Instantly Detects Dangerous Metal Particles In Lubricating Oil.

The owners of this ferry installed Metal Debris Detectors on all of its ferries after an engine failure. One of the larger ferries in the fleet suffered a serious crankshaft failure as a result of a clutch problem. The failure occurred in the high passenger season and resulted in many tens thousands of dollars in repair costs and loss of revenue.

After the repairs were complete, the marine superintendent installed Metal Particle Detectors on both main engines. Approximately one year later the Metal Particle Detector on the other engine indicated there was metal in the engine lubricating oil. The engine was immediately shut down.

The internal inspection of the engine revealed the initial signs of a thrust bearing failure. This is the same failure that had occurred on the other engine one year earlier.

The bearing shell was removed, the crankshaft journal only required cleaning. The vessel sailed on schedule with only a few hundred dollars in repair parts costs. Had this problem went undetected, the extent of the damage would probably be the same as the first fail failure with the same down time and the same high repair cost.

The marine superintendent later said “the detectors saved the day” (and his engine).

The CAT is a 91 meter high speed, wave piercing catamaran ferry, built by Incat in Australia and is powered by 4 Ruston RK270 marine diesel engines.
Each engine develops 9500 hp and 1000 rpm and drives water jets for propulsion at a speed of 43 knots (50 mph).

Each pontoon hull serves as an engine room and houses 2 main engines. Due to the high noise, heavy ship movements and limited space, all engine monitoring is performed outside the engine room by cameras and remote sensors.

As these engines operate at maximum horsepower and maximum speed, it is imperative that all operating parameters are closely monitored. The smallest problem can very quickly escalate into a major failure if not monitored and corrected.

Oil analysis is not an effective tool for the marine industry. Often it can be days or weeks before an oil sample can be sent ashore for analysis. This lag is too long, real time monitoring is the solution.

Metal Particle Detectors were fitted to all four engines to provide real time health monitoring for the detection of metal particles in the engines lubricating oil and have proven very successful in this task.

MetalAlert – Metal Particle Detectors were retrofitted on the Paxman VP185 main engines installed in the 135′, 280 passenger high speed catamaran. This vessel achieves 36 knots (45 mph) from the Paxman 12VP185, 6700 h.p. driving water jet thrusters.

As these are high performance engines and the vessel does not require an engineer, the engine protection system was upgraded be installing MetalAlert detectors on each engine. The controllers were interfaced with the existing SCADA system.

All marine engine users, whether they are fishermen or operators of large deep sea vessels, knows that an engine failure is very costly, not only in the cost of repairs but also the down time of the vessel.

Oil analysis is a terrific maintenance tool but when applied in the marine industry it has severe limitations ……. time.

The time between the oil sample is taken and it is received by the oil laboratory is critical when used to determine if is a component is in the first stage of failure. Sometimes this is only hours or minutes once the bearing or piston has started to fail.

MetalAlert – Metal Particle Detectors, will provide an immediate signal that excessive metal particles are present in the engines lubricating oil. MetalAlert will detect both ferrous and non-ferrous metals such as brass, bronze, aluminum, copper etc.

Early detection is the secret in limiting the extent of an engine failure.

This sewage treatment plant is one of 4 in a large North American City. The plant provides treatment of sewage collected from residents and businesses serviced by the plant. It was built in 1960 and the original engines were recently replaced with modern, high efficiency units. The engines utilize the gas from the sewage to produce electrical power that can be used in the sewage plant. The new engines are fully automated and are monitored remotely. Without an operator present to possibly detect a mechanical problem, it was important to ensure that should a problem occur, for example a bearing or piston failure, it would be immediately detected and corrective action could take place.

Metal Particle Detectors along with Caterpillar’s oil analysis, will identify the presence of metal particles in the engines lubricating oil.

MetalAlert is an exceptional pro-active maintenance tool for any size of diesel, gas engine or turbine used in prime power generation or marine applications. It is also ideally suited for emergency generators used for standby backup power in the event of an electrical power failure.

This is especially the case for emergency standby back up generators installed in hospitals, health care facilities as well as mission critical applications such as computer / data centres, communication facilities and hi-tech manufacturing plants.

One of Europe’s leading companies in the field of Landfill Gas Utilization, with over 60 MW of contracted capacity, recently installed MetalAlert – Metal Particle Detectors. The company operates and maintains all their own engines and has a dedicated maintenance team of field service personnel. As these engines operate without an operator on site, all engines are fitted with remote monitoring and a control telemetry link with head office.

It is imperative that any early signs of pending problems are very quickly identified.

To assist in the task, 2 MetalAlert Metal Particle Detectors were purchased for testing and evaluation. They were installed on Caterpillar 3500 series gas engines.

After many hours of operation, it was decided to install MetalAlert Metal Debris Detectors on additional engines and 20 detectors and controllers were ordered.

Early detection is the secret to reducing the extent of an engine failure.

In 2003, 12 Ruston 16 cylinder RK270 Diesel Generating sets were installed at an oil field processing plant in the Republic of Yemen. Each engine can produce 4.4 MW at 900 rpm and is one of the largest base load stations in the area.

It is critical to the operation of the plant that as many engines are available at all times. Unscheduled breakdowns are a great concern especially if the plants production has to reduced as a result of an engine failure.

To offset this problem, the engines are fully monitored both locally and remotely from the companies North American head quarters.

Metal Particle Detectors are installed on all 12 Ruston engines to ensure any failures are either prevented or the resulting damage is kept to a very minimum.