LubeWatch™

Oil expense is the #1 operational cost for compressor owners and operators.

The LubeWatch smart app is designed to provide continuous monitoring of compressor’s divider block lubrication rates. Adding LubeWatch to a Monico PLUS Gateway™ for lubricant condition monitoring provides both local and remote confirmation of reciprocating compressor lubrication rates. A local interface provides immediate feedback for pump adjustment while a remote alarm interface notifies the user when the lube rate is either over or under the current desired rate.

LubeWatch™ for Lubruicant Condition Monitoring

Over lubrication can lead to valve deposits and breakage, premature packing failure and downstream contamination and measurement error while under lubrication causes increased maintenance costs and potential emissions compliance issues.

Features:

• Desired lube rate pre-calculated per manufacturer recommendations or user configurable; both speed adjusted
• Custom configured for each divider block
• Replaces current no flow device; battery-free and solid state
• Local adjustment via PC display and remote alarm notification
• Lube rate logging correlated with compressor and/or engine

Benefits:

• Save on lube oil expense
• Reduce oil carryover in gas stream
• Help prevent catastrophic failure due to under lubrication
• No replacement cost of no flow device and their batteries
• Complete system data logging promotes system-wide diagnostics
• Help ensure emissions compliance

Optional Features:

• Permanently installed touch-screen HMI interface

• Local visual alarms

• Hand held, portable display

How LubeWatch Works

The Monico PLUS Gateway measures the time between pulses on each bank, or side, of a compressor through our custom proximity switches and MonicoView II software. Through this data gathering, the smart app can calculate the lubrication rate in pints per day or gallons per day as well as show the seconds per pulse or pulses per minute. All of this allows LubeWatch to deduce how much oil is flowing through a compressor on any given day.

Each LubeWatch app comes pre-configured with a lubrication set point designed to meet the industry standard. This set point is based on engine RPM, and can be adjusted based on performance and owner/operator preferences.

Under Lubrication and Over Lubrication

Knowing the amount of lubricant being used on a compressor allows for two things: prevention of shutdown because of under lubrication and wasted money due to over lubrication.

If a compressor is under lubricated, maintenance costs are going to increase exponentially. To put it very simply, without proper lubrication parts wear out much more quickly causing the need for replacement. To replace any parts, you will need to completely shut down the compressor, causing work to stop and money to be lost. Additionally, you will likely have damage to other parts throughout the compressor, and there is the added potential for emissions issues as well.

When over lubricated, a compressor may continue to function well. But there is still a cost, and it adds up to hundreds of dollars per week. The break in rates for most natural gas compressors is 150 to 180% of the needed level at a normal operating rate. If you have not adjusted that setting, you’re using between 1.5 and 1.8 times the oil you need. Added to oil expense, which is the #1 operating expense compressor owner/operators list, you add the expenses associated with valve deposits and breakage, premature packing failure and error and downstream contamination and measurement error.

You can read more information about lubrication in natural gas compressors and other machinery on the Machinery Lubrication website.

What is Real Time Actionable Intelligence™?

Real Time Actionable Intelligence™ refers to our ability to combine local data acquisition with on-board data analytics to provide an enhanced condition monitoring for the industrial market; condition monitoring with an ‘edge.’ By collecting, analyzing, storing and trending equipment data we create intelligence that can not only alert users to the need for immediate action, but also answer questions about future performance. In a field that currently has a shortage of experienced technicians, this allows for less people to accomplish more. This is the best of condition monitoring- averting problem in real time and preventing issues in the future while saving on manpower.