Condition Monitoring/Predictive Maintenance

aprilems 2010 -

The world's first temperature independent electro-chemical lubrication system.

EUERDORF. If you have ever used an electrochemical lubrication system, you know the effect that fluctuating ambient temperatures have on the discharge and the discharge period.

The February 2010 edition of Engineering Maintenance Solutions magazine is now available to read online. This edition contains articles on achieving best practice in condition monitoring and plant maintenance. As well as special focuses on value driven  maintenance, ATEX Equipment and more as well as the latest industry news and products.

Monitran Technology’s digital signal processing (DSP) unit delivers real-time turbine blade tip condition monitoring.

Monitran Technology, the R&D arm of vibration and displacement sensor OEM Monitran, has developed a digital signal processing (DSP) unit for the real-time monitoring of turbine blade conditions.

The unit reflects ‘live’ blade health by providing traffic-light-type indicators: green for safe, amber for advisory and red for danger. Also, for each condition, there is a programmable output capable of switching up to 30V at 5A, which means the unit can be easily integrated into control circuitry and to provide an automatic shut-down of the turbine if necessary.

These two new offerings along with many of our other solutions including LinerSCAN help you extend engine life, increases efficiency, and reduces emissions to assist with environmental compliance.

The DieselSCOPE performance analyser is designed by marine engineers for marine engineers.  The portable, handheld unit helps you monitors the combustion process in the diesel engine in real time allowing you to tune the engine whilst measuring. Using DieselSCOPE you can balance cylinder load, optimize injection timing and detect worn or damaged engine components and thus reduce the engine’s operating cost.

Monitran’s Group I intrinsically safe sensors are awarded ANZEx for use in mining applications in Australia and New Zealand.

All of Monitran’s Group I intrinsically safe accelerometers and velocity transducers have been approved by certification body Simtars to ANZEx for use in mining applications throughout Australia and New Zealand. This certification is in addition to the (EU) ATEX and (International) IECEx approvals Monitran’s Group I sensors already possess.

Andy Anthony, Monitran’s Operations Director, comments: “Many countries, whilst acknowledging international standards like IECEx, still impose their own standards for certain applications. We sought ANZEx in response to requests from end-users based in Australia and New Zealand, and companies based elsewhere wishing to supply machinery into these countries.”

By:  Ernesto Wiedenbrüg, Baker Instrument Company, an SKF Group Company

Introduction:
Gone are the days when a MegOhm meter and a digital multi-meter were the main tools in electrical maintenance.  Advances in technology now offer engineering professionals both off-line and on-line (real time) instruments to verify the health of rotating machinery.  

Modern on-line technologies permit assessment of the ‘whole motor system’, which is comprised of three components:  power, motor & load.  By focusing on these three components, troubleshooting now becomes truly predictive!

The contribution of maintenance to an organisation is unfortunately too often not fully understood until something goes wrong e.g. a failure of a significant plant item or asset.This will inevitably result in a consequential loss through the inability to produce or provide a service or the occurrence of an environmental health, safety or quality incident.

It is common knowledge that a range of Condition Monitoring (CM) techniques are available such as Vibration Analysis, Oil & Wear Debris Analysis, Thermography and Acoustic Emission. Each of these techniques has its own particular areas of strength and in this regard the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique has the noted advantage of giving real time information with early sensitivity to faults and applicability to a wide range of rotational speeds including slowly rotating (source : ISO 22096).

It follows that on-line monitoring systems should be capable of integrating the required mix of CM technologies for each particular spread of machine types in an installation. However the use of AE for machinery condition monitoring has historically been viewed as a separate specialist field and it has not been easy to integrate it into third party or industry standard monitoring and control systems.

Sonatest are proud to launch the new Corrosion Wheelprobe, which has been specifically designed for Pipeline Corrosion Mapping applications.  Continuing the proven success of Sonatest’s WheelProbe range, this new model is proving to be unrivalled in the field of corrosion mapping in terms of speed and ease of use, in addition to achieving excellent results.

Ergonomically designed, the Corrosion Wheel Probe offers smooth handling, good control and comfortable grip positions for scanning around pipes and for easy overhead work.  Circumferential and Longitudinal scanning are both completed rapidly and can be performed on pipes with diameters between 3 and 32 inches.