Today we would like to draw your attention to the importance of using top quality hardware for condition and vibration monitoring, through the help of an ISO cat III engineer – Dr Bongiovi who currently works for Iris Power, worldwide leader in the field.
NOW Engineering Solutions has been appointed CTC authorized distributor, so our questions to Dr Bongiovi were directed to understand whether any difference between CTC and competitors’ products can actually be detected.
Dr Bongiovi has worked with CTC hardware on many occasions, in particular he recalls one power station operating a 220 MW steam turbine; in that case VE135 1A (Velocimeters with sensitivity 20 mV/(mm/s) were employed to monitor the Generator Vibrations; since the contact surface between the bearing and the saddle was spherical for bearings 2 and 3, one seismic probe (VE135 1A) was installed close to the proximitor probe, in order to check if the vibrations measured by proximitor were spurious. Indeed, during the transients, the bearing could move.
CTC hardware was working also on another power station (hydro turbines), where VE135 1A (Velocimeters with sensitivity 20 mV/(mm/s) efficiently monitored the absolute vibrations of the Bearings and the generator case.
In all the cases CTC hardware proved to be reliable, resistant to the harshest conditions (heath, cold, humidity, wear and tear) and remarkable in sensitivity and frequency response.
It is well known the difficulties in the above mentioned conditions are very challenging and can affect and deteriorate any piece of hardware, however CTC products are designed to strongly resist any challenge and, in addition, they are covered by an unconditional lifetime warranty: CTC offers repair or replacement of products which have been damaged by unfortunate factors such as plant fire, heavy abuse, water, accidental neglect, etc.
Among the wide range of products offered in CTC catalogue, we would like to highlight our interest in proximitors: they are equipped with oscillators which resist to high temperatures, which is necessary for junction boxes that are placed close to the hottest sections such as the control box of a steam turbine. Moreover, the coaxial allows measuring the vibration by simply using portable systems of vibration acquisition.
For any further information or enquiry about CTC hardware, please do not hesitate to contact us.
I met Dr Bongiovi in several power plants for VMS commissioning and I was with him (I am the maintenance responsible) when he decided to add the absolute probes on the bearings: very interesting solution. He suggested the CTC probes and I am really satisfied with them. Do you provide CTC brand probes only for absolute vibrations or for relative as well?
Thank you Thomas for your feedback, we do supply CTC probes for relative vibrations too, indeed CTC proximitors are remarkable as they can resist to very high temperatures and the coaxial allows measuring the vibration by simply using portable systems of vibration acquisition.