Through a close partnership with Danish utility company Skanderborg Forsyning, DIAP has been running a test project with monitoring of wastewater pump vibrations. The collected data reveals information about the current condition of a pump and is used to spot future breakkdowns.
The test project started out by collecting data from perfectly healthy pumps to gather basic data on the vibrations. Gradually, monitoring was expanded to include pumps with different types of issues such as defective impellers, worn or damaged components, old pumps etc.
Kurt Olesen who is Operations Assistant at Skanderborg Forsyning is fascinated by the results: “We started out by testing DIAP on a single pump in our test basin, and the first results were fascinating. As soon as we replaced healthy pump parts with damaged or worn parts, the vibrations of the pumps changed. Knowing almost all there is to know about our daily operations, I was impressed to see just how much information you can retrieve by monitoring pump vibrations, and that we – based on vibration monitoring – will be able to spot future breakdowns from the office.”
Kurt Olesen sees many other perspectives in using DIAP: “DIAP can be used for monitoring a lot of our other processes and equipment, e.g. the agitator in our wastewater tanks”.
By collecting and analyzing vibration data, maintenance can be planned much more efficiently, and unintentional discharge of wastewater can be eliminated.
Michael Pilc, Operation Manager at Skanderborg Forsyning, explains: “We are constantly working on reducing our environmental impact and improving our daily operations. If a pump is not running optimally, there is a risk that wastewater will be accumulated and discharged unintentionally. Naturally, we do all we can to avoid this, and this is where DIAP comes into the picture. Monitoring pump vibrations and visualizing the information in a dashboard, provides us with a much stronger basis for planning and performing maintenance”.
The positive results achieved with pump vibration monitoring have whetted the appetite for more.
DIAP and Skanderborg Forsyning are therefore working closely together on developing the DIAP software even further to include other types of data as well.
As a utility company, one of our core tasks is to ensure that only cleaned wastewater is discharged into the environment. By constantly seeking and applying new technologies such as DIAP, we contribute to the protection of our shared environment ”
Michael Pilc, Head of department, Environment & Supply at Skanderborg ForsyningThe data collected by DIAP during the test project has continually been used to develop software that analyzes and displays the information in a pump health status dashboard. A dashboard that provides maintenance personnel with a clear overview of the current condition of the pumps illustrated by green, yellow or red status lights.
The dashboard also includes an alarm feature which means that personnel can be notified immediately in case a pump is nearing a failure.
Kurt Olesen who is Operations Assistant at Skanderborg Forsyning working on a pump station.
The data collected by DIAP during the test project has continually been used to develop software that analyzes and displays the information in a pump health status dashboard
Michael Pilc, Operation Manager at Skanderborg Forsyning, explains: “Next step is to combine vibration data with other parameters such as pressure, flow and running time to create one total value. With more data available, we will be able to change our approach to condition-based maintenance instead of time-based or even damage-based maintenance. We will be able to make better use of our resources and avoid unnecessary service calls”.
Optimizing the operation and maintenance of wastewater pumps not only ads value in terms of increased efficiency and reduced costs. It also makes a difference to the environment.
More efficient planning of maintenance results in better utilization of all types of resources – from spare parts to the fuel used by service cars. In addition, the monitoring will contribute positively to the many efforts made by the utility companies to avoid unintended discharge of wastewater.
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