Smart maintenance

Jon Lawson

Phil Burness explains how an innovative support programme delivers intelligent maintenance at a Mediterranean oil terminal

The worldwide independent provider of energy storage, VTTI, has awarded a client support programme (CSP) contract to Rotork for the maintenance of critical valve actuation assets at the VTTV oil storage terminal in Cyprus.

Approximately 400 Rotork IQ3 actuators controlled by Rotork Pakscan two-wire digital networks that manage the flow of media throughout the terminal have been covered on the ‘tailor-made’ CSP contract. The programme exploits the functionality of intelligent IQ3 technology with remote diagnostics and monitoring of actuator dataloggers, enabling preventative maintenance to be organised with little or no interruption to plant operations.

Looking in detail at the data provided by the actuators for preventative maintenance purposes, the valve and actuator usage log incorporates a record of total turns, average torque, total operations, total motor run time and maximum starts per hour. This information is supported with data for time-stamped alarms and user selectable limits for hi torque, hi-hi torque and number of torque trips. The full event/error log records time-stamped commands and basic alarms, whilst all alarms are independently recorded in the error log.

Data stored in the actuator also includes valve seating profiles along with the latest and average torque profiles. The torque profiles provide valuable information on the condition of the valve. This is supported by trend log profiles selectable from 24 hours up to five years, together with logged data on temperature, starts per hour and average positions. In this context the Namur107 standard helps the operator by enabling the selection of the most important alarms from a predefined list. For each alarm, one of four categories of importance can be selected, ranging through Failure, Out of Specification, Function Check and Maintenance.

Identification information stored

For positive identification, a full description of the actuator (virtual nameplate, hardware, installed software and installed options) is also stored and can be displayed. This is complemented by information about the valve, encompassing the type, size, manufacturer, installation date, serial number, tag number, service temperature and location. The logged data is completed by the inclusion of details of the service history including factory acceptance date, commissioning date, last inspection date and service notes.

The Rotork CSP involves regularly monitoring the current health and operable status of every actuator, keeping a full history of all activities performed and any parts used since the previous report. The information is analysed to provide a breakdown of critical, medium and low priority scheduled work and any corresponding unexpected work activities. Analysis also provides trending of actuator availability and reliability against agreed target costs and historical operating data as compared to agreed key performance indicators. Ongoing technical support further contributes to increased availability, reliability and improved performance.

The local support of Rotork’s Cyprus office assisted the original commissioning of the equipment at VTT Vasiliko and now strengthens the asset management and maintenance functions provided by the CSP.

For more information visit www.engineerlive.com/iog

Phil Burness is director of Site Services at Rotork.

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