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A large petrochemical complex in the UK uses four Bently Nevada 3500 Series machinery protection systems on three
critical machines. The 3500 racks are linked to System 1™ software for condition monitoring. Also linked to
System 1 are the facility’s Snapshot™ portable data collectors encompassing 2500 points on 800+ general
purpose machines, and a Trendmaster® Pro system to address 70+ essential machines. During the commissioning
phase of the plant, two electric motor-driven pumps were found completely wrecked in the morning after systems
were tested during the night. When looking into the data captured by System 1 on these machines, it was found
that they had run at 7000 RPM in the reverse direction. The customer concluded that fluid must have run backwards
through the pumps, causing this reverse rotation, and immediately suspected the check valves as the probable
cause. When the check valves were inspected, the customer found the housings were empty. Without this essential
information, both pumps would have been replaced with spares from stock, but the scenario would have reoccurred.
Total cost of savings by preventing another set of pumps from being wrecked was 40,000 euros.
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