Mark Granger
Business Development Manager

In this 4:20 YouTube video, PeakVue Analysis, Emerson’s Mark Granger demonstrates some of these differences in vibration analysis using a spring-mass assembly.

Mark connects a triaxial accelerometer or triax to the spring mass and shows the differences in vibration signals when views from the CSI 2140 portable vibration analyzer.

Mark oscillates the mass and records the vibration readings coming in from the triax to the CSI 2140. These readings include PeakVue, acceleration, and velocity. The velocity measurement displays the speed of the mass and is as expected—a sinusoidal waveform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAY60Dzg6hE

He next shows the acceleration plot. Acceleration refers to the force on the machine. The plot displays the sinusoidal wave with spikes superimposed. The spikes are caused by the spring rubbing against the mass during the oscillations.

The third property Mark showed is impact, which is the force that is being applied on a period or non-periodic basis. The PeakVue analysis detects impact by measuring G-force levels at over 100,000 vibration readings per second.

Mark then compares the PeakVue analysis with another signal processing technique called demodulation. Demodulation data will strip away the sinusoidal energy information, but it does not get the absolute accurate peak level of the impacts.

To connect and interact with other reliability professionals, visit and join the Asset Optimization, Maintenance and Reliability track in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Detecting and Analyzing Mass Speed, Force, and Impact appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Even non-critical pumps in your process can cause spills, vapor clouds, fires and worse. Most of these failure incidents provide warning well in time to solve the problem—if feedback mechanisms are in place for your operators and maintenance personnel.

Cranford Johnstone
Sales Manager – Reliability Solutions

He opens:

PETROCHEMICAL plants have a large number of pumps that are continually in use for functions that range from feedstock supply to product distribution. Pump repairs typically consume up to 7% of the total maintenance budget and therefore must be carefully considered within an overall maintenance programme.

He notes that typically less than 5% of the pumps—the most critical ones—are typically continuously monitored with machinery protection systems. And, of the conditions that can lead to pump failure, according to author Ron Moore:

…up to half of all failures are process induced and are therefore preventable.

Conditions causing pump failure include process operating conditions and mechanical wear. Cranford gives an operating condition example:

…when changes in operating conditions induce pump cavitation (a result of insufficient net positive suction head), this can grossly accelerate impeller wear and lead to seal failure.

Mechanical wear can manifest itself in several ways:

…imbalance, poor shaft alignment, loose pump mounts, broken bolts, foundation cracks, and damaged impellers. These defects gradually decrease the integrity of the machine and can lead to coupling, seal and bearing failures.

The traditional approach to inspecting the majority of pumps without online condition monitoring systems has been:

…by monitoring vibration, commonly by manual measurements on a periodic basis – typically every 30–90 days. Assuming that a trained analyst is available to review the data, these periodic checks can be used to detect many faults in advance; even then, however, they still leave the plant vulnerable to unplanned outages in between measurements.

What’s missing is real-time feedback with a clear indication of pumps in distress and the severity level of the fault. Cranford a way this feedback can be provided through monitoring raw vibration and high frequency impact faults. I highlighted the PeakVue Analysis diagnostics for these impact faults in a post, The Peaks Provide the Early Warning in Machinery Protection.

CSI 9420 Wireless Vibration Transmitter

For example, for a total picture of pump health we also need pressure monitoring to check for clogged suction strainers as well as pre-cavitation. If these values are not already being monitored, wireless pressure transmitters can be added easily and affordably.

Readings for vibration, impacting and pressure can all be broadcast over the same wireless network, and the system can be easily expanded to include temperature, level, flow and many other parameters. Users can monitor online for the conditions that are of greatest concern, including cavitation, bearing temperature, vibration, process leakage, suction strainer differential pressure, discharge pressure, seal reservoir level and pressure.

By providing early warning to failing pump health, safety, environmental, and production-related incidents can be avoided. Read the article for more on common threats to pump health, paying attention to the role of control valves, and how these technologies have been applied at the SABIC olefins plant in Teesside, UK.

You can also connect and interact with other reliability experts in the Reliability and Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Early Detection of Impending Pump Failures appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Across many process manufacturing and producing industries, falling prices are driving the need for increased efficiency and reliability, as well as reduced costs. While optimizing process control can yield gains, so can applying technology to the condition of the equipment involved in process operations.

Making this possible is the availability of:

…industrial information and communications technologies (IICT) such as bus, wireless, and cloud computing.

Jonas lists typical pieces of equipment that can lead to unplanned downtime and process slowdowns:

• Pumps
• Blowers
• Cooling towers
• Heat exchanger
• Air cooled heat exchangers (ACHE)
• Pipe & vessel corrosion
• Valves

He describes the shortcomings in maintenance contracts for manual periodic data collection, rotating equipment vibration analysis, pump seal flush systems, etc. The lag between inspections may allow problems to develop and worsen. A better approach is to have:

…a data-driven approach to reliability and maintenance scheduling. Existing plants can be modernized to become smart plants.

