Any time equipment is not operating during working hours, production suffers, and the company loses money. As a result, conflict often arises between operations and maintenance whenever a troubled asset is detected. The maintenance department wants to repair the asset to prevent unscheduled downtime. Operations wants to keep it going as long as possible to meet production quotas. In an environment of tough deadlines and aggressive production goals, just identifying a troubled asset isn’t enough. Today’s maintenance and reliability professionals need to have answers to the questions of “How bad is it?” and “When should we act?” The new generation of cloud-based condition monitoring, puts the answers to those questions at the fingertips of operations and maintenance at a moment’s notice, no matter where they are. DSKay Technologies Zimbabwe is now offering smart remote continuous motor condition monitoring services in Zimbabwe.
Remote Motor Condition Monitoring can cut maintenance and repair costs by about 30 percent. The continuous operational data flow through RMC keeps the customer and engineering teams in constant contact. This creates the ideal platform for better collaboration between our engineers and customers, which facilitates a faster and more complete resolution to the problems faced.
Remote Motor Condition Monitoring Service is a secure, real-time service that functions as a second set of eyes into the health and status of your company’s rotating assets. Remote Monitoring Service guarantees notification of any issues that may become significant through a personal customer call. We will ensure the proper contact has been made to explain and resolve the identified issues. Our monitoring center ensures full coverage where professionals process information received from sensors and trigger the appropriate response, which includes logging the event, emailing and calling contacts, and escalating issues as needed and according to service agreements.
Electrical motors can be found everywhere and their crucial role is to power various equipment in industrial plants. They are supposed to work continually and any interruption in their work can cause serious problems. For instance in chemical and process industries there are huge revenue losses if motor driven cooling pumps stop working properly.
Statistics show that motors like other rotating machines suffer from serious faults that can be timely predicted with a monitoring system.
The motor sensors measure the vibration, temperature and running hours of the electric motor. Information is collected and sent to the cloud. A report is generated and assessed by your maintenance team within minutes of detecting an abnormality making preventive maintenance easy and avoiding the risk of unplanned downtime.
ADVANTAGES OF USING CONTINUOUS MOTOR CONDITION MONITORING
Avoid routine machinery monitoring routes. Only those machines reported to be showing malfunction signs by the monitoring system, will be inspected. By doing this you concentrate your time and resources on the rotating assets that are really in need of service.
A catastrophic failure is the result of a premature failure that evolves into a breakdown leaving a machine and possibly an entire production plant out of service. Through the implementation of continuous predictive maintenance, faults are detected at an early stage and corrected. Accordingly, a failure should never have the chance to become catastrophic.
No more unscheduled downtime. You are able to determine which machines require maintenance and schedule the repair or replacement operations. This drastically reduces unforeseen plant downtime and increase the plant’s efficiency.
Eliminate unnecessary stock, since at all times and with sufficient prior notice you will know which components need to be replaced.
Up to now it has been too expensive to use permanently installed condition monitoring with motors. As a result most motors are simply run until they fail.
All motors can be remotely monitored. Condition monitoring means that maintenance can be planned in advance, which reduces downtime and saves money. By producing status data for a large number of motors, the solution also paves the way for plant-wide optimization of operations and energy consumption.
Motors that let you know when its time for a service
The condition monitoring solution connects low voltage motors with a cloud based sever. It monitors and provides vital motor performance intelligence that helps improve uptime, extend motor lifetimes, and increase machine performance and productivity. It connects motors with the internet.
Key parameters that are regularly and accurately monitored are
Health related information, Rotor health,Temperature, Cooling condition, Bearing condition, Overall vibration Operating information, Operating hours.
The external sensor monitors signals from the motor. The data is transferred using the units' built-in wireless signal over the internet, to a secure cloud-based server at DSKay RMC (Remote Monitoring Centre).
The system detects a problem that needs attention, Monitoring team at DSKay call your maintenance team. Trend data as well as data on run time and loads, is analyzed by 24/7 monitoring personnel and produces meaningful information, which it sends directly to your maintenance crew. Reports are also sent to you via email enabling optimum maintenance planning.
Trending analysis - Enables the customer to easily view changes in their physical infrastructure. Includes graphical data and shows the corresponding relationship of related data points.
Alarm notification - Customers are notified in real-time via phone or e-mail as critical events occur, allowing them to reduce mean time to recovery, improve efficiency and maximize uptime.
24x7 expert monitoring - Device experts provide 24-hour monitoring of your motors, gearboxes, fans, compressors, pumps etc, alleviating the strain on internal support resources.
Proactive service response - Physical infrastructure threats can be anticipated, identified and resolved quickly and accurately.
FAQs
What Is Motor Condition Monitoring?
