1

the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group

In this edition:
TTS the new service tool
When the kiln fan trips
Acceptance measurements
on cooling tower fans
Using field balancing
to reduce vibrations
Monitoring bearing lubrication using
vibration measuring equipment
Measuring straightness and flatness
Calculating natural belt frequencies
Measuring load resonance curves
without shutting off the exhaust fan
News
No. 11 Focus: Fans & blowers
Condition Monitoring Service
When the kiln fan trips
Dr. Edwin Becker
T TT TTemporary T TT TTelediagnosis S SS SService, TTS
for short, is a new service tool from
PRFTECHNIK for manufacturers and
operators of machines and systems.
When systems are subject to repeated
failure or frequent shutdowns, tempo-
rary measurement equipment can be
installed to measure machine vibrations
over a certain period to pinpoint the
possible causes. Telediagnosis means
that diagnoses can be performed by
specialists remotely, avoiding the cost of
travel expenses to the site.
This edition of telediagnose.com is
dedicated to fans and blowers, and to
building awareness for TTS, the new
tool for availability-oriented mainte-
nance.
We hope you will find the information
in this edition interesting and will be
happy to answer any questions you may
have.
Rotary kilns must be in motion 24
hours a day. When the kiln fan trips
because of excessive vibration, this inter-
rupts operation a situation that is espe-
cially aggravating when the cause of the
fault cannot be found.
The following example of a typical
incident in a cement factory demon-
strates the flexibility of TTS (Temporary
Telediagnosis Service) and its immedi-
ate benefit.
Its a Friday with the weekend just
around the corner. Suddenly the vibra-
tion monitoring system registers a limit
value violation at a kiln fan.
The shift manager asks himself:
Would it be OK to raise the limit values
yet again, or is it time for specialists to
have a look?
Lets be on the safe side, he thinks,
and calls the PRFTECHNIK Hotline in
Ismaning, Germany. For the diagnosis
specialists manning the phones, situa-
tions like these are an everyday occur-
rence. After a brief discussion of the
problem, it is decided to install a tempo-
rary telediagnosis service (TTS) with the
VIBNODE

online monitoring system in

the near future.
In addition to a certain amount of
curiosity in the VIBNODE

system, the
shift manager was convinced by the
argument that even the best specialist
can only identify vibration causes if they
actually arise during measurement.
A VIBNODE

system with 6 acceler-
ometers was installed only a few days
later. It was set up so that the measure-
ment results could be automatically
eMailed to the Monitoring Center via
the Internet.
Figure 3 shows the arrangement of the
sensors on the fan, while Figure 4 de-
picts the VIBNODE