For plant assets not already protected with continuous protection and prediction monitoring, the:

…wireless vibration transmitter is another way to monitor vibration on non-critical rotating equipment, serving as an intermediate tool to complement online machinery protection systems and portable vibration testers.

Many essential assets such as cooling tower fans, air-cooled heat exchangers, and blowers to name a few are not easily monitored due to safety concerns and access difficulty. For these applications, the:

…vibration sensors are mounted inside the enclosures and wired to the wireless transmitter outside the enclosure.

Instead of collecting data from manual rounds on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, more frequent [hyperlink added]:

…data automatically monitored by software improves the data analysis to capture developing issues in the early stages rather than later, when damage or outright failure and shutdown have already occurred. More frequent and recent data makes the diagnostics more predictive, makes root-cause analysis easier, and also makes it possible to visualize degrading conditions by severity trend in software.

Jonas describes how diagnostics such as PeakVue Analysis, provide early warning to impending problems in time to take proactive actions to address the problem before a failure occurs.

He describes multi-parameter condition monitoring as being about:

…observing measurable properties for signs of internal fouling or faults. Additional sensors for equipment pressures, temperature, flow, auxiliary seal flush fluid levels, position, pH and conductivity provide data on operating process and ambient conditions that help in root-cause analysis. This allows other problems like fouling, scaling, and leaks etc. to be detected.

You’ll want to read the article for examples of how multi-condition monitoring is applied to air-cooled heat exchangers and pumps to improve overall reliability and efficiency of maintenance operations.

You can also connect and interact with other reliability and maintenance experts in the Reliability & Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Multi-parameter Condition Monitoring for Plant Asset Reliability appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

We all appreciate the diagnostics in our cars that provide early warning to get a problem fixed before a breakdown occurs. We’ve chronicled how rotating machinery diagnostics, such as PeakVue Analysis diagnostics, can provide early warning to avoid unplanned shutdowns.

The repair could be scheduled instead of worsening to the point of failure and causing a loss of electrical power for their customers.

A second example Jacob shared was at a chemical manufacturing plant. An increase in vibration on a gearbox shaft outboard bearing was flagged for the watch list and data analysis was increased in frequency to once every other week. This gearbox was on a critical agitator that runs in a batch process.

The PeakVue Analysis diagnostic helped to identify a fundamental train frequency (FTF or cage frequency) defect. The amplitudes of this defect actually decreased as the Machinery Performance and Condition Monitoring Services team continued to monitor the situation, which is a good indicator of a bearing in its final stages of life.

The batch ran over the course of months so the machinery monitoring and analysis team was able to closely track the bearing to make sure it would last through the end of batch where a replacement could be planned and scheduled.

We’ll share some more stories in the coming months. Until then, you can connect and interact with other maintenance and reliability experts in the Reliability & Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Avoiding Rotating Machinery Downtime with PeakVue Diagnostics appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

One of the key ways to improve operational performance is to reduce unplanned downtime. An ARC Advisory Group blog post, Technology Trends to Watch for in 2017, noted:

One of the biggest end user challenges remains unscheduled downtime. IIoT-enabled solutions, such as remote monitoring and predictive maintenance, can help minimize, if not totally eliminate this, which would deliver a rapid ROI.

Phil opens noting three concern areas he often hears. The first is around needing help in assessing the technology available and the financial justification to go forward. The second area is security. As additional wireless measurement and access for remote experts to analyze and recommend, the need for a highly-secure infrastructure is required. The third area is to develop the project roadmap going forward—what should be done and in what order. This also includes determining the measures of success.

He explains that over $1 trillion dollars is lost by global manufacturers and producers due to suboptimal performance. Phil described how Emerson has taken a programmatic approach called Operational Certainty to help manufacturers achieve Top Quartile performance in their respective industry segment.

This approach consists of Plantweb digital ecosystem technology built on years of digital communications and wireless device and infrastructure experience. This experience helps to create the Secure First Mile to get data out securely to the analytics software and experts required to act up the information provided by these Pervasive Sensing devices around the manufacturing facility.

As an example, Phil cites PeakVue diagnostics which help predict when equipment failures will occur. For more on how this analytics-based diagnostic works, visit the post, Avoiding Bearing Failures with the Rule of Tens PeakVue Measurement Methodology.

Watch the video for more as Phil describes how these analytics are available at many levels and for many roles including locally on smart phones and tablets to remotely to remote experts via Connected Services.

You can also connect and interact with other IIoT and operational improvement experts in the Wireless and Improve & Modernize groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Planning and Justifying the Industrial Internet of Things appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

In this 3-minute YouTube video, Alert Plant Operations When Rotating Equipment Problems Pose a Threat, Emerson’s Kevin Rossi shares ways to equip plant operators with insights to reduce or eliminate forced outages tied to rotating equipment problems issues.

For electrical power, water and wastewater facilities, the Ovation Machinery Health Monitor module can provide early detection capabilities to avoid unplanned downtime.

Kevin notes that 90% of rotating equipment issues are caused by four things: imbalance, misalignment, looseness or mechanical wear. Most of these issues show up in the vibration frequency spectrum at multiples of the turning speed. Traditionally, vibration analysis expertise has been required to diagnose the underlying problem—with mechanical wear being the most difficult to analyze.

