NATCOM commissions steam turbine vibration monitoring upgrade

NATCOM has commissioned a new vibration monitoring system on a Siemens steam turbine generator set, one of the most critical machines at a major petrochemical manufacturing plant in Egypt. The upgrade replaced the legacy Bently Nevada machinery protection system with Emerson AMS 6500 ATG.

Three engineers around an Emerson AMS 6500 ATG rack and test rig during Factory Acceptance Testing — Project engineers check the AMS 6500 ATG system during Factory Acceptance Testing at Emerson in Germany.

API 670 protection, tested before delivery

AMS 6500 ATG provides API 670-compliant machinery protection and diagnostics for the turbine generator. The system completed Factory Acceptance Testing in Germany before it was delivered to site.

Engineering and protection scope

NATCOM's engineering focused on simplifying the legacy setup. The scope covered:

The complete vibration monitoring system architecture and I/O allocation
Protection logic with voting schemes to improve trip reliability
Monitoring of the critical parameters: vibration, axial displacement and speed

New field instrumentation and HMI

The upgrade included new field probes and junction boxes. A dedicated HMI gives the plant real-time monitoring, alarm management, trend analysis, diagnostics and maintenance functions.

Three members of the project team outside Emerson's offices in Germany — Project team members at Emerson in Germany for Factory Acceptance Testing.

Engineers in hard hats at the new NATCOM vibration monitoring cabinet and HMI during site commissioning — Site commissioning of the new monitoring cabinet and HMI.

One scope from engineering to commissioning

The project combined engineering, system integration, field instrumentation, installation and commissioning under one NATCOM scope. It is another example of NATCOM working with customers to modernize the protection and monitoring of critical rotating equipment.

NATCOM thanks the customer's plant team, Emerson, and the NATCOM project team for their trust and collaboration. We look forward to seeing the long-term reliability and asset integrity benefits of the upgrade on this turbine generator.

Discuss your machinery protection upgrade

Send NATCOM the machine details, your current protection system and the scope you need to address. Our team can assess the engineering, integration and site work for the upgrade.