Motor Condition Monitoring is a service for monitoring the condition of motors and generators. It is a remote monitoring service using sensors that feed signals to a fixed Data Analysis Unit installed either on or near the motor. Data is collected continuously and transmitted wirelessly to an RMC server. The service aims to identify faults at a much earlier stage than previously possible so that the findings can be integrated into preventive maintenance schedules. The customer can view the overall status of the motor or generator, trend graphs, etc through reports sent to them by DSKAY RMC platform.
What is the output of Motor Condition Monitoring for motors?
The measured data is analyzed to provide insight into the motor condition from the viewpoint of:
1. Rotor bar defects (for squirrel cage induction motors)
2. Installation problems (mechanical condition - unbalance, misalignment, looseness, soft foot, etc.)
3. Bearing problems - anti-friction and sleeve
4. Operating parameters
Based on the findings, a preventive maintenance strategy can be prepared for the equipment in order to increase reliability and reduce costs.
What parameters are measured?
The system collects vibration data (four channels) and temperature data (five channels). Vibration is measured using accelerometers mounted at carefully selected locations to ensure that the necessary signals are picked up. Temperature is measured using RTDs.
How does the Data Analysis Unit work?
The Data Analysis Unit is a core element of the entire service. Its Linux-based embedded processor runs the complete diagnostic software suite, monitoring the motor or generator and processing the vibration and temperature data on-board. Key Condition Parameters (KCPs) are generated for each different fault, and it is these KCPs that are transmitted to the server.
What do you mean by on-board processing? What are KCPs?
The software in the unit incorporates a number of algorithms. These algorithms process the raw signals to extract useful information. Each KCP is a measure of a typical fault. It provides a direct understanding of the fault, rather than merely reflecting the overall amplitudes of the signals. To understand the rotor bar condition, for example, the algorithm assesses the specific location of the spectrum, spacing of the sidebands at slip frequency, etc. and converts them into numerical values. This data is normalized with respect to load, and the normalized value is the KCP indicating the rotor bar condition.
How does Motor Condition Monitoring differ from other condition monitoring services?
The solution is a unique tool for motor analysis. Conventional remote or online condition monitoring systems transmit only raw data, which is input into a SCADA system. Trending of overall amplitude, such as vibration velocity, is computed and compared with a benchmark, usually the ISO 10816 standard. When the computed value exceeds the benchmark, an alarm or alert is activated and sent to the client by DSKAY RMS.
With Motor Condition Monitoring for motors it is the KCPs rather than the overall values that are monitored. If an alarm is triggered at DSKAYm after analysis the customer is sent clear information on what fault has caused the alarm.
How does the portal manage alarms?
If a KCP exceeds the alarm limit, this indicates that ‘something is no longer all right’ and action should be taken. As Motor Condition Monitoring can monitor performance on a continuous basis, any small deviation of the KCPs from normal observed values will be detected immediately. To prevent false alarms, however, a delay is provided to verify whether a fixed number of KCPs in series are above the threshold values. When an alarm is activated, the Data Analysis Unit uploads all the raw data to the server. After analysis by DSKAY technicians, they immediately sends SMS, call or e-mail messages to the customer’s registered contacts. These messages contain detailed information about the motor or generator and type of KCPs which have triggered the alarm. This ensures that quick checks and, if required, corrective action can be carried out to any unscheduled failure of the equipment.
Alarms are also provided to DSKAY technicians if there is a ‘system fault’ ie, if data is not getting captured due to either cable, connector or sensor failure.
What methods are required for transferring data to the server?
We install our own connectivity using industrial grade equipment specifically configured to trans fare data from sensors to the savers.
How does the analysis performed by software compare with conventional methods?
1. Conventional methods use nameplate information for calculating slip. RMC solution estimates the actual operating slip from measured data.
2. In the case of rotor bar defects, the operating load is taken into account to normalize the data before the severity is determined.
3. Better signal processing techniques help to correctly locate the sideband amplitude and frequency.
4. Vibration data effectively confirm any mechanical issues.
5. Unique bearing analysis algorithms help to detect any impending faults well in advance.
How does Motor Condition Monitoring for motors assess bearing problems?
The monitoring uses two special algorithms - BeAM (Bearing Asset Monitor) and BeaCon (Bearing Condition) - to analyze the condition of the bearings. The algorithms are based on the demodulation method. Special processing methods are also used to reduce noise and identify those signals that are likely to be from the bearing only, filtering out the rest. Various other parameters - such as Crest, Kurtosis, HF RMS, HF Pk-Pk - are also calculated to assess bearing condition. These methods ensure that the condition of the bearings is understood correctly and any impending fault is diagnosed early.
Is Motor Condition Monitoring limited to specific types or sizes of motors?
Our monitoring solution provides full functionality for any type or size of motor?
This monitoring solution can therefore be used on any type, size, or make of rotating, electrical motor, compressor, gearbox or fan..