ONLINE AND MANUAL (OFFLINE) VIBRATION MONITORING OF

EQUIPMENT FOR RELIABILITY CENTERED MAINTENANCE

BY
Sheetalnath Mahalungkar, Reliability Engineer, Holcirn (US) Inc
Mike Ingrarn, Integrated Condition Monitoring Entek (Rockwell Automation)

Abstract:

As the cement industry evolved, keeping equipment running without failure

became crucial. Loss in production due to equipment failure was no longer
affordable due to the increasing demand. In the cement industry, maintenance is
a costly and at the same time controllable expense. The initial concept of
equipment maintenance was reactive maintenance. Scheduled or preventive
maintenance replaced reactive maintenance, resulting in better equipment
availability. Even with scheduled preventive maintenance unprecedented failures
occur. Now the focus in the industry is shifting from scheduled maintenance to
the new technology of constantly observing machine condition and predicting the
condition in advance. This is predictive maintenance. The source of equipment
abnormality is identified and corrected which prevents the failure in the future.
This is reliability based maintenance. More concentration is focused on providing
advance warning of signs of trouble to prevent sudden failure. Predictive
maintenance is the current trend in the manufacturing Industry. Condition
monitoring through vibration monitoring and oil analysis is the latest technique of
maintenance to achieve higher equipment availability.

Holcim has evolved in last decade from preventive maintenance to reliability

centered maintenance through condition monitoring. Condition based
maintenance is the center of maintenance activity at the Holcim Portland Plant in
Florence, Colorado. The plant has been in operation since May 2002. As part of
the condition monitoring program, the plant has installed online vibration
monitoring systems on all critical equipment. The online transducers are
connected to the centralized control room through PLC’s. The equipment has
settings for alarm and shutdown in case of excessive vibration. Another vibration
monitoring tool being utilized by the plant is an online surveillance system. This
combines both continuous monitoring as well as Fast Fourier Transform analysis.
The plant also has offline vibration monitoring routes where the data is collected
manually by field technicians and then analyzed.

This technical report presents information about the function of online and offline
vibration monitoring. Brief information is presented about the current vibration
monitoring system being used at the Plant. A case study is presented to show
the cost justification analysis of implementing a vibration program. The report
gives a brief comparison between online and offline monitoring showing the
advantages and limitations of both. The investment required for the system
installation as well as cost savings as a result of early prediction of equipment
operation issues are presented.

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 Holcim Overview

HolcimTM(Formerly HolnamTM)started production of cement in 1912 with one

plant in Switzerland in the town of Holderbank. The company now operates in 70
countries around the world with 120 cement manufacturing units and achieved
record sales of USD $10.4 billion in the year 2002. Developments in technology,
increases in product quality, and decreases in sales price have driven the need
for new methods to run equipment more reliably and at a lower cost. Many
technologies are being utilized by the company to standardize this process.
Enterprise resource planning tools are being used for activities like planning and
managing resources. A process software package is being used to improve the
process performance. The company has been very proactive about equipment
reliability and has been investing in the latest technologies available to monitor
and predict the possible failure of equipment. The company has a well
developed preventive maintenance program and has been moving towards
condition based maintenance in the last decade.

, Development from Breakdown Maintenance to Scheduled Maintenance to

Predictive Maintenance to Reliability Centered Maintenance.

The journey of Breakdown Maintenance to the current Reliability Centered

Maintenance can be traced through the last 6 decades. Before the Second
World War the cement industry was not highly mechanized. The equipment
being used was highly over-designed and simple to maintain. There was no
need for any systematic maintenance other than lubrication, cleanup and
servicing. Breakdown was not a big concern. The tendency was to fix it if it
breaks. This was the first generation of maintenance or breakdown maintenance
(Mourbay 2000).

During and after the Second World War the cement industry went through a
revolution in machinery design. The limited manpower and increasing demand
for material forced the industry to invent different methods of preventing
downtime of equipment. This resulted in the evolution of Preventive
Maintenance. The equipment was shut down at regular intervals and
overhauled, thus improving the availability of equipment.

With increased competition and increased demand, companies are forced to

improve performance. At the same time, to reduce cost, manufacturing
companies are focusing on concepts such as Just in Time. Any sudden
downtime of equipment results in lost production, unprecedented maintenance
cost and interrupted customer service, creating questions about the credibility of
the manufacturer. This has forced industry to research better methods for
predicting equipment condition.

