Sentient’s DigitalClone software and Croda’s Rewitec additive used to extend the life of existing main bearings and gearboxes
In 2019, Croda acquired Rewitec GmbH and began to offer Energy Technologies customers nano- and micro-particle-based additives to increase the durability of machinery by lowering friction and reducing wear. Sentient Science validated Rewitec’s DuraGear gearbox oil additives for use in wind turbine gearboxes in 2017.
Sentient Science provides DigitalClone® for Wind Operations and Maintenance, which uses a unique combination of physics and data science to give a holistic view of the health and remaining useful life of an asset’s critical systems and components. This information is used for predictive maintenance programs to reduce operations and maintenance costs and ultimately to prolong asset life. Sentient is able to calculate and demonstrate durability improvements imparted through using Croda’s Rewitec technology, which provides asset owners the option of extending the lifetime of their assets instead of costly part replacements.
“The competitive energy market is forcing energy producers to optimize maintenance practices and reduce operational expenses”, said Scott Gardiner, Business Development Specialist, Energy Technologies at Croda. “Major correctives are the largest cost drivers in the wind energy market, specifically gearbox or main shaft replacement. The cost of this replacement can completely change the asset’s profitability during its lifetime. The Rewitec technology is currently helping customers reduce failure rates and extend the life of these critical assets. We are excited that customers can now utilize Sentient’s DigitalClone® to provide RUL projections in conjunction with our Rewitec technology.”
“As wind turbines age, operators are seeing a higher number of onshore and offshore wind assets running with damage, specifically in critical rotating components like gearboxes and main bearings”, said Ed Wagner, GM of wind operations at Sentient. “Our customers have been waiting for data to compare next generation additives, like Rewitec, against uptower part replacements. And while this may not be a solution for every wind turbine, we do have data to substantiate improvements in gearbox life and expect to show the same in main bearing life.”
About Croda
Established in 1925, Croda is the name behind sustainable, high performance ingredients and technologies in some of the world’s most successful brands: creating, making and selling specialty chemicals that are relied on by industries and consumers everywhere.
Croda is a FTSE 100 company with over 4,500 passionate and innovative employees, working across manufacturing sites and offices around the world with a shared Purpose to use Smart Science to Improve Lives™. As part of this Purpose, and with around two thirds of its organic raw materials already from bio-based sources, Croda has committed to be the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients, becoming Climate, Land and People Positive by 2030.
Voted the 3rd most admired company in Britain.
For more information, please visit https://www.croda.com/en-gb
About Sentient Science
Sentient Science provides digital twin technology to predict the life of mechanical systems. Sentient’s DigitalClone® SaaS solutions use proprietary physics-based modeling and machine learning AI to unlock insights that lower the costs of designing, operating, and sustaining high value assets. This visibility also helps customers optimize parts inventories and increase profitability. Furthermore, Sentient Science offers professional scientific services that enable us to partner with customer experts in industries such as Wind Energy, Aerospace, and Rail to develop cost-optimized life extension actions.
Sentient Science is a leader in prognostic solutions with one patent awarded in 2019 for physics-based life prediction and six additional patents pending. Sentient has won more than $22 million in SBIR/STTR funding from the U.S. Government – with agencies including Dept of Energy, Dept of Defense, and NASA. The technology has been recognized by the SBIR program with the 2014 Tibbetts Award, by Bloomberg as New Energy Pioneer Award in 2016, and Frost & Sullivan in 2017 with the New Product Innovations Award for Wind Prognostics.
DigitalClone has 4 Product Offerings:
DigitalClone for Engineering (DC-E) – a physics-based patented SaaS design solution to model drivetrains and predict individual component life under real-world operating conditions. DC-E delivers a unified workflow for a multiscale analysis from system level to component level through microstructure modeling in a single software package. Customers using this technology have achieved up to 35% cost savings and 65% schedule compression for drive system development programs.
DigitalClone for Wind Operations and Maintenance (DC-OM) – an AI/ML-based digital twin SaaS that detects damage based on the current “as-maintained” configuration of a wind turbine in operation. DC-OM provides a holistic view of the health and remaining useful life (RUL) of an asset’s critical systems and identifies components that may be operating with damage. This enables asset-level health risk assessments that support predictive maintenance programs to reduce O&M costs and extend asset life.
DigitalClone for Rail Maintenance (DC-RM) – a physics-based SaaS scenario planning tool to compare and select best rail maintenance actions based on rail life extension and financial return on investment. DC-RM provides railroads with “Precision Scheduled Maintenance” to maximize the utilization of the rail asset and optimize capital efficiency over the lifecycle.
DigitalClone for Additive Manufacturing (DC-AM) – a multi-scale and multi-physics SaaS model to computationally assess quality and performance of additive manufacturing built-parts. DC-AM uniquely links the process, microstructure and fatigue to provide design and computational testing. Customers indicate that DC-AM can reduce iterations for design optimization by 75% and decrease cost for AM part qualification by up to 50%.
For more information, please visit sentientscience.com
