Which assets can be monitored by TRACTIAN?

Despite having a wealth of data on assets, including service orders, spreadsheets and a structured maintenance routine, it’s not uncommon for managers to be caught off guard by gaps in their knowledge about these assets.

For many generations, maintenance has only been remembered in times of crisis and is often viewed as a source of excessive costs. The TRACTIAN sensor and platform were designed to change this perception by streamlining the maintenance process and providing a single, easy-to-use tool for combining productivity and monitoring. By using this system, maintenance managers can improve their efficiency and better manage their assets.

TRACTIAN was named one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world

We are capable of monitoring over 30 categories of machines, such as:

Basically, the platform can monitor each and every rotary asset that works with any type of behavior considered critical, or that has a vibration profile statistically defined.

TRACTIAN technology

When we talk about maintenance, we talk about maintaining a rhythm. The job is not catching up with what already happened, but keeping activities up and running every single day.

There are many solutions on the market that claim to be the future of the industry, but when it comes to actually implementing them, it can take a long time and they often fail to consider the practicalities of the shop floor.

TRACTIAN is a system of complete condition monitoring, carefully designed for the day-to-day routine of maintenance teams. Our solution focuses on providing intelligent, data-driven insights through condition monitoring and predictive analysis.

TRACTIAN’s solution provides state-of-the-art online monitoring for assets as well as predictive maintenance. With our tools, you can have access to the analytics and spectrum of your machines. You can also instantly view the reliability and availability of assets in a very simple interface.

Check out our complete guide to reliability

Through automatic insights and alerts (sent via the TRACTIAN App or browser available on smartphones, tablets or your computer) you’re able to assign work orders and monitor all machines in one place. If anything goes wrong, we’ll send an alert right away.

Here are the 4 most commonly monitored machines:

Compressor

When a sensor is implanted in a compressor, we can detect wear and overload on the axis. Compressors can be divided into different models:

• Positive displacement compressor: Obtains a high pressure by reducing the volume of gas.

• Piston compressor: Due to their low production costs and excellent performance, piston compressors are a popular choice in all industries. These compressors typically have a single piston, though there are models with three or five pistons controlled by a single axis. The volume of air produced per minute is the main factor that distinguishes different models of piston compressors.

• Screw compressor: Also named positive displacement compressor. Two axes plowed in a helical shape (similar to a screw thread) that are synchronized with a distance between the surfaces.

• Scroll Compressor (rotary spiral compressor): The technology of a scroll compressor is widely utilized in air conditioning and refrigeration. The scroll applications cover a wide range of operations utilizing several refrigerants. The scroll compressors, like other rotary technologies, require few mobile parts compared to piston compressors.

Electric motor

The electric motor converts electric energy into mechanics. Failures of imbalance, misalignment and resonance, for instance, can be identified with the TRACTIAN sensor. Among all types of electric motors, the two most common are:

Check out our complete guide to Maintenance Planning and Control (MPC)

• Direct current: has a one-directional flow of electric charge
• Alternating current: has a variation in the electric current, where magnitude and direction change in cycles

Fan

TRACTIAN’s sensor makes the detection of belt misalignment and bearing defects possible. Fans can be classified as:

• Axial: characterized by a high flow and low pressure with a reduction of the installed capacity.
• Centrifugal or radial has a lower airflow capacity. Recommended for pipe applications, where the air resistance and pressure are higher.

Motor pumps

These are utilized to transfer water or other liquid products. They have the option to be powered by gasoline, diesel or electrically and there are also models with impulsion by a water wheel.

The motor pumps or electric pumps are monitored through TRACTIAN’s sensor, which detects signals of excessive temperature or imbalance. They are hydraulic pumps with strong motors, and have functions of specific energy increase, depending on the industrial segment. The main types are:

• Peripheral motor pumps: A low-cost model that has a lower flow capacity and cannot be used in places deeper than 8 meters. It is ideal to transfer clean water without scraps.

• Centrifugal motor pumps: Able to pump any liquid to a great height with a larger flow and lower pressure. The pumps are subdivided into monostage and multistage. Monostage transfers liquids to a height of up to 40 meters, with an average flow of 2 – 3 m³/hour. And multistage, which transfers liquids to heights up to 340 meters, with an average flow of up to 70m³/hour.

Put into practice

Corteva Agriscience – a multinational seed, crop protection and digital agriculture company – has a plant that operates 24/7. Downtime for maintenance or cleaning, even if infrequent, had a big impact when it happened.

Thanks to a recommendation, Fernando Vicente, the plant’s maintenance leader, contacted TRACTIAN. He prioritized the most important equipment and installed 10 sensors – in a short time, several alerts were identified by the platform.

Learn about Corteva Agriscience new maintenance routine

Two pumps with high failure rates and fluctuating vibration patterns were identified as critical assets, as well as an exhaust tag (B270) that was prone to unbalance.

Despite having scheduled maintenance, one of the pieces of equipment experienced an unexpected increase in vibration, which was detected by the TRACTIAN sensor just one week before the planned shutdown.

“We did the vibration analysis sample a week before the insight was issued. Had we waited a month we might have misssed it. You notice noise in the area but without data, you have no way to confirm it.”

Fernando also added that, in addition to vibrations, the sensor also detected unbalance and misalignment.

“The sensor has been useful for decision making, to know whether we stop or not, to see how far the equipment can operate.”

This insight shows that the sensors identified an unbalance in the 1st harmonic (H1), where the set limit was exceeded. After the alert, preventive action was carried out and the RMS Speed levels went back below the ISO Critical Zone limit.

Thanks to the insight, serious damage and losses were anticipated and Corteva was able to avoid a breakdown that could have cost anywhere from $4,000 to $13,000.

AmstedMaxion, a company that manufactures and supplies industrial and railway castings, turned to the TRACTIAN sensor after their maintenance team struggled to obtain sufficient information to understand and predict equipment repairs.

“The data that is sent by the sensor to the platform helped us understand what is related to vibration and allows us to act preventively. And it ends up being very productive.” -Maintenance supervisor of AmstedMaxion

Check out the entire Sucess Case between AmstedMaxion and TRACTIAN

The company’s assets, such as the sand mixer F1135 and the mechanic pickling machine F5226, require regular balancing to function properly. By using the TRACTIAN platform, it was easy to identify abnormalities and take preventive measures to avoid a major breakdown that could disrupt production.

After preventive maintenance in the mixer, AmstedMaxion had a reduction of approximately 40% in the equipment’s vibration, preventing early wear and tear and future downtime deriving from unplanned maintenance.

What now?

By implementing TRACTIAN’s online monitoring sensor and platform, you can spare your assets from future unexpected failures and optimize your maintenance routine.

Is there a machine you can’t afford to have breakdown? Speak to one of our specialists today.