Critical Centrifuge Bearing Monitoring

A centrifuge uses centrifugal forces, generated at high RPMs to separate solids and liquids. At Greenfield Ethanol, they use centrifuges in their manufacturing processes. They are critical to their operations.

This centrifuge in question rotates at 5250RPM, and it has a suspected bad bearing. The following Figure 1 & 2 depicts the bearing & the asset.

Jonathan Dion, of Greenfield Ethanol previously reported monitoring a critical fan with a bad bearing up until his plants next scheduled shutdown.

He successfully managed to extend that fans lifespan for a full calendar year by keeping it under a watchful eye with his Vigilant System; An 8-Channel permanent condition monitoring solution, capable of both ultrasound & vibration analysis.

A similar situation arose at his plant. He discovered a bad bearing on a centrifuge using his SDT Ultrasound Data Collector. The fault was not yet visible with his vibration analysis tools. No cause for concern yet, the bearing had a lot of life left, but it was in the early stages of failure. Still, no reason to use unplanned downtime to replace the bearing. The plan is to replace the bearing during the next scheduled shutdown.