Seeing inside without opening up
Bearing wear monitoring system sensors are part of Kongsberg’s monitoring system
Kongsberg Maritime’s Bearing Wear Condition Monitoring (BWCM) system can help avoid open-up inspections, reducing engine downtime and maintenance costs.
The BWCM system, which has just gained Type Approval by Germanischer Lloyd, measures and displays the combined physical wear of crosshead, crank and main bearings, providing early bearing seizure warnings if problems occur during engine operation.
Its one of the Kongsberg engine monitoring systems, which consist of monitoring components covering bearing wear, water in oil, the temperature of all bearings and additional measuring points such as cylinder liner and exhaust gas temperature.
The BWCM protects the engine continuously during operation, based on the latest specifications from MAN Diesel & Turbo including detection of sudden wear development.
The sensors are specifically designed to provide reliable and accurate measurements over years of operation inside the engine.
Compared to manual clearance measurements, the BWCM will provide long-term wear data with better accuracy, higher repeatability and reliability. It monitors the combined wear of all three principal crank-train bearings at Bottom Dead Centre (BDC), using two proximity sensors (forward and aft) per cylinder.
The system will provide an alarm before steel to steel contact, therefore helping to avoid catastrophic engine failure and the associated HSE risk, costs and downtime.
Its also worth noting that the BWCM system, along with Kongsberg’s shaft earthing device and a computerised planned maintenance system is part of a class survey arrangement.
Kongsberg’s engine monitoring systems are of a modular design, with the various parts able to be configured and combined to suit individual needs. These individualised builds can then be integrated with Kongsberg K-Chief and AutoChief C20 system. As each module is fully compatible with each other it provides seamless information sharing and a consistent operation environment.
Essential components such as bearing wear sensors and wireless temperature sensors yield the best results that technology has to offer in terms of reliability, accuracy and durability. By utilising the CAN field bus protocol for engine instrumentation, installation costs are reduced and the quality of data processing enhanced.
Further, systems can be extended by adding additional hardware units such as operator stations, input/output modules and additional measuring points. These monitoring systems also offers signal acquisition and processing units for installation in ER cabinets, ECR consoles or mounted directly on the engine. Processing algorithms are executed within the local acquisition units or in the powerful controller units and, says Kongsberg, by distribution and segregation the consequences of a system fault are reduced - and may even be eliminated.
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