system installed on-

site with an integrated telephone mo-
dem.
After only two weeks it was apparent
that the vibrations in the axial direction
were far stronger than originally as-
sumed. In certain situations excitations
increased to as much as 18 mm/s. >>
PRFTECHNIK News
TTS the new service tool
Fig.2: View of the inside of a rotary kiln Fig.1: Rotary kiln
2
the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group
Experience has shown that axial vi-
brations have great damage potential.
Figure 6 shows a diagram recorded
just before a kiln stoppage. For approx.
30 minutes vibration severity increased
to extremely high levels. The cause for
these excitations was a natural axial
vibration that only occurred within a
very narrow rotational speed range.
The measurement and diagnosis re-
port therefore recommended that this
critical and relatively narrow rotational
speed range of the kiln fan be blocked.
Fig.4: TTS mounted on the kiln fan Fig.3: Arrangement of sensors
on the fan
Preview
Our next issue will focus on wind tur-
bines.
Diagnosis experience: Balancing of ro-
tor blades
Application: Determining alignment
targets to reduce vibrations
Application: Correctly monitoring low-
speed drive train components
Technology: Re-Sampling What is it?
New: Particle counter for wind turbine
gearboxes.
The Service & Diagnostic Center can
provide this type of TTS and diagnosis
service anywhere in the world. After all,
thanks to the Internet, measurement
data can easily be sent anywhere on the
globe in an instant.
And when GPRS modems are used
with a flat rate, measurement results
can even be sent out without a telephone
connection and at an affordable price.
Fig.5: Remote monitoring concept
Fig.6: Vibration velocity signals recorded over one and a half months.
The marked area is zoomed.
3
the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group
Condition Monitoring Service
Acceptance measurements on cooling tower fans
Sven Fleischer
Cooling towers are complex machines
of various designs that are increasingly
being built of lightweight construction.
Cooling tower fans are required to un-
dergo acceptance testing for vibration
because, as in other machines, experi-
ence has shown that low vibration levels
lead to a longer service life. Therefore,
operators and system and component
vendors often agree on vibration severi-
ties according to ISO 10816-3 (see Fig-
ure 1).
Cooling towers are subject not only to
machine vibrations, but also to a variety
of other vibration forms, including natu-
ral vibration (see Figure 3). Thus, vibra-
tions in cooling tower fans can be differ-
entiated into aerodynamic vibrations of
the fan impeller, locally acting vibra-
tions from drive components, vibrations
from the base frame and basic structure,
natural vibrations, and vibrations and
secondary vibrations from structure-
borne sound.
Foundation vibrations usually lie be-
tween 0.1 and 10 Hz and can cause
cracks in the construction. Vibration lev-
els over 10 Hz cause machine vibrations
and, when in a frequency range of 10 to
300 Hz, can have an impact on the
functioning of the machine. Housing
resonance and noise only become no-
ticeable in the high frequency range
causing high noise levels but having less
damage potential. Acceptance testing,
therefore, needs to differentiate be-
tween machine vibration and noise mea-
surement.
Fig.2: Installation of a gearbox fan unit in a power plant
Fig.4: Typical measurement locations
on a cooling tower motor
Fig. 5: Machine spectra measured on 7 gearbox units
Fig.1: Allowable vibration severities
Gear mesh frequencies
Torsional and axial
natural vibrations
Fig.3: Potential vibration exciters in a cooling tower fan
Defects in
bearings
Electrical distur-
bance frequencies
Alignment
errors
Imbalance and eccentricity
in a fan impeller
Bending vibrations
in coupling
Foundation vibrations
Gear mesh
vibrations
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the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group
While vibration analysis does not al-
ways lead to immediate improvements,
vibrations can be reduced significantly
by balancing the machine under opera-
tion conditions.
Field balancing
has many advantages
The machine component that is to be
balanced does not need to be re-
moved and transported to the balanc-
ing bench
Changes in balance condition that arise
during operation can be corrected
Rotors of virtually any weight and
size can be balanced
Field balancing takes roller bearing
influences into consideration as
shown below.
Condition Monitoring Service
Using field balancing to reduce vibrations
Marcel Kenzler
2) Precision fan
Rotor mass m = 220 kg
RPM n = 6000 rpm
Balancing radius r = 200 mm
Grade G 2.5 (as per DIN ISO 1940)
Question:
Is 5 g of residual imbalance allowable?
e
all
= 4
e
res
=
e
res
=
e
res
= 4.5
=> 5 g of residual imbalance is not allowable!
1) Industrial fan
Rotor mass m = 4000 kg
RPM n = 1500 rpm
Balancing radius r = 500 mm
Grade G 6.3 (as per DIN ISO 1940)
Question:
Is 21 g of residual imbalance allowable?
e
all
= 38
e
res
=
e
res
=
e
res
= 2.6
=> 21 g of residual imbalance is allowable!
g mm
kg
21 g 500 mm
4000 kg
u
Rest
r
m
g mm
kg
as per diagram
g mm
kg
5 g 200 mm
