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Bently Nevada's 3500 Shaft Absolute Measurement Now Available

For more information:
Jeff Rudd
Applications Engineer
Bently Nevada Corporation
1617 Water Street
Minden, NV 89423
Phone: 775-782-3611
Fax: 775-782-9253
E-mail: jeff.rudd@bently.com

 MINDEN, NEVADA, 6 October 1999 - Bently Nevada's 3500 Series Machinery Protection System represents the most advanced instrumentation currently available for continuous monitoring of critical machinery parameters and protective alarming functions. A particularly important application includes monitoring relevant machinery parameters on large steam turbines in power generation service. These are known as Turbine Supervisory Instrumentation (TSI) applications. With the release of shaft absolute monitoring capabilities, Bently Nevada's 3500 protection system now supports all necessary TSI measurements as follows:
  • Shaft radial vibration (shaft relative and shaft absolute) and position
  • Vector monitoring (important for early warning of shaft cracks)
  • Shaft axial position (thrust position)
  • Bearing absolute (seismic) vibration
  • Shaft eccentricity
  • Valve Position
  • Case Expansion
  • Differential Expansion (ramp, complementary, and standard)
  • Temperatures (bearings, casings, etc.)
  • Speed, rotor acceleration rates, and zero speed
  • Overspeed protection
  • Process variables (critical flows, pressures, levels, etc.)
The shaft absolute measurement is a new, configurable option for the 3500/42 monitor module, a generically programmable 4-channel card that is used to make other common vibration and position measurements. The shaft absolute measurement is frequently required on large steam turbines as an indication of the shaft's vibration relative to free space, and has value for both mechanical diagnostic purposes and for comparison with historical machinery data based on shaft absolute measurements.

In addition to its TSI functions, the 3500 Series System can be connected to Bently Nevada's communications processors for high-speed data acquisition and Data Manager® 2000 machinery management software. This effectively extends the machinery protection system to include continuous condition monitoring - a necessary part of asset management for critical machinery in today's highly competitive power generation markets.

Data Manager is a registered trademark of Bently Nevada Corporation

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