High cost savings through condition monitoring and automatic lubrication

Customer Success Story

In his region the Belgian customer is responsible for water management. One of his tasks is to maintain the operation of the pump stations. To prevent pump downtimes due to bearing damage, the customer implemented a predictive condition and lubrication monitoring solution for the station.

Savings for the first prevented failure: 35,000 euros, Savings for each additional damage prevented: 49,000 euros

Benefits
Challenge
Solution and What´s Special
Savings
Technical Information
Download
Contact

Benefits

Customer benefits

No unplanned downtime of the pumping station during ongoing operation
No costs incurred by production stoppages
No secondary damage to motors and pumps
Low acquisition costs of monitoring systems
Reduced maintenance costs
Increased plant availability
More safety due to self-reporting systems

Challenge

To avoid flooding in his area of responsibility, the customer built a pumping station. A catch basin and three propeller pumps in the pumping station ensure that excess water is pumped out and diverted. Inadequate pump monitoring led to the unforeseen failure of a bearing, as a result of which the pump wheel began to vibrate, causing 5 cm of wear to the pump housing. In order to prevent pump failures due to bearing damage in the future, the customer sought to find a predictive monitoring solution for the pumping station.

Technical Information

Motor (pump)

Output - 110 KW

Pump

Output - n:600 tr/min - Q:5040 m³/h

Solution

Schaeffler experts recommended the automatic lubrication system CONCEPT2 for the lubrication of the pump bearings. This solution permits ongoing and reliable lubrication of the bearings. The CONCEPT2 system supplies two lubrication points independently of each other and withstands a pressure of 50 bar. Schaeffler recommended the use of the Schaeffler SmartCheck for monitoring the upper and lower bearings in the motors. Any deviations and changes in vibration behaviour are detected by the SmartCheck and reported via a customer control system, thus allowing incipient bearing damage to be detected at an early stage. The local certified Schaeffler distributor recommended the systems and will be providing on-site service advice in the future.

What´s Special

As the pumping station is not manned on a permanent basis, remote monitoring is a sound alternative means to observe the system. This holistic solution can also be applied and extended to other units in almost any plant.

Motor monitoring with SmartCheck and lubrication system CONCEPT2
SmartCheck and CONCEPT2 for pump monitoring and lubrication

Savings

Assuming only one pump bearing damage per year,, the following savings would be achieved with the monitoring systems:

Estimated savings with the SmartCheck and CONCEPT2

Annual maintenance expenditure (8 h)	1000 €
One-time expenditure for SmartChecks and Concept2	14,000 €
Pump damage without monitoring systems	50,000 €
With monitoring system Cost savings following initial damage Cost savings for each additional damage prevented	35,000 € 49,000 €

Technical Information

Technical information SmartCheck and CONCEPT2

Condition Monitoring
9 SmartChecks for 3 pump/motor-units; 2 Smart-
Checks per unit for top and bottom motor bearings;
1 SmartCheck on pump bearings

Monitored units
Pump bearings and motor bearings

Monitored operating parameters
Vibration, temperature, speed, cavitation

Diagnostic procedures
Speed, acceleration and envelope

Lubrication monitoring
6 lubrication systems CONCEPT2

Lubrication points
Motor and pump bearings

SmartCheck and the lubricator CONCEPT2 are part of the Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions portfolio, which offers a comprehensive range of products, services and solutions for industrial maintenance. It is designed to support maintenance engineers over the entire lifetime of a machine.

Visit our Lifetime Solutions portfolio here:

To Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions