02/08 ·
uptime
m
e
gazine 5
Diagnostics is the cornerstone
to a condition monitoring ap-
plication, and therefore it rep-
resents a fundamental part of
the business done by Brüel &
Kjær Vibro.
O
ur primary focus is on two im-
portant areas in diagnostics
and analysis:
n
Developing diagnostic tools for our
condition monitoring systems that
assist the specialist's job
n
Providing Brüel & Kjær Vibro spe-
cialists to undertake diagnostics
as an after-sales service function
The Compass family of condition
monitoring systems offer diagnostic
tools that greatly reduce the work-
load of the customer's specialist. This
means the specialist has time to look
after more machines, or even sev-
eral plants. This effectively reduces
the cost of using a specialist with-
out compromising the reliability of the
condition monitoring strategy.
Brüel & Kjær Vibro also offers a team
of qualified specialists who work with
a number of industries and machines.
Due to the high downtime costs, we
have long-term service agreements
with several of our customers that in-
clude diagnostic services.
This issue of Uptime contains a case
story from an LNG plant that clearly
demonstrates the effectiveness of a
condition monitoring strategy and the
enormous potential it has in reducing
downtime expenses associated with
catastrophic failure and consequen-
tial damage. Futhermore, the case
story highlights the importance of di-
agnostics and the important role of
an after-sales service department to
deliver such a solution.
The case story is from one of our
specialists, Stefan Burggraaf, based
in the Holland sales office. He regu-
larly travels to client sites to help the
customer's rotating equipment en-
gineer to keep an eye on the ma-
chines. As a result of his fre-
quent trips, he developed
intimate knowledge
about the customer's
machines, which in
return helps him
tackle some of the
more difficult diag-
noses. The cus-
tomer also benefits
from this special in-
sight into the main-
tenance and operation
of the machines. To-
gether, they build a strong
working relationship and mutu-
al understanding that makes every-
one's job easier, but most importantly
results in more productivity from the
customer's machine fleet.
n
SuccessfulMonitoringResults
using
DiagnosticServices
Figure 1 Stefan Burggraaf, on the
right, next to one of the machines he
is doing dianostic services on.
Diagnosis, by definition,
is a conclusion of an
analysis of symptoms aimed
at determining the cause
or nature of a machine
condition.