Disadvantages of Manual Vibration Sampling

Before the introduction of industrial instrumentation, the manual vibration sampling and recording of data was commonplace. As we moved to advanced process control, having real-time data became critical for accurate decision-making. This resulted in most manual sampling being replaced by […]

Manual vibration sampling

Before the introduction of industrial instrumentation, the manual vibration sampling and recording of data was commonplace. As we moved to advanced process control, having real-time data became critical for accurate decision-making. This resulted in most manual sampling being replaced by instrumentation. However, vibration monitoring remains one of the measurements that still relies heavily on manual sampling.

Why you should not choose manual vibration sampling

There are a number of disadvantages with manual vibration sampling.

1.Frequency of Sampling

Manual sampling is infrequent. It is physically not practical to take regular samples of vibration data by a manual patrol. Manual sampling means you may only measure vibration once per day or as is the case in many plants, once per quarter or once per year. Vibration problems don’t usually progress dramatically in a short time period, but they do climb rapidly as a device approaches failure. With manual sampling, you can miss this progression, leading to an unplanned shutdown of the process or entire plant.

2.Efficiency and Safety

While you are sending an operator into the field to take the manual samples, he/she could be put to better use doing more critical tasks to control and improve the overall plant performance. Many plants have hazardous environments, from temperature to noise and atmosphere, so removing operators from such conditions makes work much safer for them.

3. Less available skilled Labour

Processing plants are operating with less labour now than ever before. Trying to push your scarce resources into manual sampling means that vibration monitoring is often delayed or skipped, in order for more pressing tasks to be completed. Vibration monitoring, while critical to plant, is often left undone.

Can you really afford to operate your plant this way?

The solution: Wireless vibration monitoring

 

Manual vibration sampling article
Wireless Vibration Monitoring

Wireless vibration monitoring provides a fast, simple and cost-effective solution to enable replacement of manual sampling. Wouldn’t you like to have a better operating plant with less unplanned downtime?

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Picture credits: Tanasan Sungkaew- Shutterstock.com

 

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