Introduction If you spend any time at all with a machinery diagnostic engineer, the first thing you will learn is that they almost never rely solely on vibration data. Instead, they need a full “tool kit” of data. In fact, their first task upon arriving at site to collect data – or to remotely analyze […]
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Introduction The consequences of a false or missed trip can be enormous on modern turbomachinery. Consider for a moment an ethylene compressor incurring a thrust bearing failure without a reliable trip function. As the bearing destroys itself there is nothing to constrain further axial movement of the rotor assembly. Seals are wiped and ethylene escapes, […]
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Humorist and author Mark Twain famously quipped “the report of my death was an exaggeration1” In like manner, dire predictions anticipating the demise of stand-alone vibration monitors have been ongoing for decades. Will rack-based monitors be swallowed up and made obsolete by tightly integrated PLC or DCS modules? What are the advantages of stand-alone systems […]
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Our products are used to monitor and protect the largest machines and operations on the planet. That’s not hyperbole – that’s fact. In this series of articles, we have examined the world’s largest gas and steam turbines and our role in protecting them. We now conclude this 3-part series with a look at our historic […]
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Our products are used to monitor and protect the largest machines and operations on the planet. That’s not hyperbole – that’s fact. In this series of articles, we examine three of the “world’s largest” and what we do to make them safe and reliable. We continue our series here with installment #2 and an examination […]
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Our products are used to monitor and protect the largest machines and operations on the planet. That’s not hyperbole – that’s fact. In this series of articles, we examine three of the “world’s largest” and what we do to make them safe and reliable. Here, we showcase the world’s largest gas turbine – the Siemens […]
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In a recent customer survey on projects involving vibration system installations, upgrades, and retrofits, we gained insights that we wanted to pass along to you – some surprising, and some not-so-surprising – but all valuable. Introduction In September 2022, we surveyed 17 existing and potential customers with a series of qualitative questions about upgrade projects […]
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Overview While it is tempting to think of wire as an ideal conductor that simply gets a signal from point A to point B without alteration, this is often not the case – particularly for long cable runs. In the real world, appreciable length of field wiring will introduce its own effects, meaning that the […]
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Thirty years ago, the phrase “islands of automation” was commonplace. It described instrument and control systems that exhibited very poor connectivity and were thus “islands unto themselves.” What little connectivity existed might consist only of analog 4-20mA outputs or discrete signals from relays. Although the phrase may not be as common these days, the ability to properly connect systems to one another remains a concern.
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The debate over centralized versus distributed instrumentation architectures has been ongoing for more than 40 years, predating many of those reading this. Nor will it end any time soon. This is unfortunate because it is needless.
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Supplementing your hardware alarms with the right software alarms is a vital part of a condition monitoring approach that “manages by exception”.
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Large steam turbines employ a suite of supplementary measurements not found on other types of rotating machines.
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When we introduced the VM600 platform 21 years ago, we “broke the mold” by moving away from application-specific modules. The industry paradigm at that time was generally one module for accelerometers, another for velocity sensors, another for proximity sensors, another for thrust, still another for case expansion, yet another for speed, etc.
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Operational safety within the process industries has always been a priority. As the process sector moved into the computer age, new issues arose as manufacturing plants converted to computer-based control systems (replacing their aging electrical, pneumatic, and electronic controls).
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A machinery protection system and a condition monitoring system fundamentally fulfill different goals.
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Like the VM600, the new VM600Mk2 system is designed as a centralised system, with a well-thought-out modular structure allowing smart function combinations that enable complex systems to be built from a minimum number of modules.
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The American Petroleum Institute’s standard for machinery protection systems (API Standard 670) is a widely recognised industry standard, used actively by regulators and operators around the globe.
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A machinery protection system (MPS) is a crucial safety element designed to prevent accidents in industrial plants. The purpose of an MPS is to protect critical rotating machinery from catastrophic accidents and operational issues, thereby increasing uptime while reducing maintenance and repair costs.
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