Especially the temperatures of the sliding parts and the pressure in the seal chamber were to be monitored continuously to identify optimization potential for preventing damage to the seals and increasing the MTBR (Mean Time Between Repair) of the products. To reduce efforts, the possibility of a location-independent monitoring should be provided, thereby getting access to the measurement data from any place and reducing potential on-site maintenance to a minimum. Apart from all the requests regarding monitoring and digitalization, fulfilling the high operating requirements by means of the seal design was the fundamental stipulation. Seals and sensors must be able to unconditionally withstand the extreme operating conditions caused by the application as well as the ambient conditions. Ideally, existing sensors are retrofittable with the sensor measurement solution, and the data transmission can function regardless of the seal.
The customer was already convinced of the quality and reliability of EagleBurgmann seals through earlier projects. Once again, the experts in sealing technology were able to completely satisfy the requirements with the newly developed EB Smart Seal Solution.
In order to perform a test run, the customer installed four single high pressure seals with the corresponding EB Smart Seal Monitoring Kit expansion.
The seals are engineered seals based on the SH series, which is designed for extreme requirements and has proven itself in numerous pipeline applications. The customer-specific sealing solution is designed forshaft diameters from 140 mm to 155 mm and, if necessary, is capable of withstanding a pressure of up to 100 bar dynamic.
The expansion by means of the EB Smart Seal Monitoring Kit as a digital solution for condition monitoring enables the reliable, continuous collection and transmission of seal data to an online application that can be called up anytime and anywhere, thereby laying the foundation for an intelligent condition monitoring and service concept.
Pressure and temperature sensors installed in the seals record the data and transfer it to an external transmitter. From there, the data is sent wirelessly to a gateway. The system architecture is implemented by means of the wireless sensor network technology WirelessHART and represents the current IT industry standard. It is available with all explosion protection certifications (e.g., ATEX, CSA, UL, IECEx). The Edge accommodates the required hardware for the necessary loT gateway, via which the data is transmitted to the myEagleBurgmann cloud by means of the mobile radio standard LTE. The data can be accessed in the EB Smart Product Application. Here, measurement values and analyses are visualized graphically as well as clearly structured and made available in an appealing graphical user interface. Thanks to the cloud-based data storage, access is possible at any time and from anywhere as long as there is an existing mobile connection. The cloud solution follows the ISO 27001 and fulfills all requirements for data protection and data security.
WirelessHART is a wireless sensor network technology developed specifically for industrial applications in process automation. It is based on a meshed, self-organized network in which each sensor can simultaneously act as a signal source as well as a repeater. The transmitting sensor sends the corresponding data wirelessly to the closest neighboring sensor, which then again sends it to the next neighboring sensor – so long until the message reaches the actual receiver. The mesh-like network topology allows for the coverage of a large area as well as a high transmission security.
