Patent ID: 6839660

Claim:
A rotating equipment monitoring system for use in a process plant having rotational equipment comprising: a communication network; a plurality of sensors adapted to be mounted on or near the rotating equipment to measure parameters associated with the rotating equipment during operation of the rotating equipment and to produce data indicative of the measured parameters; and a diagnostic unit communicatively coupled to receive the data from each of the plurality of sensors, the diagnostic unit including; a processor; a memory; a diagnostic routine stored in the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to perform diagnostics using the data collected from the plurality of sensors to produce a first condition indication indicating a condition of the rotating equipment; and a communication interface adapted to be coupled to the communication network to send the first condition indication and the data over the communication network; a host computer connected to the communication network and receiving at least the first condition indication and responding to the first condition indication to produce commands for controlling the operation of the rotating equipment; a service provider computer connected to the communication network for receiving the data, for processing the data to determine the condition of the rotating equipment to produce a second condition indication, and for communicating the second condition indication to the host computer; and the host computer receiving the second condition indication from the communication network and being responsive thereto to selectively produce commands for controlling the operation of the rotating equipment.