Visual inspection made easy with SKF’s stroboscopes

A range of hand-held, easy-to-use stroboscopes that enables the visual inspection of rotating equipment to be carried out in an economic and timely fashion has been unveiled by SKF.

All rotating equipment needs to be inspected periodically to ensure that it is working correctly. Sylvain Humbert, Product Development Manager at SKF says: “If visual inspection is not carried out, machine damage can be overlooked and unexpected breakdowns can occur. With visual inspection, problems can be detected and preventive measures can be planned and taken."

However, machinery often must be shut down to allow visual inspection to take place, interrupting vital operations and causing costly downtime.

SKF's TKRS stroboscopes enable visual inspections to be carried out on equipment while it is rotating. The hand-held devices emit flashes of light timed to coincide with the speed of the running machine, creating an optical effect whereby the moving parts appear to be permanently frozen in place. This allows visual inspection to take place.

Matching the timing of the strobe effect with the machinery to be inspected can be tricky using some stroboscopes. By contrast, all TKRS stroboscopes are quick and easy to set-up and use. Users of TKRS stroboscopes can change the frequency with which the stroboscope flashes to match with the speed of the rotating machine simply by turning a rotary control wheel with their thumb.

Advanced TKRS stroboscopes, meanwhile, use lasers to detect the speed of the machinery and feature a built-in trigger input that can receive signals from machines that express their rotation speed. These features enable their flash frequencies to be synchronised automatically.

Through the use energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the TKRS range of stroboscopes are some of the brightest hand-held options on the market, which enables the user to view the rotating equipment with a high degree of clarity. Importantly, this brightness is achieved without having to increase the duration of the flashes, which can generate blurriness in the frozen image.

The compact and ergonomic design of the stroboscopes ensures that they can be carried conveniently in a pocket or toolbox. Furthermore, they feature large user interfaces that are simple to use yet provide access to a wide range of features and settings.

The TKRS range comprises four stroboscopes with differing levels of functionality. These are:
• TKRS 11, a compact and affordable LED stroboscope;
• TKRS 21, a compact yet high-power LED stroboscope;
• TRKS 31, a compact advanced LED/laser stroboscope; and
• TKRS 41, a high-performance LED stroboscope.

Jens Kammann, Marketing Manager says: “The TKRS range has been designed so that we can offer our customers an efficient and easy-to-use stroboscope, no matter their budget.”

The TKRS range is suitable for general maintenance tasks, including inspection of couplings, fan blades, gears, belts, chains and more. However, the stroboscopes also may be used for advanced production quality control and visual vibration analysis.