Donald E. Bently

Donald E. Bently (October 18, 1924 - October 1, 2012[1]) was a globally recognized authority on rotor dynamics and vibration monitoring and diagnostics,[2] and an American entrepreneur and engineer. He was best known as the founder and former owner of Bently Nevada Corporation where he performed pioneering work in the field of instrumentation for measuring the mechanical condition of rotating machinery. He founded Bently Nevada in October, 1961, and served as its CEO until February, 2002. He sold the company to GE Energy in February, 2002, and in 2017 GE merged it into Baker Hughes. It continues to design, manufacture, and market these products and services under the Baker Hughes, a GE company, LLC brand.

Donald E. Bently
Donald E. Bently, an older business man in a suit, smiling
Donald Emory Bently
Born Donald Emory Bently[3]
(1924-10-18)October 18, 1924
Muscatine, Iowa
Died October 1, 2012(2012-10-01) (aged 87)
Carson Valley, Nevada
Resting place Greenwod Cemetery, Muscatine, Iowa[4]
Occupation Engineer, inventor, businessman, philanthropist
Known for Inventor of eddy current proximity transducer
Founder of Bently Nevada
Children Christopher

Following the sale of the company, Bently subsequently remained active in his other family-owned businesses representing a diverse range of interests including rotordynamics, agriculture, biofuels, real estate, externally pressurized fluid bearings, and machinery diagnostics.

Education and military service

Born in Muscatine, Iowa, Bently served in the U.S. Navy during World War II[5] as a Seabee. He attended the University of Iowa, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1949, followed by a master's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1950.[6] Bently worked as the lead azide and mercury fulminate assembly line engineer at the Iowa Ordnance Plant in Burlington, Iowa. He then worked for North American Aviation and Rocketdyne in California. He later completed graduate-level coursework at UC Berkeley[7] while working for an aerospace company. He experimented the eddy-current sensing technology that was later the foundation of Bently Nevada Corporation.

Bently Nevada history

During Bently's brief employment in the aerospace industry in the mid-1950s, he assisted with research into the use of electronic sensing technologies for aircraft control systems. At the time, his employer concluded that there was limited use for the eddy-current technology in aircraft controls. Bently, however, felt the technology showed commercial promise elsewhere and received permission to use it in his own endeavors. In 1956, he left to form Bently Scientific Company, manufacturing and selling eddy-current products via mail order from his garage in Berkeley, California.[8] In 1961, Bently relocated the company to Minden, Nevada, and incorporated it there as Bently Nevada Corporation with three people.[9][10]

Bently's primary application of eddy-current technology was for non-contacting displacement sensors. Often thought of as a type of electronic dial indicator, such sensors are typically used to measure very small distances between the tip of the sensor and a conductive surface, such as rotating shaft. The displacements measured are extremely small, typically on the order of several thousandths of an inch.

Initially, Bently's sensors were sold mainly for laboratory rather than industrial measurements. However, beginning in the early 1960s, users began to experiment with eddy-current sensors for measuring vibration on turbines, compressors, pumps, electric motors, and other turbomachinery. This application proved to be extremely successful, allowing machinery operators a practical method of observing actual shaft vibratory motion for the first time. Soon thereafter, Bently augmented his sensors with monitoring instrumentation that accepted his sensors as inputs and provided simple visual indication of the amount of vibration. Users could set alarm levels for annunication and machine shutdown purposes when vibration levels became excessive. From that time forward, Bently began to focus his company's efforts almost exclusively on instrumentation for rotating machinery condition measurements.

In 2001, Bently Nevada built a new $30 million, 283,000-square-foot hadquarters outside Minden at Orchard and Buckeye, previously known as Ferris Heights.[9] The new location consolidated operations previously located at eight different locations around Carson Valley.[11] Bently acquired the Buckeye Ranch in 1978, the former location of the Dangberg sheep operation. Bently renamed the location Bently Science Park.[11]

This specialized focus resulted in substantial growth. When Bently sold Bently Nevada to GE Energy in January 2002 for between $600 million and $900 million,[9] the company had 1,200 people at its headquarters in Minden, Nevada and 2,100 employees worldwide, operated in more than 40 countries, and had global sales exceeding $235 million USD.[9][12]

Bently said he sold Bently Nevada so he could concentrate on other interests.

Other business interests

Bently founded other businesses, including Bently Pressurized Bearing Company, which manufactured a bearing that can hold a rotating axle in place. The technology injected highly pressurized air between the bearing and the rotating machinery, preventing the axle from touching the bearing, virtually eliminating friction.[13]

Bently Rotordynamics

In 1981, Bently established a pure research organization called Bently Rotordynamics Research Corporation (BRDRC or "Birdrock"). BRDRC's objective was to conduct rotordynamic research, furthering the knowledge of rotating machinery behavior, modeling techniques, and malfunction diagnostic methodologies. Its mission was considered complementary to Bently Nevada, with BRDRC focused on understanding how machinery behaved, and Bently Nevada focused on understanding and building instrumentation to measure machinery behavior.

