Mechanical Technology

Mechanical Technology — November 2015

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Proactive maintenance, lubrication and contamination management

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Above:

The TKSA 51 connects wirelessly to

an associated App, to provide a live 3D view

of the measuring units. Operators can rotate

the virtual machine at their convenience

in all directions, making the alignment as

intuitive as possible.

Left:

The TKSA 51 is a new intuitive App-

powered shaft alignment tool from SKF.

Designed to

suit hazardous

environments, the

SKF Wireless Machine Condition Sensor

provides seamless condition monitoring for

large plants in hard-to-reach locations.

receiving automated commands from

the Wireless Sensor Device Manager

software. This software initiates the

measurement and processing circuits to

take data and transmit it back over the

network. If a node is unable to receive

signals directly from the WirelessHART

gateway, it will, instead, send and receive

its data through a nearby node that can

pass the data to and from the gateway –

forming the mesh network.

Once data is collected, the Wireless

HART gateway communicates with the

Wireless Sensor Device Manager software

supplied by SKF. Device Manager then

automatically exports the data into SKF

@ptitude Analyst where a plant engineer

can analyse the data and determine a

course of action. The Wireless Machine

Condition Sensor has been developed to

be fully compatible with the established

SKF @ptitude Analyst software suite, a

comprehensive diagnostic and analytic

software package.

ATEX Zone 0 certification makes the

product ideally suited for use in hazard-

ous environments typically found in for

example, petrochemical, oil and gas and

pharmaceutical plants.

The unit combines both a sensor

and router node into one compact and

battery-operated unit the size of a typi-

cal industrial accelerometer. The sensor

operates in a low power consumption

mode, allowing the battery to last for

years in the field.

SKF’s Wireless Machine Condition

Sensor offers users a number of im-

portant benefits including an improved

maintenance programme, reduced main-

tenance and installation costs, as well as

enhanced employee and machine safety.

A successful application in

South Africa

Mokse Engineering Enterprises, an

armature winding specialist and one of

SKF South Africa’s key customer, was

so impressed with the capabilities of the

TKSA 11 shaft alignment tool that they

had no hesitation in purchasing the new

TKSA 51 to enable larger machines to

be handled.

Shaft misalignment contributes sig-

nificantly to premature machine failure.

It is estimated that misaligned shafts

can be responsible for up to 50% of

all machine failures. A machine placed

in service with less than optimal shaft

alignment can lead to poor machine per-

formance, increased power consumption,

increased noise and vibration, premature

bearing wear, accelerated deterioration of

gaskets, packing and mechanical seals

as well as higher coupling wear rates.

“These expensive scenarios, which can

all lead to unplanned downtime, costly

repairs and production losses, are easily

preventable using our quality range of

shaft alignment instruments,” notes SKF

maintenance and lubrication product

manager, Eddie Martens.

Mokse Engineering is successfully us-

ing the TKSA 11 for accurate horizontal

shaft alignment of small to medium sized

machines. “It started receiving more and

more requests for larger jobs, but realised

that a tool capable of aligning bigger ma-

chines was required, and because they

were so satisfied with the performance of

the TKSA 11 unit, they approached SKF

for a solution,” Martens relates.

“We demonstrated the TKSA 51 to

Mokse’s engineers, who were immedi-

ately impressed that it could accommo-

date alignment on soft foot (a distortion

in a mounting frame that a motor may

stand on) as well as thermal growth

(caused by thermal expansion),” con-

tinues Martens. “Upon hearing that the

measuring distance between the heads

was 5.0 m, the customer was sold on

the TKSA 51,” he says.

The compact TKSA 51 shaft align-

ment tool provides high measurement

flexibility and performance suitable for

entry-level to expert alignment jobs.

Designed to work with the shaft align-

ment TKSA 51 App on a tablet or smart

phone, this intuitive tool is easy to use

and requires no special training. Martens

adds that SKF can provide basic product

knowledge to an experienced operator as

well as a two day laser alignment training

course on site or in at the SKF training

centre situated in Boksburg, South Africa.

The included accessories of the TKSA

51 makes the instrument ideally suited

for a wide range of alignment applications

such as motors, drives, fans, pumps,

gearboxes, etc. The portable units do not

require installation and are supplied with

a two year warranty.

“Due to the reliable and effective

performance of our TKSA 11 instrument,

we were able to offer the best solution in

the TKSA 51 and assist this longstanding

SKF customer to expand their capabili-

ties by being able to handle larger jobs,

improve turnaround time and grow the

business,” concludes Martens.

SKF is represented in more than

130 countries and has around 15 000

distributor locations worldwide. Annual

sales in 2014 were SEK 70 975-mil-

lion and the company employs 48 593

people.