Condition Monitoring of Steam Turbines by Performance Analysis

The IR camera is a great tool used in our everyday predictive maintenance endeavors, but it can play tricks on our eyes if we do not investigate beyond what we are observing. Things truly are not always as they seem, here's an example:

When selecting pressure measurement transmitters, the first stage is whether to opt for a transducer or a transmitter. Although the terms are often confused, there are several differences between transducer and transmitter devices. A transducer creates a low-level electronic signal in response to changes in applied or differential pressure. As with transmitters, transducers feature an internal sensor that converts the applied force into an electrical signal, from which the measurement is derived.

Diagnosing a bent shaft with vibration analysis is easy to do, especially when you can visualize its movement using 3D animations. Vibration patterns for different faults can look similar to each other. This is why it is always best to start with the machine, consider what faults are most likely and then take data in the proper test points and axes to find the most likely faults. It can get complicated, but 3D animations make it easier to visualize what is going on.

Condition based maintenance offers a large array of benefits if done correctly. It is not enough however to know we are doing a good job. We have to be clear about our goals and we have to be clear about how we are going to measure if we are meeting our goals or not. There are all sorts of fancy software platforms with dashboards that can help us define and measure KPIs, and track and visualize them, but we have to actually use them! 

Mirant Mid-Atlantic’s condition-monitoring team consists of a central group of four technicians and one team leader. The team’s primary responsibilities are the company’s four coal-fired power plants; as resources and priorities permit, the team also provides support to other assets.

Condition monitoring (CM) is not a life-extending activity. Life-extending activities are things such as lubrication, alignment, balancing and operating procedures. It’s very important to keep this very basic fact clear in all communications within your plant; otherwise, too little importance may be placed on the planning and scheduling of corrective work orders originated in CM.

Accept that you will sometimes be wrong and do whatever it takes to find out the “as found” condition. This is often difficult to accomplish but it is well worth the effort and in the best circumstances this should be implemented as a normal procedure.