With this expertise not available or only sparingly available at many sites, Kevin describes a common requirement for a simple, automated, continuous monitoring solution that alerts operators when issues are developing—without requiring any vibration analysis training.

The Ovation Machinery Health Monitor module provides fully-integrated vibration monitoring on the Ovation distributed control system (DCS) with continuous online monitoring with detailed vibration waveform, spectrum and machinery health parameters. Smart alerts to operators deliver actionable information. PeakVue technology provides earliest detection of problems in rolling element and gearbox applications.

Visit the Power Plant Availability section of Emerson.com for more ways to reduce forced outages and improve overall reliability. You can also connect and interact with other Ovation system experts in the Ovation group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Avoiding Forced Outages from Rotating Equipment Issues appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

In a Plant Services article, 6 steps to preventing bearing failure, Emerson’s Brian Overton shares ways to extend bearing life and avoid unplanned shutdowns.

He opens highlighting their importance.

Without effective bearing motion, a machine shaft can fail, and the machine can break down.

His 6 steps include:

1. Choose the correct bearing design
2. Store bearings actively
3. Install bearings properly
4. Lubricate bearings according to manufacturers’ guidelines
5. Align machinery precisely
6. Balance equipment well

Bearings should match the design and load requirements as defined by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). If not sized correctly:

…you’ll risk premature wear and eventual failure of the bearing.

Spare bearings should not just sit on a shelf until needed. They:

…should be stored actively – in other words, they should be rotated or spun occasionally. Without occasional rotation, they can experience false brinelling, in which bearings etch a pattern into the raceways because of vibration.

From an installation perspective, avoid forcing the bearing into place and use other means such as heat to expand the metal. Once in place:

…give the bearings a good flushing and cleaning out with lubricant.

Ongoing bearing lubrication should be performed per the OEM recommendation. Too much or too little lubricant can reduce lifespan. Diagnostics such as PeakVue technology:

…can monitor lubrication conditions by monitoring stress waves, which are created by friction… When improperly lubricated, a rolling element in a bearing might cause the inner or outer race to deflect and spring back, creating a stress wave. New technology can parse out the frequencies to see the stress wave, leading to the early detection and elimination of bearing anomalies.

Read the article for more on proper equipment alignment and balancing and their role in extending bearing life, as well as more diagnostic tests to perform root cause analysis for persistent bearing issues.

Also, join us at the October 1-5 Emerson Exchange conference in San Antonio, Texas, for several excellent machinery monitoring and protection sessions including:

• Modernizing the Protection System of Critical Assets (Brian will co-present this workshop)
• Vibration Monitoring Best Practices (Brian will be one of 4 panelists in this Meet the Experts session)
• From blind to one-eyed – A story of asset monitoring in cooling towers
• Qatar Shell GTL get insight to its critical LPU Blowers health condition with Pervasive Sensing
• Nutrien Potash Optimization Results + Next Step Advanced Analytics of Operational Data

The post How to Prevent Bearing Failures appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

In this 6-minute YouTube video, PeakVue Signal Processing Demo, Emerson’s Robert Skeirik describes how these advanced analytics can spot bearing problems much earlier that traditional vibration measurements.

This extra time allows the operations and maintenance teams to plan and resolve the issue before a failure occurs.

In the video, Robert compares and contrasts simple vibration data measured in inches or centimeters/second versus PeakVue analytics measuring peak impact in g’s (g-force). He shows data of a bearing heading for failure.

The vibration data shows little change as the bearing fault advances in severity until the point of failure. The PeakVue analytics show a steady progression for good, to alert maintenance, to approaching end of life, to failure imminent, to failure. For most equipment, this progression occurs over time to allow maintenance to be scheduled to avoid unplanned downtime.

The PeakVue analytics can also be used for gearbox analysis, as well as two leading root causes of failure—insufficient lubrication and cavitation on process pumps.

You can connect and engage with vibration and reliability experts at the October 1-5 Emerson Exchange conference and/or in the Reliability & Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post PeakVue Analytics for More Reliable Machinery Performance appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Robert Skeirik

In earlier posts, Emerson’s Robert Skeirik highlighted how PeakVue impact detection analytics technology can provide early warning of bearing failure in time to plan and schedule maintenance before unplanned downtime occurs. These analytics help drive overall reliability improvement key performance indicators (KPIs).

I came across a recently published whitepaper, Confirming Gearbox Defect Using Waveform & PeakVue Technology, which highlights another issue with rotating machinery that this diagnostic in combination with time-series waveform analysis can help identify.

Gearbox defects may not exhibit repetitive, periodic defects like ball bearing defects exhibit. Analyzing vibration in the time domain helps provide insights beyond the typical frequency spectral analysis.

Here is some case study information from the whitepaper:

Data collected on a gearbox indicates an abnormal gear issue. The conventional vibration waveform had indicated only slightly higher levels of impacting at once per revolution, however, a peak of over 19 G’s is present in this PeakVue waveform.

The whitepaper goes on to share how the time-based waveform shows a large impact once for each revolution and how this might indicate a problem with the gear such as a broken or missing tooth. When viewed with a circular waveform plot, it provided:

…further confirmation of a broken tooth. The 1 X TS event offsets the circular autocorrelation waveform at a probability of one (or close to one) at the Top Dead Center (TDC) of the circular plot.

Read the short whitepaper to see the waveforms on how the problem inside the gearbox was detected and confirmed after disassembly and inspection. For those here in North America there is an upcoming 3-day course, Time Waveform Analysis, in Knoxville, Tennessee in early August and another in December. The course:

…is designed to upgrade and enhance waveform analysis skills for vibration technicians and reliability engineers. There are several reasons that vibration analysts want to understand and use waveform analysis, since some significant defects are better analyzed in the time domain. The time domain provides visual confirmation of amplitude enhancement and reduction. Time waveform analysis can present, in a static picture, amplitude variations and changes in frequencies that the FFT cannot display without using multiple (dynamic) graphics. Further, a waveform graphically presents accurate peak vibration amplitudes representing defect severity.

Visit the PeakVue Technology for Machinery Analysis section on Emerson.com for more on these analytics technologies and how they help you drive improved performance in reliability and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). You can also connect and interact with machinery health experts in the Asset Management group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community and/or at the September 23-27 Emerson Exchange conference in Nashville.

The post Diagnosing Gearbox Defects appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Jason King

Emerson’s Jason King shares an update on advanced condition monitoring in the Ovation distributed control system at last week’s 2019 Ovation Users’ Group conference. This integrated machinery protection and condition monitoring module built directly into the Ovation system. It is capable of typical equipment protection functions, but also has condition monitoring technology built in, so no separate software will be needed for diagnosing your most-common rotating asset issues.

Each Ovation Machinery Health Monitor (MHM) module is 8 channels – all 8 can handle your typical turbine supervisory instrumentation like displacement probes, accelerometers, velometers, and other AC or DC sensors that fall into the sensor input ranges. In addition, channels 7 and 8 can also be configured for tachometer sensors of several types (displacement, passive electro-magnetic, hall effect, shaft encoders, and TTL pulse).

A typical protection system in the field today has the sensors and converters in the field, a rack placed somewhere else with its own separate power supplies, and all of these connections to the Ovation system: digital signals for shutdown, alerts, channel faults, setpoint (trip) multiply, and either 4-20mA signals of the overall vibration value from each sensor, or a Modbus connection sharing that data with Ovation, which needs set up, maintained, and can be difficult to troubleshoot. The Ovation Machinery Health Monitor module, the rack and its separate power supplies and all those connections to Ovation are eliminated.

Some of the condition the MHM module monitors for includes imbalance, looseness, misalignment, antifriction, and journal, sleeve and babbitt mechanical wear. 90% of rotating equipment issues can be boiled down to one of four things: imbalance, misalignment, looseness, or mechanical wear. These issues show up in the frequency spectrum as increases in vibration at multiples of the turning speed of the equipment.

PeakVue analytics technology is designed for use with accelerometers on rolling element and gearbox applications. These tend to develop problems that show up at very high frequencies, which don’t show up in typical protection system or condition monitoring frequency ranges, which means failures can occur with no warning, and the failures are typically catastrophic.

PeakVue analytics provide an easy-to-interpret value that can be used for primary diagnosis of problems with roller bearings and gearboxes. It follows a “rule of 10’s” meaning on typical process equipment, 900 to 4000 RPM, PeakVue will be below 10 for healthy equipment. If PeakVue goes above 10, a problem is developing in the equipment. Jason noted that one power producer’s maintenance team pulled bearings when PeakVue was just above 10 and they couldn’t see the problem with the naked eye. The problem is often subsurface at this stage. If you put the bearing back in and run the equipment until PeakVue climbs above 20, you will see the problem when you take it back out. PeakVue climbing above 30 means you have very little time remaining, and above 40 means the equipment is about to shut down.

Jason then highlighted Ovation turbomachinery diagnostics to provide early warning of abnormal conditions in turbine bearing alignment, balance, and bearing health. Also, coming soon in Ovation is AMS Machine Works, which provides advanced condition monitoring by combining predictive maintenance techniques with comprehensive analysis tools for accurate assessment of the plant machinery. Advanced vibration analysis includes waveform, spectrum, orbit, full spectrum, cascade, waterfall, Bode, and Nyquist.

Click to enlarge

Visit the Ovation Machinery Health Monitor and AMS Machine Works pages on Emerson.com for more on this integrated approach to prediction and protection of critical rotating assets.

The post Ovation Advanced Condition Monitoring appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Operational analytics are used to help improve safety, reliability, energy & emissions, and production. From a reliability perspective, one example is PeakVue impact detection analytics which provides early warning for problems such as rotating equipment bearing failures. You may recall an announcement from last year about PeakVue Plus:

…a technology enhancement that brings prescriptive analytics to the field to help users improve the availability of rotating machinery. The firmware streamlines the path from data collection to action and enables users to make timely, corrective decisions when analyzing machinery vibration.

