Condition monitoring for circulator pumps: a case study

Read how SAM4 caught misalignment between this pump's gearbox and motor 7 months in advance for a chemical customer.

Over time, misalignment between the pump’s motor and gearbox wore out the coupling blocks.

SAM4 flagged a sudden increase at the rotational frequency of the gearbox’s outgoing axle, which is indicative of misalignment. We notified the customer and put the pump on orange alert, for close tracking by our data science team. We updated the customer weekly as the intensity gradually continued to rise. Seven months after our first alert, the customer’s preventive maintenance cycle confirmed radial and axial misalignment between the gearbox and the motor, plus badly degraded coupling blocks. No problems were found on other pumps during this preventive check, which also concurred with SAM4’s assessment.

“Great evidence that SAM4 is reliable enough to help us move from time-based inspections and preventive parts replacement on every pump to condition-based maintenance only when a pump needs it.”

Photos of the degraded coupling block and axial and radial misalignment.

A sudden rise in intensity at the outgoing axle’s rotational frequency (orange arrow), followed by 7 months of gradual increase. The green arrow indicates where the customer serviced the pump.