Hydraulic pressure monitoring for critical construction projects

28 March, 2023

The next design challenge was overcoming the issue of limited power supply onsite. The transmitters themselves have very good battery life and only need changing periodically because data transmission is efficient. However, receivers, such as active repeaters, need to be on all the time, giving a significantly shorter battery life.

Installing electrical power cables across a building site isn’t a practical option for most contractors. Firstly, it is costly and complex to install underground wiring for a temporary building site. Secondly, overground electrical cables could pose a safety risk to construction workers. Mantracourt was able to pair the devices with a weatherproof SP1 solar panel and a PP1 power pack.

“The combination of the SP1 and PP1 provides contractors with dependable off-grid power generation 24/7 and, crucially, round-the-clock remote data collection”, says Lilly, who added: “The 12 V system can provide an average of 53 mA of power, even during the winter months, which is more than enough to power an active repeater. The battery pack is sealed in a weatherproof IP65-rated casing with rugged waterproof connectors for attaching the solar panel.”

Mantracourt’s T24 wireless telemetry system can also connect to SensorSpace — a cloud-based platform used by Hydrotechnik customers, allowing them to remotely monitor a live feed of data and a historical three-year data repository.

“The pressure data collected using the Watchlog software is uploaded, where it can be viewed and analysed for predictive maintenance, anomaly detection and general diagnostics,” explains Price. “Our customers have benefitted from using SensorSpace to monitor and control additional sensors. For example, data from linear movement and vibration sensors can be viewed online using the same customisable dashboard as hydraulic pressure.

“A site manager can see an entire overview of the site and can be notified via SMS or email when a problem is detected. For the Thames project, the dashboard can also be used to monitor other variables such as the increase in the applied force against the building’s foundations.”

Price concluded: “We’re pleased to have found such a constructive partnership with Mantracourt. The quality of service from its engineers is unrivalled, and we continue to collaborate on wireless monitoring solutions for our customers across the construction sector. We’ve already placed more orders for wireless and handheld devices and have no doubt that there will be an opportunity to develop new solutions in the future.”

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