VIBRATION ANALYSIS
Utilizing our Ampro Electrics Vibration Analysis System, we offer the following predictive maintenance services:
If you are a Maintenance Manager or Maintenance Supervisor, you may want to consider Vibration Analysis and Thermal Imaging as part of your predictive/preventative maintenance program. Vibration Spectrum Analysis is an important part of keeping all of your rotating equipment working at peak performance. This can include equipment such as electric motors, rollers, conveyors, pumps and fans.
A well built program can identify many types of rotating equipment problems before they become catastrophic failures. Problems including things such as:
- Bearing faults
- Imbalance (Fans, rotors, shafts, couplers)
- Mechanical looseness (loose bolts, soft foot, cracked/broken structure)
- Electrical faults in motors (rotor bars, commutators etc)
- Bent shaft
- Resonance and natural frequencies
- Cavitation in pumps
To get started, Ampro Electric will work with your maintenance team to establish a list of your critical rotating equipment. Baseline (acceptance testing) will then be established, and an electronic route will be created so that trending data can be monitored moving forward. A data collection interval will be established based on the needs of our customer and the equipment demands. A qualified Ampro technician will then take routine data pulls and perform spectrum analysis to provide a detailed report on the health of each asset at the agreed intervals. These reports are generated directly out of our GTI software suite and provided in PDF format for easy distribution and viewing to your entire team.
Outside of the predictive maintenance and trending environment, this technology is also used to help diagnose and confirm any of the above issues in situations where confirmation of a suspected mechanical/electrical problem is needed before moving forward with a repair. This confirmation can assist in the decision-making process when large motors or machines that involve cranes or special equipment to remove or repair are being made.
To learn more about the benefits that this technology can provide, please contact us for a live presentation and demonstration at your facility.
Sample Report vibration report edit
THERMAL IMAGING
Thermal imaging is a very powerful maintenance tool with Electric Motors as it shows the effect of Electric Motor issues, overloading and/or overheating.
It can be used to prevent or predict failures and can be added to a Vibration Analysis route very easily.
Electric Motors can run hot for many reasons but catching downtime due to a bad bearing, bad winding, loose cooling fan or debris blocking vents or just general lack of cooling can be very valuable.
The general rule of thumb is “every 10 degrees Celsius cuts your lifetime in half”. So, to rationalize this, 20 degrees is half of the half (10year lifespan = 2.5 years). You can see very quickly reducing your lifespan below 1 year by simple overheating is not uncommon.
The attached thermal picture shows the effect of blocked cooling vents on a TEFC motor running at full load. This motor will not last long.
Ampro Electrics Thermal App is used for managing thermal images from the FLIR ONE™ camera. The app features a full hierarchical database for tracking points of interest over time. Create instant reports that include the thermal image, GPS location, non-thermal picture of asset, notes, and signature. Thermal images can be drawn over and annotated in reports to point out problem hot spots. Tap anywhere on captured images to determine temperature at a given spot.
LASER SHAFT ALIGNMENT
Definition of misalignment
Misalignment is the deviation of relative shaft position from collinear axis of rotation when
equipment is running at normal operating conditions.
How is misalignment recognized?
There are several symptoms indicating misalignment.
• Premature bearing, seal, shaft and coupling failure
• Excessive radial and axial vibrations
• High casing temperature at or near the bearings or high discharge oil temperature
• Excessive amount of oil leakage at the bearing seals
• The coupling is hot while it is running and immediately after unit shutdown. Look for rubber powder inside the
coupling shroud
• Loose foundation bolts
• Loose or broken coupling bolts
• Excessive amount of grease on the inside of coupling guard
• Similar pieces of equipment are vibrating less or seem to have longer operating life
• The shafts are breaking (or cracking) at or close to the inboard bearings or coupling hubs
Effects of base conditions and thermal variations
Even if you align your machines properly there is a risk that they break due to misalignment. If the foundation
where the machine is mounted is warped you may have a soft foot condition, i.e. one of the machine feet has a
poor contact with the floor. It is of major importance that this is corrected before performing the alignment.
If the alignment is performed when the machines are cold, and no compensation for thermal growth is considered, the machines will probably be running severely misaligned at running temperature.
The Fixturlaser shaft alignment tool allows for high precision shaft to shaft alignment which is superior to traditional methods of alignment such as straight-edge or dial-indication
- Accurate to 0.001mm (1 mils)
- Horizontal and Vertical Machines
- All Shaft Sizes
- Printing and Built in Memory
- Thermal Growth Compensation
- Real Time Measurements
LASER PULLEY ALIGNMENT
Belt alignment, or more accurately sheave alignment, is the process of achieving proper radial and axial alignment of the centerlines of sheave grooves, onto which belts run. Historically, belt or sheave alignment has not been considered a major concern in maintenance, due to belt costs being relatively small. However, if sheaves are not properly aligned and tensioned, the following problems occur:
- Greatly reduced life of the belts
- Increased radial and axial loading of the shafts, and the bearings that support them
- Increased wear and decreased life of the sheaves
- Increased noise, vibration, dust, and heat due to belt wear.
