Overview

Crawler cranes are a common site on construction sites.  What's new is their improved automation to ensure higher performance and operator safety.

To ensure higher performance, OEMs install absolute encoders, often on the winches for boom control and/or hook position.

In this blog, we'll take a look at encoders that are tested to meet UL Class and Division standards, that is, NEC500 requirements for oil and gas drilling.

Rotary encoders can have their own reliability problems.  So how can you eliminate items around the encoder that decrease reliability on your drilling equipment?

So you are wondering about safety certifications for rotary incremental encoders?  This is a complex issue, and in this post, we'll do our best to explain the certifications, and how they apply to encoders.

Recently, I was invited by Design World to provide some insight into encoder failures.

This blog will help you understand rotary encoder signals on your drilling equipment and compare what is acceptable in the real world to the textbook pictures published by vendors.  Unfortunately, what you see in the real world doesn't look much like the textbooks.  This blog will help you determine if your encoder signal is good or bad.

Understanding how optical encoders work, especially rotary encoders, can help you eliminate (and understand) encoder problems on your drilling rigs.

So you are staring at the inert chunk of metal you just pulled off your top drive, wondering why it isn't a working encoder any more, and what you can do to keep the spare running longer.  Is there a wiring error?  Did someone change the encoder wiring?

To understand how to stop encoder failures on your top drives, you have to understand the failures themselves.

In my previous blog, we discussed some of the causes of rotary encoder failures on top drives.

In this blog, we'll dive a bit deeper and look at the failure modes themselves.

Top drive encoders are mission critical. If you don’t want idle rigs sapping your profits, you need a clear understanding of the challenges and potential problems that can come to your operation.

Although top drive encoders are becoming more durable and reliable, there are still many problems that can arise. After all, a huge locomotive-grade electric motor meshed with a 750 ton capable gearbox is often left to depend on a rotary encoder’s glass disk, fragile electronics, and one tiny 40lb single-row bearing!