What
makes a good vibration analyst?
In an industry that has become more crowded
over the past 10 years, one of the issues that can arise is setting your self
apart from other analysts or service providers.
- Does being a dealer for a given product make an individual an
expert?
- Does representing a large international equipment manufacturer
ensure that the solution will consider the entire application range that a
machine is potentially required to operate in?
- Does spending many years repairing and replacing components on
recip equipment mean that there is an understanding of issues that can be synonymous
with a 2 throw frame vs. a 4 or 6 throw frame?
One of the most important things to understand
is what factors or changes to a system will affect vibration levels. The knee jerk reaction to add stiffness or
brace a component is not necessarily the right approach to reduce vibration
levels. One needs to understand what the
forcing function of the vibration is to best understand how to reduce the
vibration.
There is also a common misconception that
clamping or bracing a given component will just "chase" the vibration problem
somewhere else on the machine. This is
directly tied to not dealing with the "forcing function" of the vibration. In many cases there are no physical changes
to the structure or supports that are necessary to get the machine to operate
within acceptable vibration limits. Also
it is difficult to resist the immediate reaction to fix a clamp or support that
has failed even though the current vibration levels are not too high,
especially if the assessment is being made based on a fixed condition vibration
snap shot. Why did these supports or
clamps fail in the first place?
We at Enhanced Maintenance Solutions Inc.
pride ourselves in our understanding of recip compressor performance and
vibration. Knowing how to approach a
problem without a canned solution, "let the data tell the story and then come
up with a conclusion." Just because
there are some visibly poor connections on a skid pile; does that mean they
need to be connected? When a
recommendation is made to further evaluate an issue that has been uncovered, it
is because providing a solution to the issue without all of the information is
not the most responsible thing to do.
Maybe it is possible to solve 80% of the problems without "further
evaluation", but the remaining 20% of the problems that could be made more
severe without proper analysis could prove to be catastrophic. Being able to take that step is what sets a world class analyst apart from any of the others.
We also have developed working
relationships with experts in acoustical and mechanical modelling that can take
the steps necessary to come up with a solution if that is where "the data takes
us." We have different analysis tools in
our arsenal to best evaluate different issues encountered. Our number one focus is providing a solution
that is the most practical and effective to our clients and provides
reliability and we put our 33 years of analysis experience to work to make that
happen.
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