The benefits of Machine Condition Monitoring for rotating machinery

What is Machine Condition Monitoring?

Rotating machinery is often critical to the running of processing plants, and their reliability must be guaranteed at all times. Machine Condition Monitoring tracks the working condition of a plant and machinery. In order to identify levels of change including decreasing performance, a developing fault, or failure.

These faults, if undetected, or detected too late, can have disastrous consequences. The premise of Machine Condition Monitoring therefore, is that maintenance should only be carried out when we detect these levels of change to avoid unnecessary downtime and cost.

What are the key benefits of Machine Condition Monitoring?

• Form part of a proactive maintenance program for critical rotating equipment monitoring
• Predict potential problems and plan maintenance in advance, before it’s too late
• Increase performance, quality and productivity
• Increase reliability and operational safety of your machinery
• Save energy and decrease fatigue loading on the bearings and other mechanical supports
• Reduce unplanned, costly downtime
• Minimise maintenance costs
• Reduce requirement for emergency parts

How do you perform Machine Condition Monitoring?

Vibration screening

Potential faults in rotating machinery are often first picked up by vibration measurements. Vibration monitoring is therefore one of the most effective ways to detect developing faults. These include imbalance, bearing wear, misalignment and other mechanical faults such as worn or bent shafts. As this happens, levels of vibration increase. The use of vibration sensors, therefore, detects the changes and alerts plant operators when this becomes excessive. We can then collate and analyse the data from these readings and provide maintenance recommendations to extend the lifespan of the machinery.
IR − Infrared condition monitoring

Another method of machine condition monitoring is IR (or thermography) − where infrared/thermographic cameras are used to detect abnormal heat patterns being emitted from an object which can indicate faults or inefficiencies. We typically use IR to monitor electrical and mechanical conditions of motors, control panels and abnormal friction of bearings.

Will the condition monitoring process damage machinery?

Machine Condition Monitoring does not damage machinery, as external condition sensors are applied to the machine to locate potential problems while it is still running. This also means that you don’t have to shut down operations while dealing with issues regarding your machinery, thus avoiding the need to halt production.

How long does Machine Condition Monitoring take to carry out?

We can carry out the process on-site, virtually minutes, depending on the number of points that we are measuring and monitoring. We then upload the data to a main computer with the plant information for analysis which again, takes hours rather than days.

Why use WDB Ltd for Machine Condition Monitoring?

At WDB Ltd, our skilled team of engineers are second-to-none, with the highest level of industry knowledge and the latest technology.

We use vibration analyses to monitor the vibration levels of all types of rotating machinery including fans, pumps, machine tools (machining centre, spindle assemblies, headstock etc.) and motors in order to eliminate common performance problems and extend a machine’s lifespan, improve accuracy, and avoiding system failure.

After carrying out the inspection, you will be provided with a detailed report highlighting actionable, prioritised information and recommendations with details of the fault.