Smart Seals Making a Splash in the Cloud: Seals become Smart

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EagleBurgmann Germany GmbH & Co. KG

TURCK GmbH

EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft mbH

Energy production infrastructures are of great importance in view of current developments. The aim is to maximize the availability of oil and gas pipelines and reduce downtime. The introduction of smart technology for digitized monitoring of mechanical seals is a signifcant step forward.

Energy sources such as oil and gas are transported for hundreds or even thousands of kilometers through pipelines and numerous pump stations that enable the movement of raw materials. For this to function consistently and reliably, regular service and maintenance of the systems are essential. However, in practice, this quickly becomes a challenge: The great distances between the remote pump stations, which are mostly unmanned and difficult to access, leads to substantial effort in performing service work on site.

The idea of monitoring plants remotely, predicting service needs on time, and planning and bundling their deployment, is hence obvious. Whereas the digital and location-independent monitoring of pumps has been possible for some years now, control of the seals has still required regular cumbersome tests on site. In an increasingly digitalized world, this approach is no longer up-to-date, conclude seal experts Eagleburgmann.

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In a pilot project with a leading North American energy infrastructure company, the first Smart Seal Solution was put into operation, thereby creating the successful start for the use of digital sealing technologies.

In Control of the Pump Stations

The aim of the customer was to optimize operations in the unmanned pump stations on a pipeline for crude oil and as far as possible to prevent unforeseen failures. For this, the operating conditions of the installed mechanical seals were to be measured and analyzed continuously via sensors in order to be able to prematurely detect and rectify potential error sources.

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In particular, the temperatures of the sliding parts and the pressures in the seal chambers were to be monitored continuously to identify potential optimization to prevent damage to the seals and increase the MTBR (Mean Time Between Repair). To reduce the amount of work involved, the project would investigate location-independent monitoring, thereby gaining access to the measurement data from anywhere and reducing potential on-site maintenance to a minimum. Apart from all the requests regarding monitoring and digitalization, fulfilling the high operating requirements by means of the seal design was the fundamental stipulation. Seals and sensors must be able to unconditionally withstand the extreme operating conditions caused by the application as well as the ambient conditions. Ideally, existing sensors are retrofittable with the sensor measurement solution, and the data transmission can function regardless of the actual seal.

Collecting Data

The customer was already convinced of the quality and reliability of Eagleburgmann seals through earlier projects. Once again, the sealing technology experts were able to satisfy the client’s requirements with their newly developed Smart Seal Solution. To perform a test run, the customer installed four high-pressure single seals with the corresponding Smart Seal Monitoring Kit expansion.

The seals are engineered seals based on the company’s SH series, which is designed for extreme requirements and has proven itself in numerous pipeline applications. The customer-specific sealing solution is designed for shaft diameters from 140 mm to 155 mm, and if necessary can withstand pressures of up to 100 bar dynamic.

The expansion by means of the Smart Seal Monitoring Kit as a digital solution for condition monitoring enables the reliable, continuous collection and transmission of seal data to an online application that can be called up anytime and anywhere, thereby laying the foundation for intelligent condition monitoring and service.

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Pipelines Become Smart Networks

Pressure and temperature sensors installed in the seals record the data and transfer it to an external transmitter. From there, the data is sent wirelessly to a gateway. The system architecture is implemented by means of WirelessHART wireless sensor network technology and represents the current IT industry standard. It is available with all explosion protection certifications (e.g. ATEX, CSA, UL, IECEx). The Edge accommodates the required hardware for the necessary IoT gateway, via which the data is transmitted to the my Eagleburgmann cloud by means of the LTE mobile radio standard. The data can be accessed in the EB Smart Product Application. Here, measurement values and analyses are visualized graphically as well as clearly structured and made available in an appealing graphical user interface. Thanks to the cloud-based data storage, access is possible at any time and from anywhere as long as there is an existing mobile connection. The cloud solution fulfills the requirements of ISO 27001 for data protection and data security.

The recorded data is stored in the cloud for up to a year. This creates a comprehensive data history that allows comparative analyses from which detailed findings regarding the effects of different operating conditions on the seal performance can be derived. The download function offers the possibility of locally storing the data available at that time

Taking Fluidics Into the Cloud

An additional application called my Products is provided alongside the my Eagleburgmann cloud-based solution. Here drawings, operating instructions, certificates, service reports and other documents for the corresponding seal can be filed. This constant availability of all relevant documents offers the customer an easy overview and supports maintenance management.

Installation and commissioning of the first Smart Seal Solution in the pilot project were successful. “The installation of the new digitalized seal took place during a regular and scheduled seal exchange in one of the pump stations of the pipeline”, explains Florian Wasensteiner, Service Engineer IoT at the seal specialists. “In a first installation, the infrastructure for the sensor technology and the gateway communication must be newly established, something for which our support is perfectly trained. Necessary seal exchanges at a later point in time can still be done without increased effort either by our customer or one of our service engineers.”

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The integrated sensors reliably transmit high-quality data to the cloud. This data is regularly evaluated by Eagleburgmann Support together with the customer. In the future, customers can also perform these evaluations on their own upon request.

Just the Beginning for Smart Seals

Despite the fact that a retrofit with the EB Smart Seal Monitoring Kit is generally possible for many models, it is still always a special production that includes a corresponding engineering effort. To make things even easier in the future, the company is developing a new independent seal series that will enable access to digital monitoring solutions on a large scale. “Further developments are planned beyond that,” reveals Wasensteiner. “For example, we are utilizing our years of experience with regard to seal construction, design and verification to develop algorithms that will generate the state of the seal and findings regarding its behavior in an automated process in the future.”

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