But – what do you do if one of these fans fails?

Challenge

If a charge pipe fan fails due to a gas blowout, production must most likely be halted. The loss of production time after such an incident can be very costly. In addition, the fan must be replaced, where both the price of components, inventory, lead time, and time spent on maintenance work must be taken into account.

Maintenance of the fan may initially be planned based on the fan running to failure. When using failure as a basis for maintenance, it is more difficult to predict when maintenance must be performed, as various operating conditions and small differences in the fan components (electric motor, bearings, impeller, and fan housing) can affect the fans’ lifespan in several ways.

Preventive/calendar-based maintenance may be better in some cases, but this might mean that the fan is replaced at a time when there is still valuable usage left of the fan’s lifespan. This can lead to keeping more components in stock than needed at any given time, and valuable working hours are spent on unnecessary repair work. Although the price of the components of such fans do not constitute noticeable economic sums in the big picture, it is a total cost that one would like to avoid.

Solution

• With the help of Neuron Vibration sensors, you can monitor the condition of the charge pipe fans and predict when a fan needs to be replaced based on collected condition-based data.
• As an example, increased vibration is a good indication of when inspection is advised. As a result of increased vibration and the following inspection, you can more easily find out if the fan needs to be replaced, and you can plan maintenance based on real life data of the fan’s actual condition.
• This way, you avoid running the fan to failure, and you avoid replacing a well-functioning fan based on a periodic maintenance plan.
• By being proactive you can decrease the number of unexpected events, and you will be able to increase effective uptime during production as a result.
• As an important support system for the production, it is critical that these fans run as intended. Many different smelting processes contain energy-rich reactions and extreme temperatures, which makes it important to maintain high safety and process control, also regarding the maintenance of charge pipe fans.
• Monitoring these fans increases the overall safety of everyone involved by providing valuable information about critical equipment and eases the workers’ tasks by reducing the need for physical inspection and repairs.

What you get

• Easy-to-install Neuron Vibration sensor.
• Sensor that registers and transfers vibration data and surface temperature to the Neuron App, with the option of transferring data to other software via API.
• Continuous monitoring of vibration and surface temperature in real-time.
• Frequent measures give early indications of unwanted trending values and makes it possible to act before irreversible damages occur.
• Storage of historical data that can help during maintenance planning and troubleshooting.
• Adjustment of parameters such as measurement frequency upon request.
• Your own defined alarm levels via the Neuron app, with notifications via email and/or SMS.
• Reduced risk of charge pipe fan failure, leading to increased reliability and production time.
• Increased safety through reliable monitoring of vibration and surface temperature of the charge pipe fans, leading to better insight into their condition.

Products in use

Neuron Vibration Sensor

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