Brian Overton

In a Plant Services article, Get better insights from your vibration data, Emerson’s Brian Overton describes how this innovation allows maintenance technicians to improve the time from data collection and analysis to making decisions to correct the situation.

Typically, maintenance managers:

…send technicians on scheduled routes to gather machinery vibration data. Experts then analyze the data, and managers make decisions to act based on the resulting analyses.

This traditional approach requires proper data collection from a portable analyzer or continuous monitoring system. The vibration data is collected and turned into a spectral plot through fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms. This spectral plot can help identify issues such as:

…a cracked or broken tooth when two gears are meshing together.

Potential downsides with the FFT spectral analysis are:

…some frequencies may overwhelm the range of the analyzer, thus masking, or hiding, the frequencies that indicate other defects. When these frequencies are hidden, identification of issues might come in the late stages of failure.

To overcome the possibility of late problem identification, PeakVue analytics capture:

…the true peak amplitudes of these impacting events, providing severity evaluation along with spectral and waveform patterns. These true peak amplitudes are repeatable and trendable over time, providing an early warning of developing faults so proper planning and prioritization of corrective actions can take place to avoid an unplanned outage.

Read the article for more on what these operational analytics look like and how they are used to help maintenance technicians spot problems earlier to allow repairs to be scheduled before slow downs or downtime is incurred.

Learn more about PeakVue Plus technology in the PeakVue Technology for Machinery Analysis section on Emerson.com. You can also connect and interact with other reliability experts in the Asset Management group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Improving Reliability with Impact Detection Analytics appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Even non-critical pumps in your process can cause spills, vapor clouds, fires and worse. Most of these failure incidents provide warning well in time to solve the problem—if feedback mechanisms are in place for your operators and maintenance personnel.

Cranford Johnstone
Sales Manager – Reliability Solutions

He opens:

PETROCHEMICAL plants have a large number of pumps that are continually in use for functions that range from feedstock supply to product distribution. Pump repairs typically consume up to 7% of the total maintenance budget and therefore must be carefully considered within an overall maintenance programme.

He notes that typically less than 5% of the pumps—the most critical ones—are typically continuously monitored with machinery protection systems. And, of the conditions that can lead to pump failure, according to author Ron Moore:

…up to half of all failures are process induced and are therefore preventable.

Conditions causing pump failure include process operating conditions and mechanical wear. Cranford gives an operating condition example:

…when changes in operating conditions induce pump cavitation (a result of insufficient net positive suction head), this can grossly accelerate impeller wear and lead to seal failure.

Mechanical wear can manifest itself in several ways:

…imbalance, poor shaft alignment, loose pump mounts, broken bolts, foundation cracks, and damaged impellers. These defects gradually decrease the integrity of the machine and can lead to coupling, seal and bearing failures.

The traditional approach to inspecting the majority of pumps without online condition monitoring systems has been:

…by monitoring vibration, commonly by manual measurements on a periodic basis – typically every 30–90 days. Assuming that a trained analyst is available to review the data, these periodic checks can be used to detect many faults in advance; even then, however, they still leave the plant vulnerable to unplanned outages in between measurements.

What’s missing is real-time feedback with a clear indication of pumps in distress and the severity level of the fault. Cranford a way this feedback can be provided through monitoring raw vibration and high frequency impact faults. I highlighted the PeakVue Analysis diagnostics for these impact faults in a post, The Peaks Provide the Early Warning in Machinery Protection.

CSI 9420 Wireless Vibration Transmitter

For example, for a total picture of pump health we also need pressure monitoring to check for clogged suction strainers as well as pre-cavitation. If these values are not already being monitored, wireless pressure transmitters can be added easily and affordably.

Readings for vibration, impacting and pressure can all be broadcast over the same wireless network, and the system can be easily expanded to include temperature, level, flow and many other parameters. Users can monitor online for the conditions that are of greatest concern, including cavitation, bearing temperature, vibration, process leakage, suction strainer differential pressure, discharge pressure, seal reservoir level and pressure.

By providing early warning to failing pump health, safety, environmental, and production-related incidents can be avoided. Read the article for more on common threats to pump health, paying attention to the role of control valves, and how these technologies have been applied at the SABIC olefins plant in Teesside, UK.

You can also connect and interact with other reliability experts in the Reliability and Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Early Detection of Impending Pump Failures appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Across many process manufacturing and producing industries, falling prices are driving the need for increased efficiency and reliability, as well as reduced costs. While optimizing process control can yield gains, so can applying technology to the condition of the equipment involved in process operations.

Jonas Berge

Making this possible is the availability of:

…industrial information and communications technologies (IICT) such as bus, wireless, and cloud computing.

