WATER/WASTE PROCESSING • December 2012

Production plant analyzes resonance anomaly; looks at condition monitoring program as a profit center

Sometimes in industry,  mechanical “circumstances” change. When it happens,  a machine train identical to other machine trains can suddenly become atypical. This was exactly the case for Process Water Supply Pump A, whose behavior was very similar to that of its sister pump trains until something changed. In this article we discuss a problem that was abruptly encountered, the methods used to investigate it and the solution devised.
One of four identical pump trains mounted to a common piping system experienced a catastrophic motor (75 hp, 4 poles) failure. The motor could not be saved, and a new motor was purchased and installed. After installation, the pump was started with the new motor. High vibration caused the installers to immediately shut it down. The new motor had been laser aligned to the pump; therefore the alignment was not suspect; therefore vibration data was taken.

Read the entire article “Where is that vibration coming from“.

Thanks to Roger Earley with LUBRIZOL for sharing this case study with us.