Problem: Inability to monitor pumps resulted in pump failure.
Solution: Installation of continuous vibration monitors that interface with SCADA system.
Loudoun Water, a water and wastewater authority in Ashburn, Va., experienced a catastrophic pump failure that led
Problem: Inability to monitor pumps resulted in pump failure.
Solution: Installation of continuous vibration monitors that interface with SCADA system.
Loudoun Water, a water and wastewater authority in Ashburn, Va., experienced a catastrophic pump failure that led to lost revenue and customer complaints. The failure occurred at a single impeller-between-bearings pump in a sump pump arrangement.
Because the authority did not have monitoring equipment installed on its pumps, it did not receive notice of the impending pump failure. Preventing this failure could have avoided thousands of dollars in expenses from extended downtime, lost revenue, extensive repairs, and parts replacements.
To prevent future failures like this, Loudoun Water decided to implement simplified continuous vibration monitoring to monitor its equipment. The authority also decided to connect the vibration monitors to its existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
The authority installed vibration monitors on four separate motor and pump combinations at a single remote pumping station. Three of the motor–pump combinations were impeller-between-bearings pumps; the fourth unit was an overhung impeller pump. For maximum protection, Loudoun Water permanently installed accelerometers in the horizontal position on the inboard and outboard bearings of the motors and pumps.
The authority chose Wilcoxon Research 786A general purpose industrial accelerometers, manufactured by Meggitt Sensing Systems (Germantown, Md.). Ancillary equipment included Wilcoxon Research iT122 Intelligent Transmitters because of their 4–20 mA output signals for simple trending data, as well as front-panel connectors to access dynamic data when additional vibration analysis is needed. The DIN rail-mountable vibration transmitters, housed in an enclosure local to the machine, provide a termination point for the vibration signal conditioners, power supply, and cables, as well as a means of determining present condition at the machine.
Each of the 16 accelerometers capture unique signals from one bearing 