Condition Monitoring in Industrial Environments - Advantages & Disadvantages

RE: Condition Monitoring in Industrial Environments - Advantages & Disadvantages

DAB — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 19:15:57 GMT

Engineering 101, first define the value of your components, the cost of unexpected maintenance, the cost of monitoring, and the cost/benefit to an active solution.

If you do not understand the problem, you cannot establish a cost effective solution.

It might just be simpler to periodic change the components that fail. The airlines run on this model and have been very successful at keeping the aircraft in the air and safe.

Factories have used this same model for replacing fluorescent lights on a whole floor at once rather than replace individual bulbs.

So a simple operational analysis will provide any company or organization with the basic information they need to make these types of decisions.

DAB

RE: Condition Monitoring in Industrial Environments - Advantages & Disadvantages

three-phase — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 18:23:23 GMT

Vibration monitoring is a highly developed form of condition monitoring both in terms of the sensors and data analysis. It is often used in two forms, the first for comparison against known failure levels that are identified in ISO standards. The second for trend analysis of specific machines comparing the trend of its own historical data.

Other operational data such as system flow or pressure, motor current etc can be used to gain a better insight into the situation and input into decisions to carry out maintenance.

The data collection is also split into two different varieties. Constant online monitoring applied to strategic apparatus that is has its own high intrinsic value or is a single point of failure in a process or production system.

Adhoc analysis is also available with portable sensors and data collection machines used to collect data at a specific moment in time. Often used for non-strategic plant or systems that can run in parallel. Thermographic cameras and current meters can be used to add to the information collected in a similar manner to online systems.

Algorithms for online data analysis are still in their infancy. Such systems have to be taught by manual analysis of the data by an operator to determine whether or not the shift in data is critical or just part of process deviation. This in itself takes a significant amount of time and cost, relatively easy to justify if the plant is a multi-million pound turbine but not for smaller non-critical plant.

Condition monitoring of high voltage electrical apparatus is also carried out with analysis of partial discharge activity in machines, transformers, cables and switchgear, this needs to be coupled with data of the ambient and operational conditions at the time of the data collection. Online systems for these applications also improve safety as the reduce the need for personnel to enter into high risk areas.

Kind regards

RE: Condition Monitoring in Industrial Environments - Advantages & Disadvantages

genebren — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 16:04:15 GMT

Interesting article. We often face issues of this type when analyzing any system, too much or too little. The answers are complex. As the article points out, although we could monitor everything (at a huge cost). it makes sense to identify those things that provide the great coverage (higher likelihood of failure) and focus our efforts there.