Fred Olsen
Alker is also able to provide bespoke inspection and cleaning tips for your equipment and your assets.
About
Fred. Olsen Renewables is a leading developer, owner and operator of renewable energy assets, primarily onshore wind farms.
As the demand for wind energy continues to grow, the requirements for wind farms are equally increasing. The efficiency relies on reducing maintenance and operation costs and improving reliability, i.e. minimising downtime and maximising service life Fibre optic cables are increasingly being used for remote control of temperature, blade angle, speed of the rotor, hydraulic levels, etc.
Wind farms work in a challenging environment and are not suited for traditional fibre optic equipment. The ideal fibre optic equipment deploys within a wind farm should have rugged,
lightweight features for extreme environments to extend its life cycle. As this is not usually the case, the half life servicing will encounter that the fibre optic cables are inadequate and often damaged.
Problem
Breaking of assemblies inside the wind turbines due to moving, rubbing and consumption. Alker were tasked with replacing ageing fibre optics within turbine towers as “half-life” servicing and upgrade.
Solution
A complete redesign of the assemblies was developed and manufactured by Alker. From an initial working prototype, we produced a range of assemblies/breakouts with 2 and 4 micro armoured tails, and ST, SC, SMA or LC connectors.
Upgrading assemblies during half-life servicing will extend the life expectancy.
Armouring and braiding assemblies at the design and manufacturing stage would immediately improve service-life..
Features
- We developed flexible armouring within the assemblies for extra protection;
- We added stainless steel braiding to the outside assemblies to prevent rubbing;
- Armoured the internal multicore fibre optics with Kevlar for additional protection;
- We developed a stainless-steel solution for the breakout tails;
- We added sacrificial patch cords to the breakout to protect the main assembly.
Connecting the future world…..
At Alker we have more than 35 years’ experience in the fibre optic industry, our engineers are able to break down existing connectors to determine the most appropriate course of action to carry out a repair, redesign or have new parts manufactured to extend the life of your system.
Get In TouchWe look forward to hearing from you with our next challenge
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It is difficult to express my admiration for the level of ability that exists within your organisation to not only restore full optical functionality, but to also manufacture additional parts to actually improve the original design. Well done and thank you for a job perfectly executed.
JES ENGINEERING
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Our brief to Alker was to design & manufacture fibre optic assemblies in preparation for our ultrasonic sensor technology to be used in harsh and extreme environments. Despite the challenge and changing requirements, Alker was always very accommodating with the aim of providing consistently high-quality service in a short time frame.
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Alker’s expertise and professionalism led to a well-constructed and refined approach with huge success for our project; the assistance and support we received was excellent.
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