Why You Should Still Care About Vibration Monitoring
Introduction
We sat down with our Vibration Analyst Chad Dyson to have a discussion about the importance of vibration monitoring and how our solutions help our partners and customers. In this Q&A, Chad offers great insight to some worthwhile considerations you might have if you are starting a machine vibration monitoring program in your facility, or shifting your existing machine vibration monitoring program into the next gear.
How much should maintenance on complex machinery and equipment be a part of a manufacturer’s innovation and operational strategies?
It has to be a major factor. There needs to be time and ability for even the simplest of maintenance tasks. Some manufacturers will provide a way to monitor the wear parts of their machines. If they do not include them as part of the machine, an exterior system can be used. In rotating machinery we use vibration sensors to monitor machine health. Everactive provides this solution in a unique way. Batteryless wireless vibration monitors. By using this solution we can provide vibration data and not add the task of monitoring battery health for battery changes.
We’re seeing a moment of increased demand placed on manufacturers and facilities teams of all kinds. Can you talk about how much time and effort is saved for our customers and their machinery when they use our vibration monitors?
Across the board we are seeing customers being asked to do more with less for a number or reasons. In some cases you may have multiple job functions that need to be covered. With using batteryless wireless vibration and steam trap monitoring you can free up those collection rounds. More data is streaming in daily than what was collected in previous months. We use that data to closely monitor assets and only analyze the machines that are in distress. It also allows us to de-silo the collected data and make use of machine learning to better monitor the health of your assets. In the end you will have a more direct path for maintenance. The right action at the right time.
Compared to other power-saving measures like solar panels or motion-sensor lighting, how do our batteryless machine vibration monitors stack up in terms of reducing what a manufacturing and heavy industry customer might pay in energy bills?
When you start using vibration monitoring to find defects, and then correct those defects, that’s where you can see a reduction in energy usage. If a machine is not properly aligned, it puts stress on the bearings and increases friction. An increase in friction will increase the amount of energy required to run the equipment.
In an energy context, how does Everactive’s platform fit into saving our customers time and money through predictive maintenance, which means more resources available for everyone?
We can see machine faults progress over time with our solution. We are constantly collecting data. When using a system of this type we are able to prepare for the maintenance task based on the analysis of the collected data. It also allows us to get the most run time out of the machine in question. In the end we are able to accurately plan the repair task. A planned task will always be cheaper than an unexpected emergency maintenance task.
How can our unique wireless sensors continue to provide high-value insights from complex and interconnected systems that are located within difficult locations themselves?
With the Everactive solution we open the data up to be ingested into any system. We want our customers and end-users to use the data we collect in their data historians, data lakes, and any machine learning system they may have.
As this global health crisis continues to unfold, can you speak to how some of our customers in the pharmaceutical industry are using our machine vibration monitors to ensure quality control and that production deadlines are met?
Elimination of downtime. Using vibration monitoring we are able to schedule maintenance on the down days and not stop production because a machine is found to have high vibration levels. Our goal is to see the problems before they occur and plan for accurate maintenance on its next down day.
What is the correlation between becoming more productive and becoming more compliant with environmental regulations?
When unexpected downtimes happen, there can be unforeseen consequences. Most process cant just turn off. There can be lots of pressure and temperature on these production areas that has to be controlled. If you have a system that goes down quickly and unexpectedly, that pressure has to be released. Sometimes the only place is can be released is to the atmosphere and or to flares. There are regulations on how much product can be flared or vented to the atmosphere. Large fines are usually enforced for going over the limits. In the end the more productive you are the less likely you will have environmental releases.