BRDRC made a number of important contributions to the field of rotordynamics such as a better understanding of fluid-induced instabilities, advanced models for understanding shaft crack behavior, insight into rubbing malfunctions between stationary and rotating parts, and enhancement of the rotordynamic equations via introduction of a new variable lambda (λ) which denoted the fluid circumferential average velocity ratio and more accurately modeled hydrodynamic effects. Bently was personally responsible for many of these developments, publishing his work under the auspices of BRDRC. BRDRC also introduced several new data presentation formats, such as so-called "full" spectrum plots and "acceptance region" trend plots. Its research findings were published extensively in relevant technical journals, and the research that had practical commercial applications often found its way into the Bently Nevada product line. In 2002, BRDRC was sold along with Bently Nevada to GE Energy.[6]

Other Bently businesses

Bently founded Bently Agrowdynamics, which focused on environmentally sustainable agricultural practices and innovative uses of renewable resources. The company led reconstruction of Mud Lake Dam which had been damaged during the 1994 Double Springs Flat earthquake. They converted the 100-year-old earth filled dam to a rock filled structure, ensuring a supply of irrigation water for Bently Agrowdynamics’ South Ranch properties and improving the dam's resistance to earthquakes, protecting the surrounding community.[2]

Other businesses included Bently Tribology Services, Bently Biofuels, Gibson Tool and Supply, and RoMaDyn, a mechanical engineering services and diagnostics company.[3] He also held more than 38,000 acres (15,000 ha) of agricultural land in and around Carson Valley, Nevada and numerous real estate holdings in the United States and abroad.[9]

All of Bently's businesses were privately held, allowing him to focus on a long-term strategy without the pressure of quarterly stockholder reports. This also enabled him to keep his company in the front of his field technologically. He successfully competed against subsidized Japanese companies and from U.S. government-funded entities.[13]

Founded ISCORMA

A significant amount of Bently's rotordynamic research efforts were about rotor dynamic stability. In 2001, he established ISCORMA, (International Symposium on Stability Control of Rotating Machinery), a bi-annual industry event. Bently was an active organizer and participant in all ISCORMA conferences until his death.[6]

Work with NASA

His expertise also led to work for NASA. He spent 2½ years studying the area where the oxygen and hydrogen fuel pumps connect to the main engines on the space shuttle following the January 1986 challenger disaster.[14]

Philanthropy and public service

Bently was a leader of and major financial supporter if The Institute of World Politics.[15] Bently purchased the Marlatt Mansion and two adjacent townhouses for the Institute. For the first 15 years, he rented the building to the Institute for $1.00 per year. He paid several million dollars to gut and completely renovate the townhouses and later donated them to the Institute. He also endowed the Donald E. Bently Chair of Political Economy.[13]

Bently supported local schools in Carson Valley. He donated several million dollars to Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo, California, and gave generously to St. Gall Catholic Church, Carson Valley United Methodist Church, and a battered women's shelter.[16]

He helped fund the building of the new 38,338 square feet (3,561.7 m2) museum facility built in 2010 at the U.S. Navy Seabee Museum at Port Hueneme, California. In 2005, he helped create a conservation easement with the Nature Conservancy that preserved the Kirman Field in northern Douglas County.[17] He also supported the Friends of Pine Creek Grist Mill, Muscatine Junior College and its Alumni Association, Muscatine Community College, the Lucille A. Carver Mississippi River Environmental Research Station Fund, and the University of Iowa.[4]

Recognition

Bently was recognized with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Frederick P. Smarro Award and R. Tom Sawyer Award, and the N. O. Mylestad Award from the Technical Committee on Vibration and Sound of the ASME Design Engineering Division. He was a Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1992, he was made a foreign member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Engineering in Russia. The Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada recognized Bently as a 2002 Distinguished Nevadan.[2]

Publications

Bently co-authored the textbook Fundamentals of Rotating Machinery Diagnostics which is used at major universities.[6]Bently has authored more than 140 papers and articles dealing rotordynamics and/or condition monitoring technologies.[6] Many are peer-reviewed and have been published in various technical journals such as those of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

References

  1. ↑ "Donald E. Bently, Engineer, Industry Pioneer, Philanthropist, and Businessman Dies at 87". Business Wire. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "Donald Bently | College of Engineering | The University of Iowa". www.engineering.uiowa.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Donald Emory Bently Online Obituary, October 18, 1924 - October 1, 2012". Muscatine Funeral Home - Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home and Cremation Services. Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  4. 1 2 Donald E. Bently at Find a Grave
  5. ↑ "Donald E. Bently". Archived from the original on 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2013-04-03.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Donald Bently - College of Engineering - The University of Iowa". www.engineering.uiowa.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-05-31. Retrieved 2013-04-03.
  7. ↑ "Externally Pressurized Porous Gas Bearings – Bently Bearings". Bently Bearings. Archived from the original on 2012-01-25. Retrieved 2013-04-03.
  8. ↑ "Donald Bently Obituary". funeralinnovations.com. Archived from the original on 2018-08-23. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Munson, Jeff (January 28, 2002). "GE's purchase of Bently complete". Tahoe Daily Tribune. Tribune News Service. Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  10. ↑ "In-Memoriam – The Life of a Great Man" (PDF). Orbit. GE Oil & Gas. 33 (1): 4. January 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 27, 2018.
  11. 1 2 Carter, Sharon (December 19, 2001). "Bently breaks ground for new facility at Science Park". Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  12. ↑ "GE Power Systems Completes Acquisition of Bently Nevada". GE Newsroom. 25 January 2002. Archived from the original on 2018-08-22. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  13. 1 2 3 "IWP mourns the passing of longtime supporter Donald E. Bently". Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  14. ↑ Timko, Steve. "Bently's innovations, inventions benefited many". Obituary. Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  15. ↑ "Philanthropist and entrepreneur Donald E. Bently honored at Reagan Ranch". Archived from the original on 2018-08-25. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  16. ↑ Gardner, Sheila (October 2012). "Inventor Don Bently remembered by more than 500 at memorial". Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  17. ↑ "Minden industrialist, philanthropist Don Bently dead at age 87". 2 October 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
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