CONDITION MONITORING

Keeping your machinery running at Peak Efficiency is a must in today’s competitive world. To do this on a continuous basis takes a great deal of planning and foresight.

We can help you reach your objectives by reducing unscheduled down time, and optimizing equipment performance. Realizing these objectives will result in reduced spare parts inventory and unnecessary equipment overhauls.

Condition monitoring measures specific parameters to assess the condition of a machine, which provides a means to predict failures in advance. The one characteristic that all machines have in common is vibration.

Analysis of vibration data can be very time consuming. To cut down on analysis time, very specific alarm levels are set, and only the vibration measurements that exceed these levels are analyzed in depth. As with collection specifications, these alarms need to be tailored to each machine. A common misconception about vibration analysis is that the analysis is performed by the sophisticated computer program, and results are generated instantaneously; this is not the case. The computer merely serves as a tool to aid the analyst in performing the analysis.

Data collection can be performed with the use of a portable data collector. Data collection is made at a number of predefined measurement points with predefined measurement parameters. This method can be made more efficient with the set-up of collection stations where multiple measurement points are wired into a collection box reducing the traveling time from one piece of equipment to the next and reducing the chance of encountering a hazardous condition. These routes are then downloaded to a host Data Base for analysis and trending.

The best and most effective condition monitoring programs consist of periodic and or continuous monitoring systems, combined with visual inspections and time-based component replacements

Over all alarms and (component, fault specific) spectral band alarms can then be applied to each measurement point and adjusted for each points running characteristics and history.

Rolling element bearings, gearboxes compressors, pumps and most other types of industrial equipment including motors, can reap benefits from a condition monitoring program. Both bearing condition and root problems (balance, alignment, soft foot, mechanical looseness, gear mesh, etc.) are able to be assessed and monitored through the vibrations that they make. We have the ability to collect this data and diagnose the problem and the potential for future problems. Through the results of the data that we collect, we will produce a written report with an explanation of the symptoms, our interpretation of the problems, our assessment of the severity and a recommended course of action. We collect comprehensive data in order to make the most accurate diagnosis possible.