Jonas lists typical pieces of equipment that can lead to unplanned downtime and process slowdowns:

• Pumps
• Blowers
• Cooling towers
• Heat exchanger
• Air cooled heat exchangers (ACHE)
• Pipe & vessel corrosion
• Valves

He describes the shortcomings in maintenance contracts for manual periodic data collection, rotating equipment vibration analysis, pump seal flush systems, etc. The lag between inspections may allow problems to develop and worsen. A better approach is to have:

…a data-driven approach to reliability and maintenance scheduling. Existing plants can be modernized to become smart plants.

For plant assets not already protected with continuous protection and prediction monitoring, the:

…wireless vibration transmitter is another way to monitor vibration on non-critical rotating equipment, serving as an intermediate tool to complement online machinery protection systems and portable vibration testers.

Many essential assets such as cooling tower fans, air-cooled heat exchangers, and blowers to name a few are not easily monitored due to safety concerns and access difficulty. For these applications, the:

…vibration sensors are mounted inside the enclosures and wired to the wireless transmitter outside the enclosure.

Instead of collecting data from manual rounds on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, more frequent [hyperlink added]:

…data automatically monitored by software improves the data analysis to capture developing issues in the early stages rather than later, when damage or outright failure and shutdown have already occurred. More frequent and recent data makes the diagnostics more predictive, makes root-cause analysis easier, and also makes it possible to visualize degrading conditions by severity trend in software.

Jonas describes how diagnostics such as PeakVue Analysis, provide early warning to impending problems in time to take proactive actions to address the problem before a failure occurs.

He describes multi-parameter condition monitoring as being about:

…observing measurable properties for signs of internal fouling or faults. Additional sensors for equipment pressures, temperature, flow, auxiliary seal flush fluid levels, position, pH and conductivity provide data on operating process and ambient conditions that help in root-cause analysis. This allows other problems like fouling, scaling, and leaks etc. to be detected.

You’ll want to read the article for examples of how multi-condition monitoring is applied to air-cooled heat exchangers and pumps to improve overall reliability and efficiency of maintenance operations.

You can also connect and interact with other reliability and maintenance experts in the Reliability & Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Multi-parameter Condition Monitoring for Plant Asset Reliability appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

We all appreciate the diagnostics in our cars that provide early warning to get a problem fixed before a breakdown occurs. We’ve chronicled how rotating machinery diagnostics, such as PeakVue Analysis diagnostics, can provide early warning to avoid unplanned shutdowns.

The repair could be scheduled instead of worsening to the point of failure and causing a loss of electrical power for their customers.

A second example Jacob shared was at a chemical manufacturing plant. An increase in vibration on a gearbox shaft outboard bearing was flagged for the watch list and data analysis was increased in frequency to once every other week. This gearbox was on a critical agitator that runs in a batch process.

The PeakVue Analysis diagnostic helped to identify a fundamental train frequency (FTF or cage frequency) defect. The amplitudes of this defect actually decreased as the Machinery Performance and Condition Monitoring Services team continued to monitor the situation, which is a good indicator of a bearing in its final stages of life.

The batch ran over the course of months so the machinery monitoring and analysis team was able to closely track the bearing to make sure it would last through the end of batch where a replacement could be planned and scheduled.

We’ll share some more stories in the coming months. Until then, you can connect and interact with other maintenance and reliability experts in the Reliability & Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Avoiding Rotating Machinery Downtime with PeakVue Diagnostics appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

One of the key ways to improve operational performance is to reduce unplanned downtime. An ARC Advisory Group blog post, Technology Trends to Watch for in 2017, noted:

One of the biggest end user challenges remains unscheduled downtime. IIoT-enabled solutions, such as remote monitoring and predictive maintenance, can help minimize, if not totally eliminate this, which would deliver a rapid ROI.

Phil opens noting three concern areas he often hears. The first is around needing help in assessing the technology available and the financial justification to go forward. The second area is security. As additional wireless measurement and access for remote experts to analyze and recommend, the need for a highly-secure infrastructure is required. The third area is to develop the project roadmap going forward—what should be done and in what order. This also includes determining the measures of success.

He explains that over $1 trillion dollars is lost by global manufacturers and producers due to suboptimal performance. Phil described how Emerson has taken a programmatic approach called Operational Certainty to help manufacturers achieve Top Quartile performance in their respective industry segment.

This approach consists of Plantweb digital ecosystem technology built on years of digital communications and wireless device and infrastructure experience. This experience helps to create the Secure First Mile to get data out securely to the analytics software and experts required to act up the information provided by these Pervasive Sensing devices around the manufacturing facility.

As an example, Phil cites PeakVue diagnostics which help predict when equipment failures will occur. For more on how this analytics-based diagnostic works, visit the post, Avoiding Bearing Failures with the Rule of Tens PeakVue Measurement Methodology.

Watch the video for more as Phil describes how these analytics are available at many levels and for many roles including locally on smart phones and tablets to remotely to remote experts via Connected Services.

You can also connect and interact with other IIoT and operational improvement experts in the Wireless and Improve & Modernize groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Planning and Justifying the Industrial Internet of Things appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

In this 3-minute YouTube video, Alert Plant Operations When Rotating Equipment Problems Pose a Threat, Emerson’s Kevin Rossi shares ways to equip plant operators with insights to reduce or eliminate forced outages tied to rotating equipment problems issues.

