Asset Condition Monitoring for Major Equipment

Asset and equipment monitoring promotes the maximizing
of productivity by reducing downtime.

Minimizing machine or system downtime, for whatever cause, is a common productivity and financial goal of industrial processing of all types. Lost production time can never be recouped, and unplanned equipment outages can cost millions. There is real benefit to be had from monitoring operational aspects of machinery and systems in real time.

Asset condition monitoring, as the name implies, is the process of continually monitoring a machine or piece of equipment with the intent to alert operators to anomalies in machine function. Data gathered can also be used to define a normal operating envelope and show trends that may indicate a need for service. The goal, ultimately, is to repair, adjust or maintain prior to and avoiding outright failure. Key indicators of failing equipment can be changing values in vibration, noise or temperature measurements. Monitoring these and other variables, some derived at very localized and specific points, provides key indicators of the condition of the machine. By evaluating trends in the data, intelligent systems can provide health information about the equipment and assist in the early detection of possible faults or failures.

Implementation of asset condition monitoring is benefiting manufacturing plants and process industries such as chemical, petrochemical, pulp and paper, power generation, wind turbine, and oil and gas. Not only can it save money from protecting against unplanned outages, but condition monitoring also improves productivity, quality and profitability.

GE's Bently Nevada 3500 Monitoring System provides continuous, online monitoring suitable for machinery protection and asset condition monitoring applications. It is the company's most capable and flexible system, with a traditional rack-based design. The useful features of the system are numerous, and it delivers advantages not provided in other systems. Share your major asset monitoring challenges and plans with a systems specialist, and leverage your own knowledge and experience with their product application expertise to implement an effective solution.

Industrial Machinery and Asset Condition Monitoring from Classic Controls, Inc.

Process Instrumentation Selection Tool

Yokogawa's Process Instrumentation Selection
Tool saves time when searching for the right
process measurement instrument.
Image courtesy Yokogawa

Yokogawa Corporation of America, an industry recognized source for innovative process measurement and control products, has made available an easy to use product selection tool for those navigating through the company's extensive product offering. The Product Finder is a great time saver that enables a user to quickly locate product and technical information on Yokogawa products that meet the user's selected criteria.

Let's step through a quick example. You will see how this quick and easy to use tool saves time by navigating quickly to the website pages detailing products meeting your requirements.

The Product Finder is accessible through a number of links throughout Yokogawa's network of Reps. Clicking the link lands you on the start page of the Product Finder. For this example, I am going to search for a flow meter with the following characteristics:

• Mass flow measurement 
• Non-conductive liquid
• Accuracy of 1%
• Flow measurement device must have an integral transmitter
• Tri-clamp connections

Above, I declared my location as United States. The next step, shown below, is to select "Flow" as the measurement parameter. You will see in the drop down menu that there are many measurement elements that can be selected, with Yokogawa products for each.

My selection of "Flow" returns a list of all the company's flow measurement devices, of which there are many (this cropped screenshot, shown below, only shows four, but there were many more) . This is where the selector really helps you. Instead of examining several or many different models, the user can focus the search by adding more product characteristics. You can see the list of prompting questions on the left side of the page. Answering these will narrow the search results to the show only the products meeting all the criteria specified by the user.

The next image (below) shows selections of all my sample product attributes entered on the left column. Note that there is now only a single product that matches all of my sample criteria. The whole process took less than two minutes. By clicking on the "View More Details" button below the product image, I gain access to all of the available technical, support, and product data for my selected flow measurement device.

The process instrumentation experts at Classic Controls are available to provide additional help in meeting your process measurement challenges in Florida, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Combine their product knowledge and expertise with your process know-how for the best solutions.

Lightning Protection Techniques

Facilities of many types need protection from the
harmful impact of lightning strikes.

The forces of nature often prove to be resistant to a full understanding by the likes of humanity. Lightning simultaneously frightens and fascinates us, and it seems to be less predictable in its touchdown points than we would like it to be. Lightning strikes constitute extreme releases of energy. A direct hit to your facility or equipment has a high probability of rendering it unusable. The pathways of the destructive energy can be diffuse and unpredictable.

Prevention, by diverting the energy away from where it will do harm, is generally considered to be the best protective path for industrial and commercial facilities. In a previous post, we shared a comparison of several lightning protection techniques. The report is included below for review.

Dehn Inc. has been providing lightning protection and related equipment since 1910. The company provides solutions in the field of surge protection, lightning protection/earthing and safety equipment for many industries including, water wastewater plants, buildings and systems, industrial plants, energy supply, oil and gas industry, security systems, chemical & pharmaceutical industry, transportation systems. Their success in the field today is based upon decades of experience designing and producing protective installations and gear for facilities of many types and in many locations.

Share your lightning protection challenge with system specialists, and leverage your own knowledge and experience with their application expertise to develop an effective lightning protection plan.

Blunt Rod Lightning Protection Comparison from Classic Controls, Inc.

Explanation of Overpressure and Overpressure Protection for Yokogawa DPharp EJX/EJA-E Series Transmitters

This video demonstrates what overpressure is, how it effects pressure transmitters, and the mechanism Yokogawa deploys for overpressure protection for on their DPharp EJX/EJA-E series.

For more information on Yokogawa in Florida, Puerto Rico, or the Caribbean contact Classic Controls. Share your process measurement and control challenges and leverage your own knowledge and experience with their product application expertise.