it has been gratifying to see how well suited our modern technology was to the functional upgrade of this older system.

Tags: cable tension, cable tension monitoring, Line Tension, winch tension

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Line Control Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.