April 27, 2006 Maintenance Conference Tip
There a lot of different types of maintenance and reliability
conferences available these days.
Many look and sound alike with similar speakers and subjects, leaving maintenance and reliability professionals with selection criteria such as which dates are most convenient or which location suits them.
Other events are specialized in a single subject like
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Lubrication, Total
Productive Maintenance (TPM) or Predictive Maintenance
Technologies (PdM).
Still others are vertically oriented by industry such as power
generation, pharmaceutical, water/waste water, pulp and paper, petroleum refineries, or offshore platforms. These events are generally not focused when it comes to maintenance and reliability topics although some are.
User groups are another good alternative, although you want to make sure it is not a glorified sales pitch for the supplier products or software.
You can also look at the organizing body - is it an industry
association, a manufacturer/supplier, a university or college, a publication or a trade show company?
For a completely different perspective - perhaps you should
consider attending a maintenance and reliability conference in another country (hopefully one that shares your primary language skills). Canada, Australia, and the UK all offer excellent International conference choices for US residents.
The most important component is the content. Try to discover the actual “Voice” of the conference. If that voice speaks to your needs - it will probably be time well spent.
As with anything - developing goals for your conference
experience and creating a formal plan to achieve those goal will make the most of your time and travel investment.
Tip by Terrence O’Hanlon, CMRP
Reliabilityweb.com
Click here for the MaintenanceConference Preflight Checklist (45K PDF)
April 27, 2006 Balancing Tip
When balancing equipment where the length of the rotor is greater than twice its diameter, it may be necessary to divide the static and couple vibration. This will speed up the balancing job by solving each part of the problem individually instead of trying to do it all at once.
Tip provided by LUDECA, INC.
ALIGNMENT * VIBRATION * BALANCING
http://www.ludeca.com
Tel: 305-591-8935
iPresentation Tutorial: Balancing Basics (6 minutes)
April 27, 2006 An EAM trade-in offer that will set you free
The inefficiencies of your current EAM solution really have you pinned down. Worse yet, high costs coupled with annoying migration issues leave no wiggle room for future upgrades.
Let Avantis® set you free. For a limited time only, trade in 50% of your current EAM software licenses for the Avantis EAM solution. FREE. Take advantage of this offer for a fast and low risk move to Avantis.
April 27, 2006 Human Error Tip
“Mix-Ups” can result in human error and the results can be fatal. Sometimes the mind interprets information the way if feels that it should be, as opposed to the way that it is. This is very common in the medications that we take if that the names are very similar as well as the shapes and colors. It is very easy for us to take the wrong type frequency and dose of medications. We see many people today are supporting Lance Armstrong’s Cancer Foundation by purchasing the yellow wristbands that say “LIVESTRONG”. The public should be aware that in some hospitals around the country a yellow band indicates to the staff a “DNR” order. DNR stands for DO NOT RECESSITATE. Be aware that such mix ups can and do occur often.
Tip provided by the Reliability Center Inc.
Tel: 804-458-0645
http://www.reliability.com
April 27, 2006 Motor Testing Tip
Motor Testing Tip
Electrical Motor Maintenance: Predictive vs. Forensic
Predictive Maintenance is performing tests that will indicate or outright notify the operator of an impending failure in the winding, allowing us enough time to take a corrective action before the system degrades catastrophically. Forensic maintenance is that one that will tell us about the current status of a winding, already degraded beyond corrective action.
The term “Forensic Maintenance” comes from forensic medicine. You perform autopsy in cadavers to know what killed them.
Many motor tests are only good to tell us that something’s wrong after it happened. This is very important indeed, but may not very useful for preventing tomorrow’s problems. What most technicians need is a test that can predict a weak insulation like the surge test.
The surge test has 3 areas of operation: static, misuse and predictive. The “static” area goes from 0 volt to the voltage of operation. It detects shorts, like the forensic methods, wrong turn count, etc…
The “misuse” area goes from Voltage of Operation to Peak Voltage, this area is where most people that misuse the test will operate. It only detects problems like in the “static” area.
The “predictive” area goes from peak voltage to 2V+1000. Here is where this test is really useful. Finding a fault here will give the techs enough time to schedule a stop and replace, yet when the motor is started again, after finding the fault, it will run as usual.
Inductance, capacitance and resistance will only tell you when your winding is already dead. Surge will find a weakness before it turns into a winding deserving forensic maintenance methods.
