The system, designed and supplied by Monitran as a turnkey solution, employs 14 MTN/1100W general purpose constant-current analysis sensors with ac outputs, sealed to IP68 (submersible) and supplied with marine-approved cables.
Tony Roxburgh, project manager of Griffon Hoverwork, explains that these feed into a bulkhead-mounted waterproof cabinet that contains 14 MTN/8066 g-mac signal conditioning units.
Those, in turn, provide analogue outputs proportional to velocity and peak g, which feed into a PCB-mounted microcontroller, programmed by Monitran to drive a touch-screen display on the front of the cabinet.
"A hovercraft's drivetrain experiences a wide range of loads, in terms of torque and rpm, during operation, as it tends to be worked hard when a crew is responding to an emergency," comments Roxburgh.
"The Indian Coast Guard requested that their 8000TDs be fitted with an integrated engine and gearbox vibration monitoring system to warn the pilot if the drivetrain experiences any abnormal vibrations."