Avoiding Unplanned Downtime with Current Monitoring

A large paper mill has several large electric pumps that are critical to the manufacturing process. These pumps are a mixture of new and old, with the older ones being difficult to replace. Maintenance was tasked with implementing condition monitoring to alert the facility of impending problems before they led to machine failure.

The maintenance team chose to monitor the current of several critical motors, including the older large pump motors as well as brand new pump motors. For these motors, the mill used 600 Amp transformers (BWA-Current-Transformer-600A). After monitoring several motors, the maintenance team was able to establish a baseline of normal current draw for each one.

After about three months, one of the current transformers on a large pump motor detected that it was drawing current well above the established baseline. Inspection revealed a malfunctioning downstream valve was causing an increased load on the motor, resulting in the abnormal current draw. The malfunctioning valve had not been monitored, so the increased load on the motor could have led to overheating and eventual motor failure. After determining the source of the problem, the maintenance team was able to replace the faulty valve during scheduled shut down and get the equipment back online without incident.