Half a century of innovation at datatel

Innovation is nothing new.

For dynamic companies it is a necessity.

Telemetrie Elektronik GmbH (datatel Telemetry) is a family-owned company based in Langenhagen in Germany. Next year will see the business turn 50 years old and, while many of the technologies have evolved, the underpinning ethos of high performance and innovative engineering remains central to their mission.

Their telemetry systems read physical measurement data from strain gauges, thermocouples, RTDs (Resistance Temperature Detectors), pressure transducers and more, and provide contactless transmission from rotating machinery and vehicle components.

A relatively small team (around 60) carry out the complete in-house development, design and fabrication of every telemetry product. In providing specialized solutions for an international customer base, they require reliable, high-quality components – hence their longstanding relationship with Saft to provide the power behind their instruments.

We caught up with Jan Hausknecht, Head of Sales and Project Management at datatel Telemetry, to find out how their products are deployed, the engineering considerations for high performance, and what’s on the horizon.

What sectors are your instruments mostly being deployed in?

I think since we started in 1976, datatel must have provided instruments for almost every kind of machinery! Our telemetry systems are indispensable for the wireless data acquisition in either rotating or difficult to access machine components – so that covers a lot of sectors.

We’ve provided telemetry systems for turbomachinery applications in the aerospace and industrial market (including full engine groundand flight tests), component tests like blade vibration and temperature measurements on compressor and turbine discs, and for academic research to measure heat transfer and pressure.

We’ve also provided systems for automotive drivetrains like piston- and e-motors, gearboxes, clutches and prop-shafts, as well as working on projects for railroads, marine propulsion and more.

Then there are also applications for wind power drivetrain components like low- and highspeed load couplings, the gearboxes, and generators. We’ve had recent requests to develop solutions for the agriculture sector too. Advances in connectivity, sensor technology and hardware have made it possible to measure more accurately in increasingly difficult and challenging locations and so our scope keeps expanding too.

And how do you develop tailored instruments across such a wide range of use cases?

Each telemetry project places specific demands on the measurement technology used, so we must be bespoke in our approach. We consider ourselves as a development partner and engineering services provider who guides customers, and we design and manufacture technical solutions according to individual specifications, rather than a company who simply manufactures components.

In addition to the measurement technology itself, the success of a project often depends on the careful mechanical integration of the system. This is why we attach great importance to the careful design and precise manufacture of special installation hardware.

Where does Saft fit in as a battery supplier?

We want to provide test engineers with reliable data even in the most difficult operational conditions – and we have use cases involving really tough environments, with rotating telemetry components operating between -40°C and +125°C, and in the aerospace and automotive industries where g-loads (a measure of gravitational forces) of up to 150,000g can occur.

That isn’t easy, and it requires reliability and quality. Saft's know-how around what will work, overall competence and high-performance batteries are therefore really important for our applications.

How do these instruments ultimately help the customer?

The telemetry systems provide to the operator with high-quality and reliable data that was previously almost (or completely) impossible to achieve using conventional instrumentation such as slip rings or other measurement systems.

This information on performance can be really important whether that’s for product development, quality control, process control, machine diagnosis or damage analysis.

If you think about engines on aircraft, for example, they are becoming more and more complex and engineers are always looking to push performance in terms of efficiency, power output and lifetime. All of that results in higher rotation speeds, higher temperatures, higher pressure, but also limited space for the telemetry system which have to provide higher sensor channel count and therefore higher packaging density - so we’re operating our telemetry systems on the edge of physical limits.

Finally, what’s on the horizon for datatel?

We always have plenty of interesting projects underway, though we´re not allowed to talk about them before they are launched.

We did recently develop telemetry system to measure the temperature of wheel rims and tires for motorsport applications. When racing you need to have the brake disc cooling ducts adjust the temperature of the brakes and of the rim itself, in order to keep the tire at the perfect operating temperature. And because of you can´t simply drill holes through the rim or the tire to put a telemetry system in place, we had to mount the whole telemetry system (including the Saft batteries and a RF battery switch) ‘inside’ of the tire with high temperatures. So, the real-time data transmission was being sent through the rubber, Kevlar and steel structure of the tire itself. Engineering that project has been quite a challenge but it has been a success, and it has interesting possibilities for high level motorsport.

In the next few years, we're also going to be doing some open fan aero engine tests that will require innovative battery powered telemetry systems. Of course, those batteries will be from Saft too!

Part of the joy of our approach is that we have to keep innovating, solving new problems, and finding the best solution for the project.

Images credit: datatel Telemetry