These needs led to Predictive Maintenance techniques such as condition

monitoring, where characteristics of the machine are collected periodically and
trended to determine machinery condition. Vibration analysis, Oil Analysis and
infrared Thermography can be used to predict the failure of a bearing or a
problem with a drive well in advance of failure.

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 Additional developments have led to Reliability Centered Maintenance
techniques such as designing equipment to have higher reliability and better
maintainability and the use of decision support tools such as root cause failure
analysis, failure mode effect analysis, and expert systems.

Holcim and Supplier relationship

Holcim (US) has been effectively implementing preventive maintenance

programs for last two decades. Still, a few failures in bearings and gears go
undetected in the regular preventive maintenance program. The solution to this
issue was answered in the new condition monitoring techniques made available
by the development in technology. Vibration analysis, oil analysis and infrared
thermography can predict the failure of a bearing or problem with a drive well in
advance.

Different plants in Holcim (US) had different condition monitoring equipment

being used to predict the equipment health. Holcim (US) Portland plant was one
of the first plants in Holcim group that decided to move towards implementing a
full fledged two phase Condition Monitoring (CM) program. The production
capacity of Portland Kiln is approximately 1.6 million tons of clinker per year. The
plant has been utilizing automation since the startup in May 2002. The motors
are being monitored using vibration and temperature sensors which shut the
equipment down before any catastrophic failure occurs. This surveillance
system, though sufficient to prevent permanent damage to the equipment, cannot
predict the cause of high vibration or temperature levels.

This resulted in demand of an advanced system to monitor equipment health

through analysis. A survey was conducted for the available suppliers in the
market and the equipment that is most suitable and cost effective for the
application was selected as a partner in development of the CM program at
Holcim (US) Portland plant. The factors used to select the instrument supplier
included available technology, service, and cost. The program is in the first
phase of implementation and is already showing savings. It is being successfully
implemented at Portland plant and has helped improve availability of equipment.
This practice is being replicated at other Holcim Plants in the US.

Cost of failure

A kiln the size of Portland plant, if shut down due to equipment failure, can cause
losses in the thousands of dollars per hour in lost clinker production. At the same
time it creates strain on the supply chain due to reduced cement production and
in turn inventory. This is the lost cost in production. There is also an added cost
of maintenance due to sudden failure of equipment and unplanned maintenance.
This cost includes material cost and overtime labor cost. The cost for damaged
equipment has to be considered as well.

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 Case study for Impeller Failure (estimated numbers)

Figure 1 - Failed impeller detected on vibration readings.

Equipment: Slurry Pump

Failure Mode: Impeller Worn

Annual Cost of the failure mode: $60,000 in lost production for repair provided
the parts are available (6 hour's production).

The plant has a PM applied to this equipment for vibration monitoring. The
vibration analysis is considered to be 80% effective in detecting a worn impeller
prior to failure. The cost for detecting this type of problem through vibration
analysis implementation is $50,000 per year. Considering the failure cost and
the effectiveness of the vibration program $60,000 per failure x 80% effective =
$50,000 in benefit less the cost of $50,000 provides a return of $0. There are
other failure modes as well. The monthly vibration analysis can provide benefits
such as predicting bearing failure or worn gear teeth in a gear box, misalignment,
unbalance etc. If the inspection is considered 50% effective against predicting a
worn bearing (a $20,000 failure) that would equate to $10,000 in additional
benefits.

As it can be observed in the above cost evaluation, the vibration analysis can be
effective against more than one cause of failure, thereby justifying the
investment. The impeller shown in Figure 1 was detected on time and the
scrubber operation was bypassed to keep the kiln running. The study shown is
not only for increasing reliability of equipment but also can create a safe working
environment by detecting a problem earlier that can cause catastrophic failure.
Trained personnel with tools like vibration data collection, Thermography, Oil
Analysis and visual inspection can help prevent unforeseen maintenance and
safety issues.

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Vibration as a tool for predicting failure

For the Holcim Portland Plant with a capacity in excess of 1.6 million tons of
cement production per year, the maintenance cost is approximately 20% of total
production cost. For this cost even one failure if prevented can result in reduced
maintenance cost. This savings can be related to increased production by
preventing downtime and cost saved by preventing unprecedented maintenance
cost. Any increased production quantity and reduced maintenance cost can be
related to the increased profit. Considering this cost savings, investment made
to monitor the equipment health is extremely important. Also, a problem
detected in advance can be fixed with better planning and without disturbing the
production schedule. Condition monitoring has proven to be the best tool to
monitor equipment health for the above reason. Vibration data collection and
analysis is a very useful part of the condition monitoring program. If vibration
analysis is used efficiently and supported by condition monitoring tools like Oil
Analysis, Thermography, and Root Cause Analysis, it can prevent losses to the
manufacturer.

