TECHNICAL SUPPORT 

One aspect that is often overlooked when considering RCM/CBM is the quality and depth of the technical experience that supports the decision-making process once the data is gathered and analysed. Quartzelec has a highly educated and experienced engineering team that is dedicated to supporting customers with a myriad of electrical machine operational issues and failures. We are an independent business that has worked with a wide range of OEM designs, which gives us a very firm base upon which to provide analysis and advice.

Vibration Analysis

Measuring the vibration signature of your rotating machines whether via an online or offline system can offer early detection of multiple mechanical and electrical faults allowing essential maintenance to be scheduled and costly downtime or even catastrophic failure prevented.

Quartzelec works with a number of specialist predictive maintenance partners to ensure the most suitable technologies are adopted for asset analysis. Get in touch to find out more…

Partial Discharge Analysis

Partial discharge (PD) analysis has long been established as an extremely reliable and powerful indicator in assessing the health and integrity of electrical equipment insulation.

Typical failures, including earth faults, phase to-phase faults or shorted turns will eventually cause defects which could lead to catastrophic failure.

Monitoring the health of the asset through measuring changes in condition against a set of baseline parameters (established at the time of sensor installation) can provide early indications of critical problems and provide the opportunity to plan an intervention to take necessary corrective measures.

Quartzelec utilises LIFEVIEW® a suite of analysers and sensors developed by Quartzeq, a Quartzelec company to deliver a high-level PD monitoring service which can be easily retro-fitted to HV equipment with expert analysis support always available. For more information and technical specifications about these products visit: www.quartzteq.com

Rotor Airgap Flux Measurement

Consistent monitoring of your turbo-generator’s magnetic state can offer reliable information regarding machine status.

Measuring and analysing the air-gap flux will determine if there is a shorted turn in the rotor winding. Other information, such as eccentricity can also be detected. 

With a shorted turn, you can expect to see reduced efficiency / limited output from your generator as well as high rotor vibration, so it’s essential that potential shorts are identified early and managed, to ensure continued reliable operation.

Quartzelec utilises the LIFEVIEW® Air Gap Flux Probe from Quartzteq, which are custom designed and fabricated for each application. One probe is usually installed per machine with a LIFEVIEW analyser required to interpret the results. For more information and technical specifications visit: www.quartzteq.com

Shaft Voltage Measurement

With multiple sources of shaft voltage that can affect your rotating electrical asset, monitoring this parameter can give an early indication of increasing levels of shaft voltage as well as detecting inadequate earthing.

Occuring in rotating electrical machines due to capacitive coupling of voltages within the machine windings or static excitation systems it can also be induced by asymmetry in the magnetic circuit of the motor or generator. The build-up of shaft voltage is also likely to cause bearing damage which could ultimately result in catastrophic failure.

Associated currents due to the phenomenon of shaft voltage will also cause deterioration but can be prevented with the fitting of the LIFEVIEW® Shaft Voltage module from Quartzteq. visit: www.quartzteq.com

Thermography

A thermographic survey offers non-invasive testing to inspect your electrical equipment whilst in operation. Mechanical and electrical components can develop faults or wear and tear – all which are invisible to the naked eye as they continue to deteriorate, often generating heat, which if undetected could eventually result in failure.

Surveying individual components can pinpoint if they are operating outside of their optimal running temperatures, to ensure steps can be taken to rectify before they impact on productivity, safety, profitability and reputation.

Either incorporated in your predictive maintenance strategy or utilised as a stand-alone survey tool, thermographic inspection will highlight ‘at risk’ areas and equipment, allowing repairs to be carried out before a real threat occurs.

Oil Analysis

Oil analysis of critical assets can determine the condition and integrity of key components including bearings and gearboxes – where journal lubricating oil is critical but also for static equipment including transformers which rely on oil for cooling and safe operation.

The analysis looks for abnormal conditions of the oil including increased acid levels, presence of water and even debris from components that are wearing, providing information about the condition of an asset which can be expertly assessed by our experienced team, allowing necessary maintenance to be planned.

Oil analysis is often a key element of a wider condition monitoring programme, but Quartzelec can support individual analysis requirements as required.

Motion Amplification

Vibration is one of the major causes of unplanned maintenance and early degradation of rotating equipment and the associated structures and pipework.

Motion Amplification^* is a unique approach to detecting movement which can prove key in minimizing downtime; helping to ensure maximum reliability as well as operational performance.

A highly specialist camera with dedicated software is used to record an asset when running to detect and highlight motion and movement that is not visible to the naked eye. A non-contact technique, any movement detected by the camera is significantly amplified to create a visible moving image.

A Motion Amplification™ survey carried out by Quartzelec will identify the root cause of vibration and a detailed video report will highlight faults that would have previously been invisible to the naked eye. Our team will then work with you to review detailed vibration waveforms to support further analysis for identifying potential solutions.

Motion Amplification™ is a trademark of RDI Technologies Inc.

Temperature Analysis

Temperature monitoring of rotating electrical machines and their driven equipment (e.g. pumps, compressors, fans) should play a key part in your predictive maintenance strategy.

Monitoring of these critical assets and key components can play a crucial part in preventing failure, but it's important to recognise that with different allowable temperature ranges that different temperature monitoring techniques should be utilised.

Quartzelec has extensive experience in the operational field and can support the installation of thermocouples through to temperature sensors - or manage the regular monitoring and analysis of your fleet.