The motivating factors for installing wireless sensors are easy to see – simplicity of installation and operational flexibility. However, there are also potential challenges. The main challenges for safe wireless communication are to guarantee a short response time and to immediately detect loss of contact with sensors. Control Engineering Europe reports on a possible solution.
GasSecure AS receives the 2011 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Award in the European Gas Detection Industry.
The Technology Innovation Award is presented to the company that has excelled in the following criteria: uniqueness of technology, impact on new products/applications, impact on functionality, impact on customer value and relevance of innovation to industry.
Anita Pamu, Research Analyst, Frost & Sullivan says: “This system has the potential to revolutionize the industry with its reliability, lower installation costs, small and compact size, long battery life and its simplicity. Its initial application is to detect methane in the oil industry but the technology also has the potential to be adapted to several other gases and applications.”
See the report from Frost & Sullivan for more details
The MEMS diffractive optical element, which is the heart of GasSecure's wireless gas detector, was in its early days developed in cooperation with the European Space Agency. ESA has published an extensive article describing the technology.
“Research co-funded by ESA and the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Lab of Norwegian research organisation SINTEF has produced the simplest gas detector possible,” said Benedikt Guldimann, overseeing the project for ESA. “The resulting product is much smaller, robust and reliable than existing systems, with low power requirements and no recalibration needed.”