Replacing a Bently Nevada BN3300 vibration monitoring and protection system with a Vibro-meter VM600 Mk2
The Maastricht Paper Production Mill operates a powertrain consisting of a gas turbine, gearbox, and generator. Two systems were used for vibration protection on this powertrain. The Bently Nevada 3300 (BN3300) series machine protection and monitoring system was used for vibration signals from the eddy current loops, and another system was used for vibration signals from the accelerometers and velocity sensors.
Due to ongoing problems with the systems, a decision was made to replace it. As the system replacement needs to take place during a machine stop, it presented an ideal opportunity to also upgrade the BN3300 system. Given that the BN3300 system had been discontinued by its manufacturer, Sappi wanted to replace it with a system that is in its active lifecycle and aligns with their requirements.
Sappi Maastricht chose to install Meggitt Vibro-meter’s latest machine protection and monitoring system: the VM600 Mk2. The Mk2 is the second generation of the advanced VM600 system, and was launched at the end of 2021.
Read more about the VM600 Mk2 »
Challenge
The BN3300 racks and the other system were situated in two different cabinets. It was decided to replace both systems with a single system placed in one cabinet, both supporting signals from the eddy current loops, accelerometers and velocity sensors. The protection functions and trip logic are managed by the PLC, which required the configuration of PROFIBUS.
As the systems could only be replaced during machine downtime, Istec had to showcase its flexible availability. Seizing the opportunity once the machines were inactive, our specialists initiated the replacement project and installed the VM600 Mk2 system at short notice.
Figure 1. The obsolete Bently Nevada 3300 racks. This system consisted of 8x dual vibration monitoring modules and 1x dual thrust monitoring module.
Solution
Istec has engineered and installed the 19 inch VM600 Mk2 rack, configured with 7 MPC4Mk2 protection modules that each have 4 dynamic and 2 auxiliary channels. A CPUMMk2 module was installed in the rack for PROFIBUS, to be able to send the processed vibration signals to the PLC.
The Bently Nevada eddy current loops were replaced by the Meggitt Vibro-meter TQ412 probes on the gearbox and generator.
Figure 2. The newly installed VM600 Mk2 system. The system consists of a CPUMMk2 module, 7x MPC4Mk2 protection modules, 2x RPS6U power supplies for power redundancy.
Deliverables
- Replacement of the old vibration protection systems with a single solution: the VM600 Mk2
- Full scope supply and support of vibration hardware and installation
- The VM600 Mk2 covers the core functions of the previous system
- Minimal required changes to existing sensor infrastructure
Impact
The replacement of the old BN3300 racks and the other system with the Vibro-meter VM600 Mk2 was successful, and benefits the reliability and availability of the gas turbine, gearbox and generator.
The Vibro-meter VM600 Mk2 provides Sappi Maastricht with advanced vibration protection that suits their requirements. As this system was recently launched, it has a long active lifecycle and meets the latest machine requirements.
