The Atomation team has had a number of saves in recent weeks but this is the first one that occurred in our first follow-up meeting with the customer! The monitoring capabilities of the Atomation platform deliver value for our customers - in some cases even before the ink has dried on the contract!
Customer: Water Supply Facility
Installed Devices: Gateway and 1 AT-R Atom with Temperature, Vibration, and Impact Sensors Activated
Equipment Monitored: Raw Water Lift Pump (a large electric motor that spins an impeller and pulls water in from the river prior to treatment). The facility supplies drinking water to a large, metropolitan area in the South.
Atomation installed the gateway and the AT-R Atom on Monday to showcase the solution and provide information to the utility team about pump operation. A meeting had been scheduled for later in the same week to review the data collected after the initial installation.
Graphs were created for the presentation and showed basic machine vibration/performance data - nothing out of the ordinary - although the information did provide a baseline for the normal operating behavior of the pump.
At the follow-up meeting, we switched to a live demonstration of the dashboard to answer additional questions and further highlight what the utility could learn from the Atomation platform. Immediately after logging in and while we were all sitting in the meeting, the dashboard began showing trigger events with impacts and vibration readings well above the alert threshold. We paused the meeting and had a team member at the Utility inspect the equipment. (They admitted to being a little skeptical!).
Upon inspection, they found that debris (later determined to be a large stick) had been pulled into the intake valve causing the pump to operate erratically. They were able to remove the obstruction after shutting the pump down, preventing the eventual failure of the pump and any further damage.
Pre and post-vibration data show that the pump is vibrating more now during operation than prior to the intake of the stick, which may lead to the pump’s eventual replacement.
The Atomation team has had a number of saves in recent weeks but this is the first one in real-time! The monitoring capabilities of the Atomation platform deliver value for our customers. Contact us to learn how Atomation can help you prevent downtime and improve overall operational performance.