Wireless Load Pins for Telescope Application 📰
19th May 2017On their way to our customer are 8 x 100kN rated wireless load pins that will be used to remotely monitor the tensile forces in telescope vanes. The wireless load pins will form part of an assembly that determines preload force to ensure telescope positional alignment and accuracy. The telescope vanes are subject to a tensile forces by tightening turnbuckes, and operators need to know that force to ensure the preload is applied equally to each of the eight vanes, as well as the combined force applied. Because of the multi-positional handling frame a cabled solution was not practical, so a custom designed wireless load pin was manufactured which features a 600m transmission distance and over 300 hours’ continuous use battery life. Due to strict quality requirements, the load pins also needed to comply with the Machinery Directive. In addition to the 8 load pins, a T24-HA handheld display was supplied to show the individual loads on each vane, as well as the total load.