In the past, sheaves were aligned using a straightedge or string, but this method can not accurately measure parallelism of the shafts. A more accurate method is the use of a laser sheave alignment tool.
Call us today to properly precision align your pulleys today
1-800-361-3509
FIELD BALANCING SERVICES
At Ampro Electric we offer on site balancing, we can come to your facility and balance your equipment that has increased in vibration. Our trained professional staff will come on site and balance your equipment to the required ISO specs using GTI Predictive maintenance field balancing software.
Unbalance is a leading cause of damage in rotating equipment. The stress overtime caused by imbalance leads to early failure and unnecessary downtime. Common causes of imbalance include: looseness, thermal changes, tooling changes, maintenance repairs, bent shafts, bowed shafts, and product build up (found commonly in blowers, compressors, and fans). Imbalance can also be an indicator of old equipment caused by corrosion or erosion of the bearings, rotors, or seals.
Everything from belt pulleys, fans, ventilators, couplings, compressors, blowers, motors, and other rotating equipment can benefit from being balanced.
ON-SITE PUMP REPAIR
- Factory Authorized for start up and commissioning on Armstrong and Grundfos pumps
- Factory Authorized warranty center for Armstrong and Grundfos pumps
- Pump supply, Installation and Start Up
- On Site or In Shop complete pump rebuilds
- Pump and VFD Troubleshooting
- Laser Shaft Alignments
- Fire Pump Repairs
- Pump Packing repairs
- Mechanical Seal Replacement’s
OFFLINE TESTING
In a motor repair shop, or for new production motors, the Baker DX gives confidence that a motor is correctly wound and insulated, before it’s deployed in the field.
The standards-compliant surge test – a signature feature of Baker testers for decades – is the only test that can safely expose turn-to-turn insulation weaknesses. The Baker DX can find early indications of insulation weakness and faults in windings, between phases, coil-to-coil and in ground wall insulation. It can identify if contamination is impacting insulation strength. It can also detect problems with connections such as feed cable insulation weakness, motor imbalances, opens or high resistance.
The DX’s benefits can be extended to low-impedance coils, such as armatures, through the use of the Baker ZTX low impedance coil accessory. The ZTX, which includes the ATF5000 commutator probe accessory, allows the DX to apply surge tests to coils which require higher currents.
Baker Surveyor DX Software
Surveyor DX software enables Baker DX operators to use a personal computer to store more test data, generate and view reports across the full spectrum of Baker DX tests, and share and compare analysis with other maintenance personnel using data from multiple analyzers. Learn more from the Baker Surveyor DX datasheet.
ONLINE TESTING
The Baker Explorer 3000 offers an effective means of identifying power supply and load related issues as well as inefficiencies caused by degradation of equipment and misapplication
- Load and torque profiling
- Inrush and transient analysis
- Rotor bar testing
- Power quality
- Efficiency and ROI calculator
- Data Logging
- VFD and soft start applications
- Severity based alarms
- Permanent receptacles available
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TESTING
Vibration Analysis
Test quarterly for most machines and monthly or bi-monthly for critical machines
Infrared
Test quarterly for most machines and monthly or bi-monthly for critical machines
Offline Motor Testing
Test annually for most machines and semi-annually for critical machines
Online Motor Testing
Test annually for most machines and semi-annually for critical machines
S.A ARMSTRONG DESIGN ENVELOPE SOLUTIONS
Design Envelope technology is a demand based intelligent control solution that models equipment and system behavior, monitors actual system conditions, and dynamically adjusts equipment operation to match system demand. Design Envelope technology is at the core of Armstrong’s groundbreaking advances in building performance. Design Envelope technology enables the greenest, most flexible and most cost effective fluid-flow and HVAC systems on the planet – resulting in both, lowest installed and lowest operating cost with the same equipment.
Industry Leading Capabilities
Armstrong has reinvented and redesigned our pumping solutions to include connectivity and performance management services. Design Envelope solutions provide optimal lifetime efficiency and lowest cost. No other pumping solution offers the same expanded performance range, one touch commissioning, Sensorless speed control, flow monitoring accuracy and operating notifications.
Connectivity
Built-in Wi-Fi capability supports remote
control, real-time monitoring and
management for lowest operating costs
Local and remote access from
any smart device
Adaptive browser-compatible software
and intuitive user interface
Optimum Lifetime Performance
Design Envelope solutions offer up to 70% energy savings compared to standard industry pumps.
A breakdown of incremental and cumulative savings looks like this:
In multi-pump installations, Armstrong’s patented Parallel Sensorless Pump Control saves up to 30% more energy over industry-standard pump staging methodologies. Now, Armstrong’s Intelligent Motor Technology, certified to IE5 standards and available on 1 to 10 hp models, delivers 3 – 12 % additional motor efficiency.
This adds up to pumping efficiency that is simply unmatched anywhere in the industry.
Control Capabilities
With the new advanced controller, offering extended intelligence and control options, Armstrong has advanced pumping technology well beyond the current standard. Control packages currently available with design envelope technology include:
