Sensegrow Blog Condition Monitoring Software for pumps, motor & rotating machines

Condition Monitoring Software for Asset HealthThings break! No matter what you do? there is always a chance that products will fail after certain duration of time. But that doesn't mean that you can't prevent many of the issues that result in costly downtime.Did you know that it is possible to determine the health of the equipment? Equipment downtime and poor performance can cost your company a lot, But with the right technologies like condition monitoring and reliability practices, it is possible to determine the nature and severity of fault conditions months before the machine would fail.Condition monitoring with wireless sensors and software empowers industry professionals to get ahead of potential equipment problems and avoid downtime by accessing power, vibration and temperature data from anywhere in a plant at any given time.For top tier, process-critical machines, vibration monitoring is essential. Vibration screening allows teams to be notified of abnormal vibration, further analyze and diagnose with vibration testers to identify the fault if abnormalities occur, and perform the right corrective action at the right time.Therefore, condition monitoring and vibration screening strengthens maintenance and reliability programs resulting in even lower costs and better performance.The top five benefits of vibration screening and cloud-based conditional monitoring software are:Screen quickly, act quicklyOrganize information for data-driven decisionsReceive alarms when abnormalities occurAlarm based on abnormalities caused by the four most common faults (imbalance, misalignment, bearing wear and looseness) earlyReduce maintenance spendFAILURE REASONThe errors which result in failure of pumps and motors are due to Human error, Operator error or Maintenance error.In pumps, motors and most other rotating equipment, the four most common faults are misalignment, looseness, imbalance and bearing wear. All these can cause increased power consumption, vibration and stress on shafts. This article will discuss the causes of these faults and how best to detect and how to use screening to gain early notification of them to avoid asset damage or failure.MAJOR 4 FAULTAs there are various modes of failure of rotating assets, including pump and motors, but there are high chances that one of these four failure modes was involved.MisalignmentPump shaft misalignment occurs when one shaft or surface is moved from its desired position. These movements can lead to misalignment in the entirety or partial sections of a pumping system. Misalignment in pump shafts can also result in an increase in resultant forces that change the angles and orientations into new resultant load directions.Misalignment may be caused byRelative Movement, thermal growth or expansionStrain, attached piping runs can force equipment out of alignmentTorsional Movement, initial high torque caused during startupSettling, base plate settles to lower positionMisboard Coupling, manufacturing defectImbalancePumps can at times seem as if they are misaligned, have bad bearings, or are overheating, but the cause is often an imbalance in the pump assembly or another component. Imbalance also causes vibration and heat buildup. Impellers should be precision balanced, which has a huge impact on the life of the pump bearings.Imbalance may be caused by:Eroded impeller bladesProblems with motor rotorsImproper bearing installationBent shaftLoosenessThe shaft, foundation, or a component may become loose. This causes forces that lead to excessive vibration and increases the wear in the bearings and seals. It may also cause baseplate problems, including soft foot; loose bolts; cracks in a frame; or improper fit between components, including impeller clearances. If not identified and corrected, looseness will shorten the asset's and other components' lives, ultimately causing failure.Looseness may be caused by:Improper installationManufacturing defectsBaseplate issuesImproperly torqued fastenersUnderlying vibration from other faultsBearing wearBearing wear is usually caused by other factors acting on the bearings. If the bearings are failing prematurely, the other low-level faults (imbalance, misalignment, or looseness) may be the cause.Causes of bearing wear are:Lubrication FailureContaminationImproper MountingCorrosionElectric DamageScreening to identify damage-causing vibrationA remote vibration sensor is small enough to fit in hard-to-reach places and affordable enough to place on multiple locations on equipment (for example, four test points). Precise placement increases accuracy and reduces the time it takes to screen an asset. The data generated from many sensors are wirelessly transmitted and stored using the cloud-based condition monitoring software. Many software programs have an app that can be downloaded to a smart device or PC, allowing teams to remotely monitor asset health