Vibration analysis is extremely effective in detecting a wide range of problems in

rotating machinery, including imbalance, mechanical looseness, misalignment,
gear defects and motor problems. The vibration related failures have a behavior
trend. The failure can be related to multiple steps as shown in Figure 2 and
Figure 3.

Polnt
where
fallurn
Changes In Wear
occur vlbratlon partlcle In

I b Functlond
Time tallUr0
Figure 2 - Failure mode in equipment with gradually increasing vibration.

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 Cammb
SlOllhg
Operatblg Condltkm "z'yz operating MrmnlonS

Figure 3 Equipment Life cycle

Advantages of frequency content versus analog values

Amplitude Measurements:

The amplitude of the vibration in the machine is a measure of how much motion
is occurring and is proportional to the force acting on the bearings. The amplitude
of the vibration tells us whether there is a problem. The amplitude readings can
be used to trigger the alarm for high vibration and shut the equipment down if the
vibrations exceed the safe limits. The 2 wire transmitter converts the analog
signal to a 4-20 mA signal and transfers it to the PLC. The system acts as a
failure protection system. Even though this system protects the equipment from
permanent failure it is not capable of predicting the cause of high vibration
amplitudes.

Frequency Measurements:

The frequency of the vibration tells at what rate the motion is occurring. More
importantly, based on experience, frequency tells us what force is acting on the
system to cause the vibration. For example, unbalance always occurs at a
frequency equal to the running speed of the machine (IxRPM). The frequency of
the mechanical vibrations are of two types, Synchronous (Multiple of rotation
speed) vibration and asynchronous (non multiple of rotational speed) vibration.

Online Protection Vibration System

The implementation of a vibration monitoring program (data collection method

and type of monitoring) is highly influenced by the size of plant and the amount of
equipment (data collection points). The setup of data collection machinery points
and routes is very important and can be a cumbersome job. Along with these
issues, the criticality of the equipment to be monitored, rate of failure of different

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equipment, and the time to failure from the point the high vibration starts, all
influence the selection of permanently installed online sensors.

Description of Process Software I PLC

The process software organizes and presents information about the process so
plant personnel can use it to improve performance. It delivers data collected by a
sensor and stored in relational databases to the desktop, where managers,
engineers, and operators can apply it in making better decisions. The process
software has process schematics to illustrate current or historical conditions and
trend charts which can be used to study the process changes over time.

The process software is helpful in routine engineering tasks, such as examining

and comparing process data. The process software can display the vibration
readings from the PLC, which can be used to study the variation of equipment
condition and respond if necessary.

Description of Sensor I 2-Wire Transmitter

The vibration transducer shown in Figure 4a is a seismic self-generating velocity

pickup. It responds effectively to the machinery defect frequencies expected
from the fans that are monitored. The output of the transducer is processed in a
2-wire transmitter to supply a 4-20 mA signal to the DCS system.

mitter

The 2-wire transmitter shown in Figure 4b simplifies the interface between the
vibration transducer and process control computers (programmable logic
controllers PLC, or distributed control systems DCS). The 2 wire transducer
gives a 4-20 mA output signal which is proportional to the overall vibration
amplitude. The output from 2-wire transmitter is connected to the Analog
Inpuffoutput card of the PLCIDCS. There is a loop power supply from the
Analog 110 card that provides isolated capability to drive the two wire transmitter.

The need for a vibration monitor between the sensor and the process control
computer is eliminated by the 2-wire transmitter. The PLC's and the DCS's are
sophisticated systems with the ability to make decisions based on inputs from

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 process control equipment. The input amplitude can be compared with set alarm
values. Based on this comparison, when the vibration signal exceeds the alarm
value a task, i.e. shutting down the equipment, can be performed. This helps in
protecting the equipment from permanent damage in the case of high vibration or
temperature.

In the Portland plant, the sensors have helped detect issues like high vibration.
caused by material buildup on fans and have given a warning signal. This has
prompted the plant personnel to stop the equipment and perform inspections,
thereby avoiding critical failure.

Description of Vibration database

The Vibration database allows for the trending of the machinery characteristics
that enable predictive maintenance and condition monitoring. Condition
Monitoring enables users to effectively implement the strategy of performing only
that maintenance which is necessary based on system performance and
indicated operating condition.

Figure 5 - Integration of Management and Condition Indicating Information

Historically, “condition monitoring and evaluation” systems have been thought of

as vibration based ”predictive maintenance systems.” These systems have
progressed to the point where they have incorporated additional condition
monitoring technologies to support the condition indicating diagnoses.
Unfortunately, the mere integration of multiple surveillance based condition
indicating technologies is no longer enough in today’s globally competitive
marketplace. Effective enterprise asset health management requires information
which extends beyond each of the three disciplines by integrating their data to
provide the complete picture of the operational and maintenance histories along
with the historical and current condition indicating data. This integration of

252
 information can be used to dynamically adjust plant operational and maintenance
philosophies and procedures, enhancing informed enterprise production and
maintenance business decisions. Condition monitoring and evaluation integrated
with control and maintenance information enables asset health managers to
respond to diagnosis and prognosis with the most appropriate action.

Walk-around Vibration System

Description of Hand Held Data Collection Equipment:

Figure 6 shows a maintenance technician collecting data using hand-held data

collection equipment on a motor. Commercially available hand held data
collection equipment is available with different features ranging from displaying
the vibration magnitude to helping in performing preliminary analysis of the data.
The cost varies depending on the functions available in the hand held vibration
data collection equipment. The Portland Plant has portable data collectors for
monitoring and analyzing the condition of equipment which are similar in many
industries such as power generation, petrochemical, pulp and paper, and primary
metals.

Figui.e 6 - I=ield d i

Features of this data collector are a large LCD display, online context- sensitive
HELP for all applications, storage capacity via PCMCIA cards and Off-route data
collection. Most hand-held data collection equipment is capable of performing
basic vibration data, including amplitude, frequency, and time waveform. Higher-
end data collectors are capable of functions such as; Two-Plane Balancing,
Frequency Response Function, and Start-up/Coast-down data collection.

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 Costs of Walk-around (Offline) Data Collection Equipment

Required data collection equipment includes hand held data collection equipment
(USD 15,000), Transducers, a computer system (USD 2000) for downloading the
data and analysis software to upload the routes and perform analyses on the
collected information (USD 20,000), and miscellaneous parts (USD 5000). Total
cost is approximately USD 42,000.

Surveillance Vibration System

Distributed Control System (DCS) Characteristics

The advantages of using DCS’s are 1) High-speed data collection and signal
conditioning 2) Vibration analysis algorithms 3) Dynamics identification
algorithms [Nguyen and Nelson].

Online Surveillance System

An online surveillance system is useful for monitoring the condition of equipment,

which needs constant attention due to higher equipment cost or the impact of
failure of the equipment on production. It bridges the gap between portable data
collectors with slow periodic update capabilities and continuous monitoring
systems. An online surveillance system can be integrated seamlessly with the
machinery information system to fully automate any condition monitoring
program.

ONLINE
SURV.
011111ON

SURV.
81111lON

Figure 7 - Surveillance system

An online surveillance system unit utilizes the existing Ethernet local area
network (LAN) to transfer information. The machines distributed throughout the

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 plant can be monitored at periodic intervals using an online surveillance system.
This saves the time and money for data collection.

Remote machinery diagnosis can be performed with the aid of software for any
equipment in alarm. Information from any channel of a specified online
surveillance unit can be transferred, processed and displayed on a PC
workstation for live-mode monitoring of spectra, time waveforms, trends, spectral
maps and polar plots of data. Internet access makes troubleshooting of
equipment possible from anywhere in the world.

Figure 8 beiow shows a planetary gear box with different locations where the
transducers are installed to monitor the vibration using the surveillance
monitoring system.

* Motor Monltodng
- Reducer Monlforlng
- Rotation measurement
- Motor Current (out olPLC)
* Temperature(out of PLC)

- Dftferentlalpressure (out of PLC)

Figure 8 - Transducer installed on a planetary gear system for remote vibration

monitoring

The presentation tool shown in Figure 9 is an excellent tool, which can display
the plant on screen with links that can be utilized as a quick access system to
check the status of different machine components. The data from the offline data
collection and online surveillance system can be viewed in the window.