220 kg
u
Rest
r
m
g mm
kg
as per diagram
Balancing reduces vibration
Initially, the axial fan in Figure 2 made
noise like a compressor and had vibra-
tion values of 20 mm/s. After field bal-
ancing with a 155 g balance mass, it ran
like clockwork with only 3 mm/s.
Balancing protects
roller bearings
In light of the damaging effect of
secondary vibrations, it is worth taking
into consideration the functional and
damage behavior of roller bearings.
Practitioners know that service life is
shortened when vibration levels rise
above 10 mm/s.
The application leaflet on Field bal-
ancing under difficult conditions can be
downloaded here:
http://www.pruftechnik.com/service/
downloads/AN17_balancing.pdf
Fig.1: Industrial fan Fig.2: The balancing run was successful
Allowable residual imbalance Calculation examples
RPM
e
all
gmm/kg
Field balancing takes bearing influences into
consideration.
Balancing on the balancing bench
5
the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group
Fig.1: Fan system
Condition Monitoring Application
Monitoring bearing lubrication using
vibration measurement equipment
Florian Buder
Glossary of terms
Did you know?
Balancing
A procedure in which the mass distribution
on a rotor is checked and, if necessary, cor-
rected by adding a balancing mass to en-
sure that rotational frequency vibrations
and/or bearing forces remain within speci-
fied limits at the operating speed of the
machine.
Rigid rotor
A rotor whose center axis stays straight all
the way up to its operating speed (it does
not bend).
Elastic rotor
A rotor whose center axis bends in the run-
ning speed range and whose imbalance
therefore must be corrected at high speeds
and in multiple planes.
One-plane balancing
(Static balancing)
A procedure in which the mass distribution
of a rigid rotor is corrected in only one
plane.
Two-plane balancing
(Dynamic balancing)
A procedure similar to static balancing,
except that the correction takes place in
two planes.
Multi-plane balancing
A procedure that is used with bending-
elastic rotors and that requires an imbal-
ance correction in more than two balanc-
ing planes.
Static imbalance
A static imbalance occurs when a rotating
shaft does not pass through the center of
gravity of the rotating body. A typical
property of static imbalance is that the
plane in which the imbalance lies coincides
with the radial plane of the center of grav-
ity. This generates circular mechanical vi-
brations at a right angle to the rotating
shaft.
Dynamic imbalance
Dynamic imbalance arises when the rotat-
ing shaft does not coincide with one of the
stable main axes of inertia of the compo-
nent. The rotating axis is tilted in its center
of gravity. The center of gravity of the ro-
tating body remains stationary while the
axis wobbles because of the circular mo-
tion in the opposite direction.
Quality grade
(Allowable residual imbalance as per ISO
1940)
Imbalance/total weight ratio at defined
rotational speeds see also the examples
on page 4.
Characteristic imbalance values
Bearing vibrations, shaft vibration and per-
formance values
Phase angle
A measure of the rotational movement
from activation of the trigger pulse to the
maximum vibration amplitude.
Bending-critical speed
The rotational speed at which a rotor
bends most strongly into a certain natural
shape. Each rotor has several bending-criti-
cal speeds.
When do grease-lubricated roller
bearings need to be relubricated?
While large roller bearings are in-
creasingly being equipped with auto-
matic continuous lubrication systems,
this is not cost-effective in fans such as
the one shown in Figure 1. These units
are lubricated by hand at specific inter-
vals. But how long should these inter-
vals be? Online Condition Monitoring
Systems (online CMS) can provide an
answer. When a roller bearing runs dry,
a rough running sound arises that can
easily be detected in the high frequency
acceleration spectra, for example. At
that point, it is high time to relubri-
cate the bearing to lower vibration
strain.
With advanced frequency-selective
CMS, the broadband disturbance fre-
quencies shown in Figure 2 can be se-
lected as characteristic lubrication val-
ues and the associated amplitudes can
be monitored as trend values.
Figure 3 illustrates that lubrication
intervals are very easy to determine:
After lubrication, the amplitude of the
acceleration decreased markedly. Of
course, to use this analytical method,
you must first identify the frequency
band on which the lubrication condition
has an impact.
Fig.3: After greasing, the amplitude of the acceleration decreases
Fig.2: Broadband disturbance frequency
6
the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group
When rotational vibration levels are
raised, the search for a geometric cause
of the vibration should be an integral
part of proactive maintenance. In addi-
tion to dimensional tolerances, geomet-
ric tolerances also grow in importance
in high speed fan and blower systems.
Examples of geometric deviations are
irregularities in the straightness and
flatness of foundations and base frames.
Inaccuracies in the foundation can be
measured with laser-based testing
equipment to a resolution of 0.02 mm.
The LEVALIGN

