Condition Monitoring Top 10
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Condition Monitoring Top 10 - Biggest Bang for Your Buck
- 10 – Train a mechanical Thermal Imaging and Ultrasonics Specialists
- 9 – Train a Lube Patch Testing Specialist
- 8 – Train a Performance Monitoring and Online Process or Machine Monitoring Specialists
- 7 – Train an electrical Thermal Imaging, Ultrasonics and TEV Specialist
- 6 – Train an NDT, Materials and Wear Monitoring Specialist
- 5 – Train a Condition Monitoring Program Analyst/ Strategist
- 4 – Train a Bearing Installation, Laser Alignment, Bolt Tightening, Electrical Connections, Tolerance Measuring, Sealing & Gasket, etc Specialist
- 3 – Train a Lube Management, Lube Sampling and Lube Analysis Specialist
- 2 – Train a Vibration Monitoring Specialist
- 1 – Increase the rigour and discipline for Equipment Inspections (Look, Listen and Feel)
1 – Increase the rigour and discipline for Equipment Inspections
The easiest way to get more ‘Bang for your Buck’ from condition monitoring is to ensure CM technicians are looking for other equipment problems both with the equipment they are monitoring and more widely for other equipment and systems in the area. When this is done rigorously the technician should normally find more ‘look, listen & feel’ type faults than from the specific CM routine they are performing. The ability to ‘see’ equipment faults is related to the level of knowledge about the equipment being inspected and so learning more about the equipment in your area should be encouraged. The more you understand the more problems your find. The faults found significantly increase the value of the CM routine to a business. A good part of the benefits of CM come from the rigour and discipline by which it is carried out. Often non CM inspection systems suffer from poorer rigour and discipline and so improving this can also create much larger business benefit.
2 – Train a Vibration Monitoring Specialist
Vibration monitoring is a must do for rotating equipment greater than 400 rpm and is often relevant for lower speed rotating equipment. The payback in equipment reliability and repair cost from using vibration data collector technology has been proven for the last 25 years. The most important monitoring performed is directly after machine commissioning or after any disassembly style repair. If your vibration monitoring is performed by an external contractor then a local technician should be at least trained up in use of a vibration pen or another simple vibration meter to do basic start-up tests. Where routine monitoring with a data collector system can’t be justified for lower criticality equipment, then monitoring with a vibration pen with trending or at least alarm levels will produce significant benefits. If the technician is trained to ISO 18436-2 Category 1 standard they will also understand enough to be able to decide how to best utilise the time of an external CM contractor.
3 – Train a Lube Management, Lube Sampling & Lube Analysis Specialist
Lubrication is such a key requirement for most equipment, having a technician well trained in Lube Management, Lube Sampling & Lube Analysis is a huge opportunity as it is often done poorly. The information, training and expertise required to achieve significant business gains are readily available. It is recognised in many organisations that there needs to be a Lube Technician role and that these people need substantial training. Lubrication is also an area that many people are often involved in and so having someone who acts as a Lubrication Specialist who trains and supports other is vital. For machinery where lubrication oil plays a substantial role, for example gearboxes and hydraulic systems, effective Lube Monitoring is critical to maintain reliability.
4 – Train a Bearing Installation, Laser Alignment, Bolt Tightening, Electrical Connections, Tolerance Measuring, Sealing & Gasket, etc Specialist
The most vital tool for condition monitoring to achieve improvements in equipment reliability is by improving repair precision and addressing the causes of machinery problems. The most efficient way to do this is to train a specialist who can train up and support other maintenance and operations people on the job.
5 – Train a Condition Monitoring Program Analyst/ Strategist
If any faults found could be easily and quickly fixed by the technician, then it should be encouraged to fix on the spot. This is as long as it does not make completion of the routine unlikely. They should be reported as ‘Found & Fixed’ faults. There should be a standardised and disciplined approach to reporting machine faults and problems. Reporting, KPI’s
6 – Train an NDT, Materials and Wear Monitoring Specialist
Materials issues and the deterioration of materials through wear and cracking is key cause of failure and reliability problems for many industries. Non-Destructive Testing techniques such as Mag Particle and Ultrasonics on materials are key for detection of cracking and monitoring of wear in equipment. There are a wide range of very sophisticated NDT techniques and lots of material technologies available that can be of great benefit. Having someone with training in these technologies so that opportunities for their use can be recognised and coordinated can be very important.
7 – Train an electrical Thermal Imaging, Ultrasonics and TEV Specialist
Thermal imaging of electrical systems in plants has now become a standard and historically has been carried out by specialist contractors due to the expense of the Thermal Imaging (TI) cameras. Expense of cameras is no longer an issue and every plant should have one and the best time to use TI is directly after any repair work to feedback to tradespeople errors in electrical connections etc. A good partner to TI is ultrasonic noise monitoring as it can detect arcing, corona and tracking issues and can find problems where components are hidden from a TI inspection. For High Voltage electrical systems faults often produce radio frequency noise and well as ultrasonic noise and using a TEV instrument (Transient Earth Voltages) to detect this electromagnetic noise is well proven. High voltage systems are often a key areas for use of these relatively simple monitoring technologies as failures often have a severe business impact and it is easy to justify training up someone in these key techniques.
8 – Train a Performance Monitoring and Online Process or Machine Monitoring Specialists
Most machinery and process monitoring computers are designed to give information useful for operators, who usually have a very short term focus. Information that indicates the longer term deterioration of equipment condition is often missed or ignored. Having these computers produce trends and alarm for maintenance use is often relatively simple, especially at the design stage. This could be as simple recording the number of alarms that occurs each shift. Or it could be more sophisticated such as a performance parameter from recording a standard slowdown time for a breaking system. Another option that has been used successfully in the mobile equipment area is to record instances of poor operating practices or abuse of the equipment. Key for success is to have a standard process for the review of this data by the appropriate maintenance person. This technique of better utilising information in process or machinery computers for maintenance aligns itself very well with performance testing of machinery. Having someone who is trained and has responsibility for this area can be very important for many businesses.
9 – Train a Lube Patch Testing Specialist
Patch Testing of lubricating oil is one of the most successful oil analysis techniques. It provides a visual analysis technique for checking both oil contamination levels and the amount of debris in the oil from wear and other faults that can lead to failure. Patch Tests provide a very practical approach to quantity oil contamination levels of oil and drive improvements in filtration, which can have a dramatic effect on equipment reliability. Patch testing can be carried out in laboratory tests or on-site. On-site Patch Testing is very useful for situations where information is required for urgent machine diagnostics or for managing the application of mobile filter carts.
10 – Train a mechanical Thermal Imaging and Ultrasonics Specialists
Both heat and noise are common symptoms of mechanical problems. Thermal Imaging and Ultrasonics can both be used together for non-contact monitoring of operating equipment and are especially useful when there are a large number of separate machine components such as in conveyors. They are both are technologies that are useful for detecting efficiency and energy loss and so a person trained in their use would be key to an organisations program for reduction of energy use. Ultrasonics is specifically usefully of detecting compressed air or gas leakage and for finding internal leakage in valves and steam traps.
Article by Peter Todd Industrial Maintenance Facilitator NSW
