Online Condition Monitoring System Identifies Developing Faults in Reciprocating Compressor at the Very Outset

摘要

Safety of personnel, assets and environment has been an essential priority for most operators and there has been an ever-increasing emphasis from EHS authorities to improve systems to be able to trip automatically and save assets from any catastrophic failures. Like any other critical equipment, an online monitoring and protection solution has become inevitable for reciprocating compressors to address this requirement. Additionally, inclination of operators towards proactive maintenance strategies instead of conventional preventive maintenance practices has prompted the need of an online condition monitoring solution that can provide insights into the condition and performance of machines. Instead of overhauling reciprocating compressors every 18-24 months and replacing all components as part of preventive maintenance, systems are able to pinpoint any developing faults within machines at an early stage; helping operators to plan outages, to arrange optimized spares timely and replacing only failed components with minimal downtime; ultimately justifying return on investment (ROI). API recommendations for protecting reciprocating compressors have developed over the years. In 2007, API 618 5th Edition was released where only crankcase/frame vibration was recognized as minimμm requirement for protecting reciprocating compressors from a vibration monitoring system's perspective. Then a series of failures on several reciprocating compressors globally influenced API 670 to include crosshead vibration to protection matrix in 2014. The advancements and enhancements in solutions did not end there. Continuous improvements in data acquisition systems and vigilant analysis have identified certain additional parameters equally significant to identify developing faults in running gear and have been found efficient in protecting machines before the faults turned into failures; piston rod peak-peak displacement being one of those. This paper describes comprehensive instrumentation required for condition monitoring of reciprocating compressors and delineates through case histories, how system was able to pinpoint failing components at early stages consequently saving machines from catastrophic expensive failures.