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Maintenance engineers charged with monitoring conditions of critical joints in industries where pressure and flow paint the profit picture—such as refineries, offshore and marine, and power generation—have long wished the conversation about equipment failure could start where it all truly begins: at the bolt level. Now it can.
A new system employs a wireless sensor that detects and collects the tension level in a bolted joint then relays the data to a facility’s condition monitoring/SCADA system.
The revolutionary device comes from Valley Forge & Bolt, maker of SPC4® fasteners, which embody a proprietary load indicating technology that measures the elongation of the bolt (in other words, the bolt tension), directly from inside the fastener. Because stretch is the force that creates clamp load, this capability makes SPC4® the most accurate method available to monitor the clamp load of critical joints. The measurements are made directly or remotely attaching any one of a family of fully interchangeable meters. The choice of meter is either application specific or is designed to maximize performance based on environmental conditions.
Ideal for refineries, power and processing environments, the company’s new UHF Band RTM™ Meter is a wireless bolt monitoring system and the latest addition to the company’s Remote Tension Monitoring series of meters compatible with SPC4®.
There are several scenarios in which the UHF Band RTM™ Meter’s capabilities will pay dividends for users: The first is the meter facilitates close monitoring of new fasteners during and immediately after install. The early hours after an initial tightening sequence are often critical to long-term performance since an unexpected loss of tension can affect bolt life. Then, after installation, maintenance personnel can program the sensor to take measurements at prescribed intervals and send alerts if a bolted joint deviates from selected tension parameters.
Valley Forge & Bolt’s head of engineering and business development James Brooks explains, “Maintenance can set the reading intervals for rapid readings down to once every second, or for every 10 minutes. He or she can see immediately if a fastener is losing tension and correct it. And, conversely,” he adds, “after enough time has passed and they are satisfied that the tension is holding, the manager can quickly and remotely adjust the reading intervals to be further apart.”
Managers can also program alert windows during “interest” periods, such as times of suspected greater vibration in a process, to gauge how fasteners are reacting. In the long term, all bolts can be set to broadcast alerts when a chosen tension threshold is crossed.
“Select a tension percentage that is close to your application’s danger or alert zone,” says Brooks. “If needed, a window with upper and lower tension percentage limits can be created. An alert can be sent as an email or as an audible alarm. The user has total flexibility.”
The UHF Band RTM™ Meter and its resulting proactive versus reactive maintenance has the potential to eliminate millions of dollars in equipment failure.
With a web-based user interface, users can change parameters for each wireless sensor remotely. “These features have never before been available in a wireless bolting product. This device is a real game changer.” Brooks says.
This is the newest invention from a company that has been innovating since its founding four decades ago. Valley Forge & Bolt was the first to change the conversation about controlled bolting, moving it away from less reliable torque torque-based bolt control to tension-based—the more accurate way to gauge and protect the overall health of critical joints.
First came the launch of Maxbolt®, the earliest fastener with onboard visual tension-based indication. Next, SPC4® and its series of meters that provided options on how to read and record tension from within the bolted joint. SPC4® fasteners are fully compliant with and are included in the ASTM Standard Specification F2482: Load-Indicating Externally Threaded Fasteners.
The first meter was a simple attachable analog device. Now there’s a full menu of meters to suit any application. “As we innovate, we’ve added a series of in-situ electronic meters that include handheld, wired and wireless options,” says Brooks. “Wireless began a Wi-Fi standard 2.4 gig meter then moved right up to the UHF Band RTM Meter.” It operates in 433/868/915 MHz frequencies, which includes the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) frequency.
The innovation continues at Valley Forge & Bolt, with the release of a new Maxbolt® product expected in 2021. The company reports an intrinsically safe UHF Band RTM™ Meter is also in development. Stay tuned for more conversation-shifting innovations from Valley Forge!
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