measuring system can

be used to measure the straightness and
flatness of surfaces at distances of up to
40 m. The results are then displayed in a
diagram.
Figure 1 shows the straightness of the
base frame of a large blower being
measured.
The operator of the blower contracted
PRFTECHNIK to measure the straight-
ness of the motor foundation in the
course of overhauling the motor.
The results showed that the base plate
had an offset of 1.2 mm at one foot. This
degree of offset influences motor behav-
ior and, in the case of this particular fan
drive, was detrimental to the vibration
behavior of the fan motor. After the
LEVALIGN

measurements were made,

the error was corrected before the over-
hauled motor was remounted. This was
accomplished by adding shims of the
calculated correction height beneath the
other three feet.
A control measurement confirmed
that the offset was now at a tolerable
level of approx. 0.25 mm.
The motor was remounted, realigned
and put back into operation. A final
vibration measurement showed that the
motor was now running within the al-
lowable vibration tolerances.
Alignment Application
Measuring straightness and flatness
Michael Stachelhaus
Fig.1: Preparations before measure-
ment and view of measurement
components
Fig.2: The LEVALIGN

report shows a deviation of the left front motor foot

7
the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group
L
w
d
r
D
r
In small to medium power ranges, belt
drives can be used to adapt drive speeds
to machine speeds.
Because belts only transfer a limited
level of power, machines usually use
several belts of the same length or tim-
ing belts. High vibration levels occur
when individual belt strands are un-
equally loaded because the lengths are
out of tolerance.
The unloaded strand of the belt
should be slightly slack when under the
largest load. If the slack strand remains
too taught when under a large load, is
will slip, causing high noise levels. If the
belts flutter, the cause of the vibration
can be found by means of frequency
analysis, for example.
Belt vibrations that are due solely to
belt flaws occur at the belt frequency
Condition Monitoring Basics
Calculating natural belt frequencies
Dr. Edwin Becker
and have a large number of multiples,
where the amplitudes are larger in the
direction of the force transfer. Usually
the calculated belt frequencies range up
to 100 Hz
The belt frequency can be calculated
as follows:
f
B
=
D
r
in mm = Effective pulley diameter
n
D
in rpm = Pulley speed
L
w
in mm = Effective belt length
In addition to the belt frequency, the
rotational frequency of the drive pulley
can appear up to the 5th harmonic. At
times the vibration level may rise and
fall periodically. Yet another special
characteristic of belt drives is that you
should avoid 1:1 translations. These will
often result in unusual vibrations.
Frequency converters with direct
torque control (DTC) have a typical
torque control time of approx. 1 to 2 ms.
Vector-controlled or field-oriented con-
verters with pulse width modulation
(PWM) achieve 10 to 20 ms, while
converters with U/f control without sig-
nal regeneration have a control time
that lies significantly above 100 ms. In
fans, a high torque control time is desir-
able to be able to accelerate the moment
of inertia of the fan within a short
period of time. A high torque control
time, however, has the disadvantage
that it can excite mechanical natural
vibrations in the fan system. At the
control times specified above, DTC and
PWM converters can excite natural vi-
brations up to 1000 Hz and 100 Hz,
respectively, and simple U/f converters
can excite mechanical natural vibrations
up to 10 Hz. To limit the resonance risk,
fans are often equipped with protection
systems such as VIBREX

that switch off

the fan abruptly when the allowable
Condition Monitoring Technology
Measuring load resonance curves without shutting off
the exhaust fan
Christian Schlumpf
vibration velocity is exceeded. The risk
of resonance due to the converter can be
assessed by means of TTS or with tem-
porary vibration and speed measure-
ments. Vibration and speed are mea-
sured simultaneously and displayed in a
vibration-speed diagram.
Figure 1 shows the resonance curve of
an exhaust fan that is at risk of vibra-
tion. The curve was measured during
normal operation with fluctuations in
the operating speed. After only three
hours of measurement under load con-
ditions, it was concluded that the rota-
tional speed range of 2840 2920 rpm
leads to increased levels of vibration
load on the motor and that this range
should be dampened in the frequency
converter.
Fig.1: Load-resonance curve of the 1st order measured at the motor
Resonance range
=
D
r
n
D
60 L
w
d
r
n
d
60 L
w
8
the service magazine of the PRFTECHNIK Group
Dates
News
Information on all trade fairs, semi-
nars and other important events of the
PRFTECHNIK Group can be found on
our website at www.pruftechnik.com
CPK for operators
of blower systems
Condition-oriented maintenance has
become standard practice in blower sys-
tems. While operation-critical blowers
are increasingly being equipped with
online measurement equipment, main-
tenance staff and service providers usu-
ally perform mobile vibration analyses.
The use of coded measurement points is
very convenient. The figure shows a
directory tree of measurements on blow-
ers. PRFTECHNIK performs the diag-
nosis service on the basis of the mea-
surement results provided by the opera-
tor and makes the reports available.
(CPK = Condition Monitoring Partner Concept)
Foundation measurements
Often blowers need to be erected flex-
ibly to keep vibration loads on buildings
and foundations low.
With VIBXPERT

, an acceler-
ometer with a low lower limit
frequency and a suitable vibra-
tion foot, the vibrations
emitted in the foundation
can be recorded with high
resolution.
Monitoring Center
now certified
Germanische Lloyd Industrial Services
GmbH has certified the Monitoring Cen-
ter of the PRFTECHNIK AG and con-
firmed that its process flows are in
conformity with GL Directive IV Part 4
of GL Wind. Thus, PRFTECHNIK cus-
tomers now have the opportunity not
only to purchase hardware and software
from PRFTECHNIK but also to take
advantage of the diagnosis services of-
fered by this newly certified Monitoring
Center. Certification involved adapting
the procedures followed in the Monitor-
ing Center to the ISO 9001 system.
Contact
PRFTECHNIK
Condition Monitoring GmbH
85737 Ismaning, Germany
Fax: +49 89 99616-0
Fax: +49 89 99616-341
eMail: [email protected]
PRFTECHNIK
Alignment Systems GmbH
85737 Ismaning, Germany
Tel: +49 89 99616-0
Fax: +49 89 99616-100
eMail: [email protected]
www.pruftechnik.com www.pruftechnik.com www.pruftechnik.com www.pruftechnik.com www.pruftechnik.com