In today's automation environment, it is important to possess the tools to tie the Vibration Monitoring requirements of the plant floor into the company's Control System capabilities.
Choosing not to use a PLC to measure equipment vibration on the plant floor?
The PLC has demonstrated extreme reliability. Instrument and controls personnel understand programming PLC's to obtain suitable data displays and setting alarm set points. The vibration levels can be made clearly visible to operators in the control room, right along side all of the other important data that is crucial to continuous plant operation.
Vibration data has proven to be valuable in determining the running condition of plant machinery and even extending running time. Consider the following situations:
By monitoring the vibration signal – similar to how many already input temperature and pressure – into the PLC system, the company is now able to
o Trend Machinery vibration along with other existing measurements using the PLC System
o Take direct preventive action (alarm, reduced flow, equipment bypass) through connectivity to process control system
o Achieve a vibration monitoring program without significant implementation costs.
Hardy enables you to communicate with the plant control system using analog or digital communications, including the following:
o Analog Output 4-20 ma (Transmittters, Signal Conditioners, Machine Monitors)
o ControlNet (HI 3600 System)
o Profibus (HI 3600 System)
o DeviceNet (HI 3600 System)
o Modbus TCP (HI 3600 System)
o OPC (HI 3600 System)
Hardy’s Network Communication options enable you to save on installation costs by running a single connection with all data, rather than multiple runs of analog signals.
For more information on tying vibration into a PLC, please reference the PLC Application Note.