Perhaps still a strong impression in our memories, JT-610 on its flight from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang crashed into the sea off the coast of Karawang on October 29, 2018. Not long ago, on March 10, 2019, ET-302 in his flight from Ethiopia to Kenya had a similar experience. The two tragic events that claimed the lives of 346 people can be ascertained to have similarities, so that in the end the exact cause was determined, namely starting from an analysis of the so-called FLIGHT RECORDER, the black-box which was not actually black, which contained the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorders.
Vibration Monitoring System – Machinery Protection System – Turbine Supervisory Instrument
Critical machines in your plant, for example a turbine generator unit in a power plant, or a pump or compressor which is the ‘heart’ in the operation of an oil refinery, is equipped with a vibration monitoring system that functions as a protection system or also called a safe system, which is a system which protects, ensures that the turbine generator unit or pump or compressor in this example, operates in a safe condition, ie within the allowable normal operating limits. Vibration exceeding the limit is an unsafe condition that endangers assets, operations, and even safety. Monitoring instrumentation, especially in power plants, also known as Turbine Supervisory Instrument, is mandatory for critical machines.
Condition Monitoring System
The protection system is sometimes accompanied by an online database system that is connected via a LAN network and the vibration data is always monitored and stored in the database server so that at any time the condition of the critical machine can be analyzed based on its vibration data. This system, which is called Condition Monitoring or also a diagnostic system, certainly requires a reliable LAN network infrastructure and servers. Not infrequently this system does not provide maximum usability due to network or server problems or license problems that are not forever or licenses with many limitations.
There are times when the protection system is not connected online to the database server, but vibration data is taken offline or periodically and also stored in a database that can be used at any time to analyze machine conditions. However, often this offline data does not really provide maximum usability because it is only a description of the condition of a small part of the machine’s operating time. Changes that occur are often not recorded because data collection is carried out periodically.
Condition Monitoring that is Integrated Directly in the Protection System → FLIGHT RECORDER!
Imagine if your VMS/MPS/TSI protects the machine as it should so that your machine trips while it is operating, namely auto-shutdown because the protection system detects an unsafe condition so that it activates a trip command to protect the machine. First of all, you must want data on why the trip occurred. If an online networked CMS isn’t available, or if there’s a problem, you won’t get the answer.
Once again imagine if your VMS/MPS/TSI has an SD-card that you can easily remove and then read on a computer with CMS software that does not require a license, which you can freely download, install, upgrade/update without restrictions. From data that is continuously online recorded on the SD-card as long as VMS/MPS/TSI protects your machine, data that lasts for months with an automatic FIFO (First In First Out) storage system, from that data you can analyze what happened long before (where changes in conditions had actually occurred), before, and right when the machine trip occurred, also after as long as the SD-card was installed in the VMS/MPS/TSI. Here comes the FLIGHT RECORDER! or a black-box that sheds light on why your engine trips.
Consider VIBROCONTROL 8000 (VC-8000), engine protection system (API 670) from Bruel & Kjaer Vibro equipped with FLIGHT RECORDER to protect your engine and increase the reliability of your plant operation.