In December 2021, Air Blow Fans installed an Automated Balancing System on a fan at a cement plant north-west of Pretoria. It is, to our knowledge, the first such system in operation in South Africa.
The universal active balancing system is designed to perform while the fan is running, which forestalls shutdowns and allows for maintenance schedules to be extended, resulting in lower plant downtime and greater profitability. The system, which is suitable for high speeds, is custom made for both shaft size and fan size. It can be both monitored and its parameters adjusted remotely.
For the first few months, the fan ran optimally until, suddenly, at the beginning of May 2022, fan vibrations spiked unexpectedly. ABF engineers were able to help the plant determine the cause of the vibrations (not related to impeller imbalance or blade damage, which would have triggered the balancing system). The incident, however, was the perfect opportunity to test the system in the weeks that followed.
ISO standards, for this size and power-rated fan, allow for maximum vibration limits below 4.5mm/s for long-term operation. In this particular case, we set the automatic balancing to start once vibrations reached 4mm/s (originally 5mm/s). Once triggered, the balancing process was completed in approximately 10 minutes. Vibration levels were brought down to below 1mm/s on both sides (DE and NDE) from the original high levels of above 3 and 4mm/s respectively.
ABF is delighted with the Balancer’s successful test in the real world. Please contact us to find out how we can help with all your fan balancing solutions.
Air Blow Fans: Efficient Gas Flow Technology by a Team of Innovators.
