Industrial monitoring of Motors, Gearboxes and Bearings

Customer Issue:  Predicting/Preventing Failures in Industrial Process Equipment

Many industrial processes have known equipment weaknesses: particular motors, gearboxes and/or bearings.  The productivity of these processes can benefit greatly from real-time, continuous monitoring.

Generally, distress with a component can be measured as heat, vibration or electricity consumption.  Grant can monitor all three, and provide remote, real-time alarms to plant personnel.

Wireless Equipment List:

Temperature:                         A1-02b Sensor Pod

                                                A1-08 Sensor Pod

Vibration:                               A1-10 Sensor Pod

Power Consumption:            A1-01a Sensor Pod

Per System:  B1-06 Gateway

Solution Description and Application Notes:

Temperature:

The Grant A1-08 Sensor Pod accepts inputs from up to 6 thermistors (up to 20 feet in length) to monitor temperature of up to six points on motors, gearboxes, bearings, etc.  The thermistors can be contact-mounted to accurately measure the temperature.  Grant online software can be used to set temperature alarm points (individual per thermistor). 

Alarms can be configured to call a list of plant staff sequentially; each person is called in order until one person accepts responsibility for the alarm.  Data for the alarm can be viewed from any Web browser.

For example, a customer producing plastic film in five plants across the US.  Normally, at least one plant would burn out a $120,000 electric motor every year due to gearboxes seizing.  Grant monitoring was installed in all five plants, and NO motors have been lost in the past three years.  The temperature of each gearbox is monitored at six points.

Actual Data From A Plastic Film Manufacturing Plant.  Note That The Graph Is Displaying One Month Of Data At A Measurement Interval Of 30 Seconds.  The Graph Is Divided Into 150 Time Intervals And The High And Low Temperature For Each Interval Is Displayed.  The Alarm Limit Is Set At 160 Degrees Fahrenheit.

Grant Monitoring Allows Viewing Multiple Points From A Single Screen.  Multiple Facilities, Even Thousands Of Miles Apart, Can Be Viewed On A Single Screen.

Vibration:

To perform long-term monitoring of vibration, most customer use the Grant A1-10 multi-4-20ma input Sensor Pods with averaging accelerometers from a third party such as IMI, Inc.. 

IMI Averaging Accelerometers With 4-20ma Outputs For Continuous Vibration Monitoring (Photos Courtesy: www.imi-sensors.com)

These accelerometers provide an RMS level output as a 4-20ma signal.  Over time, changes in this signal level represent increased vibration levels which can result from problems with bearings in particular.  Many mounting options are available.

Vibration readings can be displayed in inches² per second using the Grant flexible calibration parameters built into Grant monitoring software. 

Power Consumption:

Power consumption can be monitored using many commonly available power sensors wwith either 4-20 ma or 0-5v outputs.

Current/Voltage Monitoring Sensors Are Available From Numerous Manufacturers.  Shown Are Sensors From CR Magnetics, LoadControls and NK Technologies.  All Have 4-20ma Outputs Which Can Be Connected Directly To Grants A1-10 Sensor Pod. (Photos Courtesy: www.crmagnetics.com, www.loadcontrols.com and www.nktechnologies.com)

Again, Grant’s flexible calibration parameters provide easy scaling to physical units of power consumption rate, such as KW-Hours, etc. as shown in the graph below.

This Graph Is The Combined Power Consumption Of A Boiler Exhaust Fan And A Pump.  The Pump Circulates Hot Water, The Exhaust Fan Is On Whenever The Boiler Flame Is Lit.  Unfortunately, The Two Motors Consume Approximately The Same Power, So It Is Difficult To Separate The Two.  The Use Of Two Pods Would Permit Graphing The Two Together In Different Colors, So The Duty Cycles Of Each Could Be Seen.