Damage Investigations

Machinery damage can happen at any time and to any machine. According to insurance calculations the chance of a catastrophic loss equal to the complete plant value is typically greater than 1% for each machine, every year.

Once an operating problem or damage does occur it is essential to investigate the cause of damage as fully as possible to ensure that no further damage is done, that future damages can be avoided and that the current repair procedure can be optimized. Damage investigations such as these are not just useful for machine operators but also serve the interests of the original manufacturer, insurance companies and third-party suppliers e.g. packagers and overhaul companies.

Turbo Monitoring offers independent damage investigation services that investigate vibration problems on turbomachinery. Our expertise in this area includes diagnosing live problems during operation as well as assessing vibration data and machine condition post-damage.

Our services are applicable to all stakeholders in helping them understand the cause of damage, their liability and recommending measures for future risk mitigation.

Typical Damage Investigations

High Vibration
Unbalance
Shaft Cracks
Foundation Changes
Blade Fractures

Shaft Bending & Rubbing
Component Resonance and Modal Analysis
Overhaul & Maintenance Errors
Gearbox Irregularities
Bearing Instability

We are independent from turbine manufacturers and other suppliers, which is key to our ability to deliver unbiased analysis results. This is particularly important in damage investigations, where there are often conflicting parties involved and the independent credibility of investigation results is very important.

Our independent results are trusted by all the major manufacturers, operators and insurance companies and we work hard to maintain good working-relationships with the key industry players. As independent experts our role often includes mediating on technical issues between all stakeholders.

Turbine blade shroud damage

Failure Examples

Our expert knowledge and good industry contacts also mean we have first-rate knowledge of damage trends within the turbomachinery industry. This means we can quickly determine if a machine is suffering from a known serial fault and we can quickly advise you of the best remedial action with regards to repairs and suppliers.

Furthermore, if your machine is covered by one of our continuous condition monitoring or scheduled measurement contracts we can quickly inspect the machine’s long-term trend data to determine the exact start-time of the damage occurrence, correlate this with the maintenance schedule and the overall plant condition and compare the current damaged operating condition with previous analysis measurement results to determine the exact nature and timing of the machine degradation. This leads to an even quicker diagnosis and shorter shutdown times.

For more information or to start an initial consultation contact us now.