Tip provided by Baker Instrument
Tel: (800) 752-8272
http://www.bakerinst.com
iPresentation Tutorial: Surge Voltage Distribution within Form Wound Motors (8 Minutes)
April 27, 2006 Change Management for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals Course on CD
Change Management for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals Course on CD
Companies initiate change programs all of the time. Some succeed but many more fail to accomplish their stated goals. Previous failure can make future efforts even more difficult due the employees becoming skeptical.
Of all types of change, reliability focused efforts are perhaps the most difficult to initiate and conduct. These initiatives often meet significant resistance because there are always those who did well working in a reactive maintenance environment. Lukewarm support is often the most that can be expected from those changing to the new reliability based approach. How a manager manages the change will be the difference between success and failure.
This self guided course teaches the basic skills required to break down the barriers encountered by reliability focused change efforts.
The course includes:
• Making your vision of a reliability focused future understandable and accepted
• Achieving the vision by use of the Goal Achievement Model
• Building your Roadmap of Change
• Becoming a non-linear thinker using spiral learning
• Understanding the role of teams
• Overcoming resistance
• Measuring your opportunities for improvement with the Web of Change
In addition you will learn about the Eight Elements of Change – leadership, work process, structure, group learning, technology, communication, interrelationships and rewards. You may have worked with one or more of these in the past, but this course shows you how to view and work with them as a global set of critical change elements.
April 27, 2006 Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Tip
A firefighting maintenance culture leads to skilled craftspeople that become incapable of identifying the Failure Modes of your components. The end result is a crew of component changers who now look to increase the speed at which they replace the failed component.
Reliability Centered Maintenance builds the skills of craftspeople and operators by instructing them how to identify the specific causes of failure. In understanding the specific causes of failure we can now look to detect, reduce, eliminate, or reduce the consequences of each failure.
April 27, 2006 Ultrasound Tip
Magnetic Probe Find Hydraulic Cylinder Leaks
Hydraulic cylinder leaks are caused by wear and tear, and contaminants. Particles lodge themselves between the wiper and the cylinder wall eventually causing the seal to. When a hydraulic ram shuts down it usually takes its process with it. Locating the leak fast is the key to restoring uptime.
Ultrasound inspectors are trained to pinpoint internal hydraulic leaks using either contact stinger probes or magnetic sensors. Under pressure, a good cylinder is quiet. Inside a leaking cylinder, hydraulic fluid flows, gurgles, and bubbles its way past the wiper seal at the point of the breach. Adjust the sensitivity of the detector to the highest level possible and position the magnetic sensor or contact probe on the barrel of the cylinder, close to the wiper. Be sure to listen on all sides of the cylinder to ensure nothing is missed. Take both dBµV and record sound files if a leak is suspected. Then, to confirm your findings compare this data against other similar cylinders in the same process.
Identifying hydraulic leaks ultrasonically can save several hours of labor by directing the repair to the correct area quickly.
This tip supplied by SDT North America
http://www.sdtnorthamerica.com
905-377-1313
April 20, 2006 Free 3D Balancing Demo Now Available
LORD Corporation – a leader in the management of motion, vibration and noise – has announced the availability of a customized 3D demonstration of its proven active balancing systems. Designed to showcase and visually depict LORD Corporation’s proprietary technology, the demonstration provides an overview of the active balancing process. The animation runs through a typical balance cycle and demonstrates how the LORD active balancing system will reduce unbalance by moving internal balance weights to the desired location to minimize the vibration.
For a copy of the 3D Balancing demo cd, email
Learn more about how LORD Balancing Systems can help reduce your unscheduled downtime
April 20, 2006 2 New Ultrasound Workshops by Jim Hall ULTRA-SOUND TECHNOLOGIES
June 13, 2006
Kennesaw, GA
Ultrasound 101: This workshop is meant for all levels of airborne ultrasound users. We will briefly cover theory of airborne ultrasound, today’s airborne ultrasonic instruments, applications and “Real World Applications” with case histories.
This promises to be fast paced and informative with hands-on demonstrations of detecting corona and arcing, bearing analysis, air leak detection and valve leak detection.
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June 14, 2006
Kennesaw, GA
Ultrasonic War Stories: With over 17 years experience within the airborne ultrasound industry, Jim Hall has comprised over 150 short stories covering different applications and procedures using airborne ultrasound. These short stories are informative and are sure to pique the interest of even a seasoned airborne ultrasound technician. Stories such as underground leak detection, heat exchanger leak detection, condenser leaks, acoustic lubrication, to name just a few.
Time will be given at the end of the day to discuss your short story and to share with others in an open forum.
