Turbo-Expander Case History: Knowledge of Turbomachinery Health Helps Make Process Decisions

摘要

Every chemical plant has a few rotating machines in the realm of critical wherewords like human safety, explosion, months to repair and plant stoppage may becommonly used. In May of 2008, a gas processing facility in Southern Canadacommissioned a new 8100 RPM, 1500 HP turbo-expander. This plant has onespare. During the initial commissioning of the machine, the vibration protectionmonitor tripped the machine off-line. With no machinery health monitoring inplace, the decision to restart was made, essentially blind. The vibration levelswere now elevated, but at 1.4 milPP, the decision to continue operation wasmade and the machine was placed in service. In September 2009, machineryhealth information was collected on this critical machine and it was discoveredthat the situation was actually quite serious – even though overall vibration levelswere only reading 1.4 milPP. In this presentation, you will see what anomaly wasoccurring, and how the vibration information coupled with process informationhelped tell the rest of the story. You will see live displays that represent themotion of the shaft inside this machine. You will learn how the right toolsintegrated together can provide immediate feedback to operators for action, ormaintenance for planning and analysis. Learn how the vibration protectionsystem protects your asset and machinery health integrated to processautomation protects your bottom line.