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It’s not trivial to display or attend these conferences. The time and travel costs are very real and seem to be increasing annually, but the knowledge transfers are significant. It may be nothing more than a casual conversation with a long-lost friend or a work colleague in front of a display that sparks a conversation regarding a common problem. The gathering of people, vendors and end users alike, in a common venue, creates a mechanism within which solutions are created. Sometimes the solution comes via a Roundtable discussion, sometimes it comes through a vendor’s fix for a problem that was unknown prior to the discussion.
A number of our products have been solutions for problems we didn’t know existed. For example, our Engine Balancing System was devised after we were told by an end user (during a presentation on our Compressor Monitoring System) that, “He didn’t have trouble with his compressors… Come back when you have something reasonably priced that can take care of my engines”. Four months later, ProBalance and ProBalance Plus were born.
Similarly, our Sentinel-CPM has been a tab on many compressor engineers’ wish list for years, but the components and software have long been plagued with bugs and erroneous alarms. In that light, our opinion has always been that a live analyst was much more effective. Unfortunately. many experienced analysts are retiring, and companies are having difficulties finding qualified individuals to replace them. Time and the job market are changing the complexion of this business, and many stations, especially in remote locations no longer have the luxury of an analyst visit. A new problem, hence the creation of the Sentinel-CPM (Compressor Performance Monitor).
Offering a real-time compressor monitor has been done to various levels of success, but we have incorporated ACI’s eRCM Kernal, now the industry standard in thermodynamics calculations for use in the compressor performance calculations. We compare those theoretical values to the measured (or indicated) values to denote the relative health of the machine, all of which basically follows the industry standard. What we do differently is to apply Warren Laible’s expertise and several sets of algorithms that he has written to provide a multi-factor authentication prior to any alarms. For instance, to the novice, a crank-end suction valve leak might appear as a packing leak, but by comparing temperatures, shape of the phased P-V Curve, etc. the experienced analyst can deduce the actual problem, and frequently the severity. Our system, Warren’s algorithms, and software provide that functionality.
As our friends know, we are constantly growing our business, creating solutions as new problems are brought to our attention. If you have a problem, we may have a solution, and if we don’t, we just might invent one. ~ Bryan
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