Otech Engineering, Inc. received shipment of a new wind tunnel at their test laboratory in Davis, California.  This is the third wind tunnel designed and built by Engineering Laboratory Design, Inc. of Lake City, Minnesota for Otech.  The new tunnel is a suction type with an enclosed test section of size 0.61 m x 0.61 m x 1.22 m (2′ x 2′ x 4′). This third tunnel incorporates design features unique to the requirements of a high precision calibration test laboratory and will expand Otech Engineering’s test capacity significantly.  Although assembled and running, Otech has a variety of verification and validation procedures to go through before it will be used for customer calibrations.  Otech expects the third wind tunnel to be fully operational by early 2010.

Adam unloads the motor section from the delivery truck.

Five individual pieces were unloaded and lined up in the new space.

Each individual piece is lined up.

Wind tunnel three fully assembled.

On September 20 at the Canadian Wind Energy Association’s 25th Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada, Rachael Coquilla, Chief Engineer at Otech Engineering, presented a poster titled “Review of Anemometer Calibration Standards”.  This event is the largest had over 2,200 attendees.

Anemometers are key instruments heavily used in the wind industry and it is important to be familiarized with its calibration methodologies.  This poster outlines the critical requirements and test protocols described by published calibration standards for rotating anemometers and for sonic anemometers.  In addition to the poster, a supplemental detailed paper was also made available.

Click here for a pdf of the poster

Click here for a pdf of the paper

On February 9, 2009, Otech received its ISO 17025-2005 accreditation.  To better serve the needs of it’s customers, particularly in the wind energy industry, Otech is pursuing associate membership with MEASNET, the international Measuring Network of Wind Energy Institutes.  Below is the timeline of events towards membership:

March 2009 Contacted MEASNET Executive Chair and submitted company profile for review

May 2009 MEASNET Executive Board accepted Otech Engineering request for membership

June 2009 Assessment Plan received from MEASNET Assessment Team

Sep/Oct 2009 Initiate MEASNET Anemometer Calibration Round Robin

March 2010 Completion of MEASNET Anemometer Calibration Round Robin and final review for membership

Otech Engineering was featured in IAS eNews article on calibration labs. Read the article here: IAS News Article Vol 5 Issue 1.