The Online Surveillance System provides an intuitive visual display of the plant
status at a glance using the presentation tool. The unique alarm notification
enables plant personnel to keep in touch with machinery status through
automatic email notification when alarm thresholds have been exceeded.

Information can be acquired from important machinery in the plant more

frequently than is cost-effective using portable instrumentation. The Online
surveillance unit enables data to be acquired from inaccessible and dangerous
locations. Its compact size allows it to be installed close to the machine under
surveillance, which reduces cost by allowing shorter transducer cable runs.

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Costs of Online Surveillance System

This includes Transducers, Online monitoring equipment, offline switchbox,

cable, etc. and installation cost. Total cost is approximately USD 35,000. The
installation cost is a variable cost depending on the number of points and the
negotiated price for each point installed.

Personnel:

The maintenance technicians in charge of the data collection get paid according
to their contract, which is part of the maintenance department cost. This is the
major cost of implementing the vibration program. Trained personnel who can
perform vibration data collection as well as simultaneously performing visual
inspections can achieve an excellent level of success by detecting vibration
related issues as well as those issues which cannot be detected by vibration
monitoring. Examples of these issues are wear of belts, pulleys, ducts, chutes
etc.

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Case History #I

441-FN1 Kiln ID Fan (Figure IO)

This case history is presented to illustrate how the overall vibration can show that
there is a problem, but not indicate the source of the problem. Figure 11 shows
the overall amplitude of vibration recorded from the permanently mounted
pickups as displayed on the process software system in the control room. It was
found that when the fan was operated at full speed, the vibration was excessive
on the fan. So at this point all we knew was the vibration was high for some
reason. It was necessary to collect data with the hand-held data collector to
pinpoint the looseness present in the bearings. This data is shown in Figure 12
and indicates severe looseness. The fan was taken offline and cleaned, which
removed the source of the exciting force for the looseness and the bearings were
scheduled for inspection at the next outage.

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 ,_ .....
II 25t I I I I I I I I I

~~~ ~~~

Figure 11 - Process software showing overall trends.

............

Figure 12 -Vibration data collected with hand-held data collector

258
Case History #2

451-FN1 Precalciner Burner Fan

This case history illustrates a loose bearing due to installation errors. The
vibration level was high, but may not have been noticed without a walk-around
data collection system to point out the looseness present. Figure 13 shows the
reading indicating looseness present in the fan bearing.

X: Y12l2003 11'05:19AM Y .7431aa

Lin
1.

0.

0 20000 40000 60000 aoooo 100000 120000 140000

CPM 511212003 11 05 1 8 AM U"
erall 0 Y: .i4915a
CUNKER maDucnmi 451 4 5 1 - M l Prccalcincr Burner Fan
FAN-IEVERT Position3 DiredonNertical Specd:3572.

Figure 13 - Data taken showing looseness present.

The bearing was removed and replaced. There appears to be some slight
looseness still present but vibration levels are much lower as seen in Figure 14.

Figure 14 - Data taken after replacement of fan bearing.

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Conclusion:

With the available technology and the developments in analysis techniques,

increasing accuracy is possible in the prediction of machinery failure. Every
available tool and technology for monitoring equipment health has its own
advantages and disadvantages depending on the depth of information which can
be collected using that particular tool. All the available condition monitoring tools
like thermography, oil analysis and vibration analysis combined together can help
improve the reliability of equipment to a greater extent. These tools are now an
undivided part of a well established maintenance program in any industry. Even
though the exact time of failure can not be predicted, these tools help to prevent
large scale damage or failure by detecting the root cause. If required, the
condition based maintenance job can be well planned in advance reducing the
production loss. Regular inspections and condition monitoring, if used hand in
hand, will give improved reliability of equipment and allow the achievement of
higher production volumes and longer equipment life.

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References:

[l] John Mourbay, “Reliabilitv Centered Maintenance”, May 2000 2”dEdition,

Industrial Press, Inc.

[2] Victor Wowk, “Machinew Vibration, Measurement and Analvsis”, 1991,

McGraw Hill

[3]Solomon Baumgartner, (Holcim Group Support) “Condition Monitorina of

Critical Eauipment“.

[4]Troy V. Nguyen and Harold W. Nelson, “A System Approach to Machinew

Condition Monitorinq and Diaanostic.”

[5]www.holcim.comTM

[6]www.entek.cornTM(References for Data collector, online surveillance system)

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