Read more about the article Strain Gauge Basics – Part 2 – Shunt Calibration

Strain Gauge Basics – Part 2 – Shunt Calibration

As mentioned in the previous post, in order to relate the measured voltage difference across the bridge circuit to a strain measurement, we need a way of calibrating the system. In most systems, including the Prosig acquisition systems, this is done by including a high-precision shunt resistor across one of the legs in the bridge. For example, the following diagram shows a quarter-bridge circuit with a shunt calibration resistor, RS, across the bridge completion resistor R2.

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Read more about the article Bearing & Gearbox Vibration Analysis Using Demodulation Techniques (Part 1)

Bearing & Gearbox Vibration Analysis Using Demodulation Techniques (Part 1)

Bearings and gearbox vibration are fundamental issues for rotating machines in many industrial applications. These are critical components; any failure can prove expensive in repair costs and downtime. Because of…

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Read more about the article Viewing Operational Deflection Shapes (ODS) from a Gas Turbine Generator

Viewing Operational Deflection Shapes (ODS) from a Gas Turbine Generator

As its name suggests Operational Deflection Shape analysis shows the vibration pattern experienced during normal operational condition. This is different to other structural vibration tests such as impact hammer tests, bump tests or shaker tests which require a more controlled excitation force and are used to determine specific characteristics of the structure under test, such as natural or resonant frequencies.

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Read more about the article Bearing & Gearbox Vibration Analysis using Demodulation Techniques? (Part 2)

Bearing & Gearbox Vibration Analysis using Demodulation Techniques? (Part 2)

In our previous post on this subject we briefly looked at how we can use the detailed design information of bearings and gearboxes to look for specific fault conditions by collecting vibration information and analysing their frequency spectra. Amplitude modulation of the vibration signatures is common and we have seen how this causes side-bands to be present in the frequency domain.

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Read more about the article Using Your VCM To Monitor Auxiliary Equipment

Using Your VCM To Monitor Auxiliary Equipment

The use of a vibration condition monitoring system for monitoring vibration from large rotating machines fitted with fluid-filled journal bearings such as steam or gas turbines is well understood. Vibration from these components generally falls within the main harmonics or orders of the shaft rotational speed such as 1st, 2nd 3rd or 4th harmonic. Some energy may also exist below the 1st order, called the sub-synchronous component. Most energy exists below 1KHz and so standard displacement probes or velocity transducers are generally fitted. The Prosig PROTOR system collects this data in amplitude and phase form, relative to a ‘once-per-revolution’ phase reference signal, as standard and allows data to be displayed in real-time as mimic diagrams, trend plots, orbit and vector displays.

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Read more about the article PROTOR Vibration Condition Monitoring System Installed in Three Thermal Power Plants in Spain for Iberdrola

PROTOR Vibration Condition Monitoring System Installed in Three Thermal Power Plants in Spain for Iberdrola

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IBERDROLA has launched a renewal plan for the existing condition monitoring systems in their plants in Spain. This plan will be implemented gradually and PROSIG was selected to install their PROTOR Vibration Condition Monitoring System in three IBERDROLA power stations. The contract was awarded to PROSIG in partnership with Aries Ingeniería y Sistemas, who are PROSIG’s representative in Spain.

PROSIG have already successfully commissioned and installed the PROTOR system in the Lada (Asturias, Spain) and the Pasajes (Guipúzcoa, Spain) power plants. The work primarily consists of the supply, installation and signal cabling of the PROTOR systems together with training of the IBERDROLA staff. PROSIG will complete the third installation at  the Velilla power plant, located in Palencia, Spain in September 2010.

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Vibration Condition Monitoring Using Your Android Smartphone

Ever been lying on the beach and begun to wonder about the state of your LP turbines? Or out on business and anxious to know if that troublesome exciter bearing has settled down? Well with a Prosig PROTOR system and a smartphone anything’s possible. Many of you will be familiar with using your phone as a camera, music player, web browser, email client, calculator or even a navigation device, but not many will have anticipated using it for vibration condition monitoring!

Here we will explain how to use one of the new Android based phones to connect to a PROTOR system. For the purposes of this example we used an Android-based phone and a WiFi connection. It is equally acceptable to use the network providers 2G/3G data connection. And although we chose an Android based phone, similar VNC-viewer apps exist for the iPhone and other smartphones.

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Shaft Displacement Measurement Using A PROTOR System

Shaft displacement is an important vibration measurement for rotating machines. Shaft displacement is usually monitored by non-contact shaft displacement probes such as eddy-current probes. These probes produce a voltage proportional to the distance of the shaft surface relative to the tip of the probe. For maximum benefit, ideally two shaft displacement probes will be fitted to measure the displacement in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Actually the probes do not have to be exactly horizontal and vertical as Prosig’s PROTOR system is able to resolve into the horizontal and vertical directions.

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Updated Protor System For Ringhals, Sweden

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RinghalsProsig installed a PROTOR system at the Ringhals1 reactor in Sweden in 1992. This system was based on the PROTOR2 level of hardware and software and consisted of a Sun workstation and PC based acquisition system. The system has been successfully monitoring the two main turbine generators ever since. Last month Prosig upgraded this system to their latest PROTOR4 hardware and software.
The system now consists of a high-end rack-mount server PC containing RAID, hot-swap disks, dual high-speed Ethernet LANs and redundant power supplies together with two 32-channel 4700 data acquisition units.
The system is connected into the station alarm system so that control room staff are automatically alerted on vibration alarms. The system is fully integrated within the Ringhals network for data archiving, remote access and data transfer with the plant computer.

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PROTOR Redhat: Installation and setup of Apache web server

Installation

In order to run the Apache web server on a system you will firstly need to install the suitable RPM using a command of the form:

rpm --install --nodeps --replacefiles --replacepkgs  apache-1.3.23-11.i386.rpm

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PROTOR Redhat Note: Setup of ATI Rage 128 Graphics Card

There appeared to be problems when using the ATI Rage 128 graphics card in a Redhet 7.3 system. The problem manifested itself as screen corruption when exitting the Window Manager. This happened if using FVWM or KDE Window Managers. The corruption appeared to get progressively worse with each log off.

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PROTOR Redhat : Installing XDM

By default the RedHat 7.2 installation uses the GNOME Display Manager GDM or possibly the KDE Display Manager KDM. Both these Display Managers are very powerful and allow users to select the type of session to start ( such as GNOME or KDE ). There are also options and menus to shutdown or reboot the system. For a PROTOR installation where we want to control the users session then using the basic XFree86 display manager XDM is preferable.

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PROTOR Note : Booting Linux using NT Loader

In some configuration it may be required or desirable for Linux and Window NT to co-exist on the same system. Presuming Windows NT has been initially installed then the system will boot through the Windows NT Boot Loader. Assuming that a Linux system has been added to a spare partition or additional disk then the requirement is to add an option to the NT Boot Loader such that either Windows NT or Linux may be booted.

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Importance of tachometer/keyphasor signal conditioning and its relationship to phase measurements

This note describes the importance and setup of a keyphasor or tachometer signal for PROTOR Remote Monitoring Data Acquisition System (RMDAS) units. RMDAS units are provided with manual tachometer conditioning…

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