For electrical power, water and wastewater facilities, the Ovation Machinery Health Monitor module can provide early detection capabilities to avoid unplanned downtime.

Kevin notes that 90% of rotating equipment issues are caused by four things: imbalance, misalignment, looseness or mechanical wear. Most of these issues show up in the vibration frequency spectrum at multiples of the turning speed. Traditionally, vibration analysis expertise has been required to diagnose the underlying problem—with mechanical wear being the most difficult to analyze.

With this expertise not available or only sparingly available at many sites, Kevin describes a common requirement for a simple, automated, continuous monitoring solution that alerts operators when issues are developing—without requiring any vibration analysis training.

The Ovation Machinery Health Monitor module provides fully-integrated vibration monitoring on the Ovation distributed control system (DCS) with continuous online monitoring with detailed vibration waveform, spectrum and machinery health parameters. Smart alerts to operators deliver actionable information. PeakVue technology provides earliest detection of problems in rolling element and gearbox applications.

Visit the Power Plant Availability section of Emerson.com for more ways to reduce forced outages and improve overall reliability. You can also connect and interact with other Ovation system experts in the Ovation group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Avoiding Forced Outages from Rotating Equipment Issues appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

In a Plant Services article, 6 steps to preventing bearing failure, Emerson’s Brian Overton shares ways to extend bearing life and avoid unplanned shutdowns.

He opens highlighting their importance.

Without effective bearing motion, a machine shaft can fail, and the machine can break down.

His 6 steps include:

1. Choose the correct bearing design
2. Store bearings actively
3. Install bearings properly
4. Lubricate bearings according to manufacturers’ guidelines
5. Align machinery precisely
6. Balance equipment well

Bearings should match the design and load requirements as defined by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). If not sized correctly:

…you’ll risk premature wear and eventual failure of the bearing.

Spare bearings should not just sit on a shelf until needed. They:

…should be stored actively – in other words, they should be rotated or spun occasionally. Without occasional rotation, they can experience false brinelling, in which bearings etch a pattern into the raceways because of vibration.

From an installation perspective, avoid forcing the bearing into place and use other means such as heat to expand the metal. Once in place:

…give the bearings a good flushing and cleaning out with lubricant.

Ongoing bearing lubrication should be performed per the OEM recommendation. Too much or too little lubricant can reduce lifespan. Diagnostics such as PeakVue technology:

…can monitor lubrication conditions by monitoring stress waves, which are created by friction… When improperly lubricated, a rolling element in a bearing might cause the inner or outer race to deflect and spring back, creating a stress wave. New technology can parse out the frequencies to see the stress wave, leading to the early detection and elimination of bearing anomalies.

Read the article for more on proper equipment alignment and balancing and their role in extending bearing life, as well as more diagnostic tests to perform root cause analysis for persistent bearing issues.

Also, join us at the October 1-5 Emerson Exchange conference in San Antonio, Texas, for several excellent machinery monitoring and protection sessions including:

• Modernizing the Protection System of Critical Assets (Brian will co-present this workshop)
• Vibration Monitoring Best Practices (Brian will be one of 4 panelists in this Meet the Experts session)
• From blind to one-eyed – A story of asset monitoring in cooling towers
• Qatar Shell GTL get insight to its critical LPU Blowers health condition with Pervasive Sensing
• Nutrien Potash Optimization Results + Next Step Advanced Analytics of Operational Data

The post How to Prevent Bearing Failures appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

In this 6-minute YouTube video, PeakVue Signal Processing Demo, Emerson’s Robert Skeirik describes how these advanced analytics can spot bearing problems much earlier that traditional vibration measurements.

This extra time allows the operations and maintenance teams to plan and resolve the issue before a failure occurs.

In the video, Robert compares and contrasts simple vibration data measured in inches or centimeters/second versus PeakVue analytics measuring peak impact in g’s (g-force). He shows data of a bearing heading for failure.

The vibration data shows little change as the bearing fault advances in severity until the point of failure. The PeakVue analytics show a steady progression for good, to alert maintenance, to approaching end of life, to failure imminent, to failure. For most equipment, this progression occurs over time to allow maintenance to be scheduled to avoid unplanned downtime.

The PeakVue analytics can also be used for gearbox analysis, as well as two leading root causes of failure—insufficient lubrication and cavitation on process pumps.

You can connect and engage with vibration and reliability experts at the October 1-5 Emerson Exchange conference and/or in the Reliability & Maintenance group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post PeakVue Analytics for More Reliable Machinery Performance appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Robert Skeirik

In earlier posts, Emerson’s Robert Skeirik highlighted how PeakVue impact detection analytics technology can provide early warning of bearing failure in time to plan and schedule maintenance before unplanned downtime occurs. These analytics help drive overall reliability improvement key performance indicators (KPIs).

I came across a recently published whitepaper, Confirming Gearbox Defect Using Waveform & PeakVue Technology, which highlights another issue with rotating machinery that this diagnostic in combination with time-series waveform analysis can help identify.

