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>> Yorkshire Water Utilise Sensdata V-belt Maintenance System In Pursuit Of Operating Excellence

Yorkshire Water Utilised Sensdata V-belt Maintenance System In Pursuit Of Operating Excellence

Yorkshire Water manages the collection, treatment and distribution of water for over 4.7m people and 140,000 companies. It processes 1.24 billion litres of drinking water per day and its assets include 120 reservoirs, 40,000 miles of pipes and 700 water and wastewater facilities.

Everything the company does is geared towards improving efficiency and providing the best possible service and value for money to customers. One of the ways the company does this is through ensuring that its machinery is operating to its optimum capability, with monitoring and preventative maintenance playing a big part in achieving this goal.

To run many of Yorkshire Water¹s assets, V-belts are used. V-belts are everywhere; in pumps, compressors, fans, and many other drive systems. As with any piece of machinery, wear and tear over time can have a diminishing effect on performance. Even the most efficient v-belt will waste energy due to hysteresis losses from bending stresses in the belt, friction, and drag from the belt moving through air. In a newly-installed belt in top condition these losses are typically low, and are usually below 2%, but as the belt ages the losses can rise, leading to worsening efficiency and losses of energy.

As part of its continuous drive to ensure it remains the best water company in the UK, Yorkshire Water was keen to ensure that a system was in place to monitor V-belt efficiency and alert the company to any slippage that could lead to operating inefficiencies.

Ilyas Dawood, Research & Development Engineer - Energy is part of Yorkshire Water¹s R&D department with the remit to look at innovations, including any energy savings ideas. Dawood said: “We have hundreds of thousands pounds worth of assets, and it’s crucial that we have these working optimally in order to help us drive down operating costs and help us to continue to offer customers fantastic value for money. Inspections, whilst very important, are very labour and time intensive. Therefore when local company Sensdata contacted us with a compelling proposal to reduce energy costs by monitoring our V-belts, we were keen to understand more.”

Cost benefits of effective energy monitoring

An initial feasibility study was set up at Yorkshire Water’s Caldervale Waste water treatment site in West Yorkshire. As part of the water processing procedure, Caldervale uses eight Archimedes screws to transfer incoming wastewater to treatment processes.

The Sensdata V-belt drive monitoring system was set up to study two of these screws. Each screw had a number of V-belts connecting the drive to the motor. Sensdata’s monitoring system is a microcontroller, which takes data from sensor inputs and derives a figure for the differential speed of the drive and load connected by the V-belts. Importantly, the differential speed component, if significant, is mostly due to irregular belt slip. The microcontroller is also equipped with an intelligent algorithm which determines the running state of the transmission system. The algorithm is capable of distinguishing between working slip (mandatory) and fault slip (energy wasting) which is determined by analysing dynamic slip phenomena. Based on several parameters, the algorithm evaluates the required maintenance action which is then encoded and transmitted, in what can be a variety of formats and protocols.

Together, Sensdata and Yorkshire Water monitored the V-belts, 24 hours a day, over several weeks to understand when and the amount of slip generated at particular times. This data was captured and computed, and indicated in real time.

Sewage flow trend follows a diurnal pattern with distinct peaks. Sensdata¹s findings showed that the slips followed these peaks exactly.

Dawood said: “The monitoring equipment was easy and straight forward to use. We calculated the energy wasted from just one screw to be approximately 0.1%, which is the overhead incurred in using V-belts in these systems.”

If the belts wear and slip in the way that is expected, based on general professional opinion from previous research into V-belts, then Yorkshire Water could expect each of its four screws to lose up to 3% in wasted energy due to a slipping V-belt.

Business partnership

Working with a practical and positive company was a key point for Dawood: “We were happy working with Sensdata as they were proactive. We got regular feedback and progress reports and they were good at taking on new ideas and suggestions.”

Maintenance saves money

Effective condition monitoring on V-belts will assist the company to further increase its operating efficiencies and help the company in its aim to provide customers with a fantastic value for money service. Without proper and regular condition monitoring, companies tend to change a V-belt as a matter of course on an inspection visit, whether it is required or not. If the belt was in fact in an acceptable condition, then this unnecessary change wastes the cost of the belts installation and time taken. For a typical drive system, with four to six belts, this job can take two people around an hour. The total cost of the change depends on the cost of plant labour and spare parts yet can be assumed to be in the region of £200. The figures provided by the Sensdata system overcome this problem with accurate and timely information that will enable Yorkshire Water engineers to determine which belts are slipping and are in need of maintenance.

Integration into supervisory control system

The next stage is for Sensdata to write the protocols so the monitoring system will integrate into a SCADA system. This will mean that the SCADA software will decode the maintenance information so that an engineer can observe the state of all transmission systems from a single application if required. Any slip and energy loss are highlighted directly through the SCADA system and the engineer can decide on the appropriate maintenance actions.

Dawood said: “For us, having a link into our SCADA system is a proactive way of managing our maintenance. It is easier to monitor because the data is integrated into a single system. In general, we believe that there will be more energy saved if similar monitoring devices are fitted to our M&E assets”

The next stage in the study will be for Yorkshire Water to trial the commercial product fitted to a further three units; two pumps and one Activate Sludge Process Blower pump. The R&D department will take these results and the Sensdata commercial product and build a business case for a company-wide monitoring system roll out. This could mean implementation on thousand of other mechanical and electrical assets such as, pumps, compressors and hundreds of blowers and screw pumps.

Dawood concluded: “This project offers us the possibility to take a more proactive stance to mechanical and electrical maintenance and could lead to substantial operating cost in its aim to decrease energy costs and operate assets effectively. Any organisation looking to save money on their energy bills should investigate Sensdata¹s V-belt monitoring systems. The savings that can be made, will very quickly add up.”

Further information about the SensSlip V-Belt Monitoring System

The SensSlip V-Belt Monitoring is designed and manufactured by Sensdata Ltd. Please contact us for sales information regarding the SensSlip system, or to discuss the benefits of v-belt monitoring in a specific industrial application. Tel: 0114 2015727 or alternatively, Email: postmaster@sensdata.com