(Continuation of our previous Post)
In the above pictures, both machines had catastrophic failures, even though they were connected to mechanical vibration switches, which didn’t trip the machine before the event. The left is on a 200hp overhung 600 RPM fan for sulfuric acid fumes extraction, which had an impeller blade breakage. And the right on a large caterpillar 16-cylinder engine driving a recip compressor on a gas pipeline, a valve broke and fell into the cylinder. See the piston, and cylinder pieces in the engine oil pan, and the connecting rod passed through the engine block.
In my previous post, I talked about cooling tower disadvantages of using mechanical switches, but as you can see, this is not limited to that application.
I attached the following video from our colleagues on IMI sensors, which compares different types of devices, and describes mechanical switches as “banging sensors”, which based on the above pictures, when the machine bangs is probably too late...
Rototec-RMS can help you to define your next step when you are considering migrating from Mechanical Switches to better and more reliable options that suit your organization's needs.
#ConditionMonitoring #VibrationMonitoring #MachineProtection #MachineryReliability #API670 #MachineryMonitoringSystem
Luis Casas
Engineering Manager
Rototec-RMS
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References:
IMI Sensors a PCB Division
Vibration Switch Comparison (YouTube video)
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