Condition monitoring takes a remote turn

Like everything else today, condition monitoring of process manufacturing equipment is changing rapidly at the hands of technology.

Not so long ago it was considered advanced to walk around a factory with a hand-held data collector, assessing which pieces of kit were most likely to fail next. Now engineers can sit thousands of miles away and diagnose a problem that they were alerted to by a machine.

Finding the right condition monitoring system is important for manufacturing firms competing in a fierce and turbulent global marketplace where keeping kit running as efficiently as possible at as low a cost as possible can be mission critical.

“If you don’t know the condition of your assets, you won’t be prepared for when they fail,” warns Schaeffler UK field service engineer Ian Pledger.

Now engineers can sit thousands of miles away and diagnose a problem that they were alerted to by a machine

“We use condition monitoring to prevent unplanned downtime. If a machine failure catches you unawares you have not only the cost of repair, but the cost of downtime – and it wasn’t expected, so it hits the bottom line hard.”

Schaeffler specialises in vibration monitoring, which the company says works particularly well for pumps, motors, fans and compressors.

Traditional patrol monitoring relies on an operator going around a factory route with a handheld tool, measuring the level of vibration on various parts. Generally, as a part becomes defective, it produces more vibration.

Hands-off

But there are more modern options too.

“With increasing computing power and technological advance, we now have extremely effective online systems, which are permanently collecting data from multiple sensors on a particular machine,” says Pledger.

“You can have the monitoring device set so an amber light comes on your screen to show you when something is changing with a particular motor.”

And as an operator, you can be even less hands-on.

“The system can email someone remotely saying an alarm level has been reached on a piece of kit. We can diagnose problems offsite – indeed we have a remote monitoring centre in Germany that monitors machinery in Texas and has successfully told the customer when to change an individual motor 4,000 miles away.”

Taking this a step further, Schaeffler’s Smart Check system can be fixed to a machine, put in teaching mode, then measure vibrations and learn what a normal level is. It can create its own alarm levels and decide when there is a problem. The system can even say what the most likely cause of a particular failure is, so the maintenance worker has a place to start from.

“A human is still needed at this stage for now,” says Pledger.

With increasing computing power and technological advance, we now have extremely effective online systems

Ian Pledger, field service engineer, Schaeffler UK

Durgesh Jha, regional manager of reliability solutions at Emerson Process Management Middle East and Africa, says that while vibration monitoring is generally the best tool, a range of other condition monitoring methods are available.

These can include temperature measurement; infrared thermography; oil analysis; ultrasonics; motor current analysis; and corrosion monitoring.

Full online data monitoring can sometimes be specified in the insurance of some plants.

This is generally in the case of critical equipment that does not have a back-up and will have an immediate effect on production and health and safety if it fails. Such machines may include the steam or gas turbines in a power plant; crude oil export pumps on an oil platform; and the cracker in an oil refinery.

Measurements such as loads, pressures, temperatures, casing vibration and displacement, shaft axial and radial displacement, and speed and differential expansion are taken where possible on such machines.

Predictive text

These values can be fed back into software that is capable of trending the data, providing operators with performance statistics and even predicting faults and providing diagnosis of failures before they happen.

Online monitoring can be split into protection and prediction methods, Jha adds, with the former concerned with placing machines into failsafe mode during abnormal conditions, and the latter with data analysis and maintenance scheduling.

“Plant availability can increase significantly if the latest technology, such as wireless, is deployed to monitor essential assets, and data is integrated with the process control system and made available to operators,” says Jha.

“Today, systems are designed with inbuilt predictive capabilities, unique out of the box OPC unified architecture connectivity and user configurable cards.”

Equipment monitoring and analysis is now also available on smart phones.

“Emerson has recently introduced the CSI 6500 ATG, a standalone protection system that introduces prediction to assets,” says Jha.

“A mobile based app, ATG View allows data to be viewed from anywhere on a plant network.”

Cloud storage has been, and will continue to be, a game changer for industry, with data becoming more and more accessible to a wide range of people

David Manning-Ohren, condition monitoring expert, Eriks UK

Jha believes data analytics will help redefine best practice on planning, scheduling, maintenance and spare part management in the manufacturing industry.

“Unified integrated architecture, where process control and condition monitoring systems are available on the same network without the need for several conventional interfaces, will prevail and become mandatory because of its immense benefits,” he predicts.

“This will provide a holistic overview of asset health and provide a totally different view for operators in the control room.”

David Manning-Ohren, condition monitoring expert at Eriks UK, credits cloud storage with making the biggest impact on condition monitoring.

“Cloud storage has been, and will continue to be, a game changer for industry, with data becoming more and more accessible to a wide range of people,” he says.

“Many maintenance departments are now using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled devices, such as tablets or portable analysis devices.”

These can boost the speed of data collection, as well as ensuring the data is available on the cloud.

“Subsequently the diagnostic process is performed faster, as all the data sourced can be shared and analysed much quicker than was previously possible,” says Manning-Ohren.

Human touch

However, he cautions that while technology is revolutionising the industry, it is important not to underestimate the ongoing role of the human being.

“Our ability to capture vital data has really advanced the potential of condition monitoring, so much so that we’re almost overloaded with it,” he warns.

“Given the wealth of data on offer, along with a wide-range of options, some people might easily monitor the incorrect parameter and a piece of equipment could fail as a result.”

He says that without the diagnostic capabilities of an engineer equipped with the correct equipment and experience, data collected on the condition of machines is useless.

“It is the magician not the wand that makes the magic happen: you simply can’t replace a person with a machine,” says Manning-Ohren.

“Modern advances in monitoring methods and technology are real assets to the maintenance industry, but ultimately they are the tools and not the tradesmen.

“The core process of condition monitoring remains the same as it did 150 years ago; it is the speed of response that has really advanced.”