Gearbox defects may not exhibit repetitive, periodic defects like ball bearing defects exhibit. Analyzing vibration in the time domain helps provide insights beyond the typical frequency spectral analysis.

Here is some case study information from the whitepaper:

Data collected on a gearbox indicates an abnormal gear issue. The conventional vibration waveform had indicated only slightly higher levels of impacting at once per revolution, however, a peak of over 19 G’s is present in this PeakVue waveform.

The whitepaper goes on to share how the time-based waveform shows a large impact once for each revolution and how this might indicate a problem with the gear such as a broken or missing tooth. When viewed with a circular waveform plot, it provided:

…further confirmation of a broken tooth. The 1 X TS event offsets the circular autocorrelation waveform at a probability of one (or close to one) at the Top Dead Center (TDC) of the circular plot.

Read the short whitepaper to see the waveforms on how the problem inside the gearbox was detected and confirmed after disassembly and inspection. For those here in North America there is an upcoming 3-day course, Time Waveform Analysis, in Knoxville, Tennessee in early August and another in December. The course:

…is designed to upgrade and enhance waveform analysis skills for vibration technicians and reliability engineers. There are several reasons that vibration analysts want to understand and use waveform analysis, since some significant defects are better analyzed in the time domain. The time domain provides visual confirmation of amplitude enhancement and reduction. Time waveform analysis can present, in a static picture, amplitude variations and changes in frequencies that the FFT cannot display without using multiple (dynamic) graphics. Further, a waveform graphically presents accurate peak vibration amplitudes representing defect severity.

Visit the PeakVue Technology for Machinery Analysis section on Emerson.com for more on these analytics technologies and how they help you drive improved performance in reliability and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). You can also connect and interact with machinery health experts in the Asset Management group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community and/or at the September 23-27 Emerson Exchange conference in Nashville.

The post Diagnosing Gearbox Defects appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.

Jason King

Emerson’s Jason King shares an update on advanced condition monitoring in the Ovation distributed control system at last week’s 2019 Ovation Users’ Group conference. This integrated machinery protection and condition monitoring module built directly into the Ovation system. It is capable of typical equipment protection functions, but also has condition monitoring technology built in, so no separate software will be needed for diagnosing your most-common rotating asset issues.

Each Ovation Machinery Health Monitor (MHM) module is 8 channels – all 8 can handle your typical turbine supervisory instrumentation like displacement probes, accelerometers, velometers, and other AC or DC sensors that fall into the sensor input ranges. In addition, channels 7 and 8 can also be configured for tachometer sensors of several types (displacement, passive electro-magnetic, hall effect, shaft encoders, and TTL pulse).

A typical protection system in the field today has the sensors and converters in the field, a rack placed somewhere else with its own separate power supplies, and all of these connections to the Ovation system: digital signals for shutdown, alerts, channel faults, setpoint (trip) multiply, and either 4-20mA signals of the overall vibration value from each sensor, or a Modbus connection sharing that data with Ovation, which needs set up, maintained, and can be difficult to troubleshoot. The Ovation Machinery Health Monitor module, the rack and its separate power supplies and all those connections to Ovation are eliminated.

Some of the condition the MHM module monitors for includes imbalance, looseness, misalignment, antifriction, and journal, sleeve and babbitt mechanical wear. 90% of rotating equipment issues can be boiled down to one of four things: imbalance, misalignment, looseness, or mechanical wear. These issues show up in the frequency spectrum as increases in vibration at multiples of the turning speed of the equipment.

PeakVue analytics technology is designed for use with accelerometers on rolling element and gearbox applications. These tend to develop problems that show up at very high frequencies, which don’t show up in typical protection system or condition monitoring frequency ranges, which means failures can occur with no warning, and the failures are typically catastrophic.

PeakVue analytics provide an easy-to-interpret value that can be used for primary diagnosis of problems with roller bearings and gearboxes. It follows a “rule of 10’s” meaning on typical process equipment, 900 to 4000 RPM, PeakVue will be below 10 for healthy equipment. If PeakVue goes above 10, a problem is developing in the equipment. Jason noted that one power producer’s maintenance team pulled bearings when PeakVue was just above 10 and they couldn’t see the problem with the naked eye. The problem is often subsurface at this stage. If you put the bearing back in and run the equipment until PeakVue climbs above 20, you will see the problem when you take it back out. PeakVue climbing above 30 means you have very little time remaining, and above 40 means the equipment is about to shut down.

Jason then highlighted Ovation turbomachinery diagnostics to provide early warning of abnormal conditions in turbine bearing alignment, balance, and bearing health. Also, coming soon in Ovation is AMS Machine Works, which provides advanced condition monitoring by combining predictive maintenance techniques with comprehensive analysis tools for accurate assessment of the plant machinery. Advanced vibration analysis includes waveform, spectrum, orbit, full spectrum, cascade, waterfall, Bode, and Nyquist.

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Visit the Ovation Machinery Health Monitor and AMS Machine Works pages on Emerson.com for more on this integrated approach to prediction and protection of critical rotating assets.

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