and review historical data anytime and almost anywhere with an Internet connection.In many instances, the software even generates automatic alerts when measurements travel outside safe parameters, notifying maintenance team members before issues become critical. With vibration screening, early indications of abnormalities can help teams do the following:Avoid unexpected downtimeFind (with further examination) and fix failures at an earlier stageCollect historical data to justify maintenance spendDemocratize vibration expertise for non-experts providing easy-to-interpret dataScreen vibrations on hard-to-access machinesCollect and analyze cloud-based vibration dataThese early warnings allow teams to move into the next maintenance level above screening which is diagnosing. This way, they focus on machines known to have a potential problem instead of monitoring healthy assets.SolutionSensegrow sensors are placed on assets throughout the facility, perhaps initially focusing on bad actors to determine the best way to improve their operation. Application may be as simple as cleaning the location on which the sensor will be placed and mounting the sensor on the asset with epoxy, included adhesive, magnetic or other fasteners.All rotating machines experience vibration. Pumps and motors have different faults that vibration screening can identify. The trick to obtaining the most accurate data is placing the sensors on the correct locations for each asset and selecting the correct sensor for the vibration frequency.Pumps and motors transmit their vibrations from the shaft to the bearings to the housing and then to the casing. Each sensor should be installed so it is mechanically coupled properly to detect the energy. Avoid locations that may dampen or absorb the vibrations.Schedule DemoSensors for Monitoring Pumps & Submersible PumpsThere are dozens of different types of pumps and a seemingly endless list of applications but industrial accelerometers can often help the maintenance professional to diagnose sometimes tricky issues with pump operation. Using vibration monitoring in your predictive maintenance program can help identify pump problems such as cavitation, recirculation and resonance.A good rule of thumb is to select an accelerometer that has a linear high-frequency response capability to three times the pump's vane pass frequency (vane pass frequency = # of vanes x RPM). Most general purpose accelerometers will have more than adequate high-frequency response and thus the next key is selecting a transducer that will survive the application. For this purpose, SenseGrow has a wide range of submersible accelerometers as well as sensors and cabling that will survive in corrosive environments.A combination of Hardware and Enterprise SaaS Software that senses & predicts machine failureTechnology behind the Conditional Monitoring of the Pump & MotorSensor + Gateway + ioEYE Predict cloud platformSenseGrow Vibration Sensor: ioEYE Predict wireless vibration sensor for continuous monitoring of your rotating machines such as motors, fans, pumps and compressors. The sensor captures vibration data at a high resolution and transmits it to ioEYE Predict secure cloud for automated diagnosis of machine health.Triaxial Vibration & Temperature24 x 7 MonitoringWirelessBattery poweredStud or Epoxy mountingIP67 housingLearn MoreIoT Gateway : ioEYE Predict Gateway is designed to provide reliable and secure connectivity between sensors and ioEYE Predict cloud.Learn MoreioEYE Predict Cloud: ioEYE predicts combines the latest in sensor, web and machine learning technology that can help you implement a predictive maintenance program at an affordable cost.Real-Time Insights into machine health parametersMachine learning models to predict Machine anomaliesPredictive maintenance analysis toolsWeb-based - access from anywhere using a web browserFully Secure datacenter and applicationSoftware as a Subscription model makes it easy to implement and scaleLearn MoreAdvantagesIdentification of defective sealings and damages caused by storage in good timeAutomatic pump circuit using SPCSolid measurement technique using temperature sensor, vibration pick-up and float switchSimple installation and wiringRetrofittable for almost all pump types HPS - Steam boilerAvailable sensors for the control of:Bearing temperature Control of wear and tear of the ball-bearing in the bearing bracketLeakages Control of the mechanical seal in the bearing bracketDifferential pressure Control of the filtersVibration control Control of wear and tear of coupling, alignment of coupling and stresses in the piping systemMotor temperature* Control of the admissible temperatures in the windingsMotor power consumption Control of the electric motor windings- or bearing damagesSign up for our monthly newsletter to find out more about IoT solutions for various industries.AllCondition Monitoringpredictive maintenance iiotvibration sensor for motorwireless vibration sensors