June 12, 2008
Vibration Tip
Sensor Mounting Tip
When mounting for permanent applications it is important that the surface where the sensor is to be mounted be adequately prepared. Start by using a wire brush to eliminate any dust, paint or rust particles. Then, using a rag soaked in an approved cleaning agent, clean the area of any oils or grease which would prevent a good bond of the adhesive between the sensor and the machine. Use a sufficient amount of the approved adhesive and make sure you fill any voids in the contact area. Wear gloves to protect your skin and mold or contour the adhesive with your fingers around the sensor and mounting area. This will ensure good adhesion and improve the sensor’s performance.
Tip provided by LUDECA, INC.
ALIGNMENT * VIBRATION * BALANCING
http://www.ludeca.com
Tel: 305-591-8935
June 12, 2008
Lawson Offers Asset Management Report
The Asset Management Report “Benchmarking Enterprise Asset Management in Manufacturing” is based on an Aberdeen Group survey of 190 manufacturing enterprises and compares different asset management techniques.
The report analyses the success of these management methods and provides recommendations and steps to success.
June 12, 2008
Ultrasound Tip
This tip is about how to deal with competing ultrasound and/or background noise, using the ultrasonic instrument, frequency tuning and working with barriers to help you locate air leaks, etc…
You walk onto the plant floor, you have earplugs in your ears, the noise is loud. 80, 90, 95 decibels! You think to yourself there is no way an ultrasound receiver can pick- up any leaks in this area. Wrong! Airborne ultrasound receives high frequency sound. That’s sound above 20 kHz. You and I listen in low-frequency below 18 kHz. What’s noisy to you and I is not to the ultrasonic receiver. Air leaks are typically heard in the 38-42 kHz range. Most airborne ultrasound instruments are centered at 38-40 kHz plus or minus 2 - 10 kHz depending upon the manufacturer. However, most ultrasonic instruments in the marketplace can hear air leaks, but only a few have the ability in a noisy environment to hear the leak from any reasonable distance.
Sometimes even with the top of the line instrument when trying to locate low-level leaks you need to know how to deal with background noise.
For instance you have a manifold with multiple leaks, using a glove on one hand to block other leaks or competing sounds is a great idea. Using a piece of cardboard to block sounds works well. Ultrasound does not pass through a solid!
When performing a leak audit in your plant, maybe your near the compressor and you have multiple leaks, try and place your body between the leaks and the compressor. Use your body as a “barrier” between you and compressor. Hold the ultrasonic instrument in front of your body keeping the instrument from waist to chest high with your elbows close. Of course the wider your girth the more effective you can be. This will aid you in locating those leaks without the competing ultrasonic sounds interfering with locating those leaks.
You have an air leak that sounds like its coming from a blank wall? Put your back to the wall and scan top to bottom and side to side. Ultrasound travels in a straight line, you should be able to locate the source.
Let’s say your plant is one those extremely noisy plants, 85-90 decibels. Here’s where an ultrasound instrument with frequency tuning is really helpful. Place the headphones over your ears then point the instrument towards your nose. Start breathing through your nose (mouth shut), at the same time lower or raise the frequency on your unit until the sound from your nose is “sharp” with little or NO ambient background sounds. At this time if you look at the frequency setting you should find yourself in the 38-42 kHz. Fine tuning the instrument in this manner before walking onto the shop floor will aid you in finding the leaks quickly.
Tip provided by James Hall
Ultra-Sound Technologies
phone: 770-517-8747
June 12, 2008
Top 10 Common Sense Fallacies in Maintenance
Maintenance Fallacy #8
Full utilization of one’s CMMS/EAM is an impossible task.
Maintenance Fallacy – Full utilization of a CMMS / EAM is not required. A good maintenance manager can walk through his/her plant and tell if everything is ok or not. One connection all of these organizations have in common is they are all totally reactive and their companies loose large amounts of money everyday but never know it. They probably tried layoffs in the past and cut off funding for maintenance but nothing seemed to work. Reactive maintenance is one of those things that just happens.
Did you know that over 50% of companies do not fully utilize their maintenance software even though their company may have spent thousands and sometimes millions of dollars to implement them?
Here is the answer to this problem. Management must make the decision to fix the problem first. It is a culture issue and must be faced head on. First, perform a gap analysis in order to identify what the gap is between how the software is current set up and used and how it should be set up and utilized. (do not hire the company who sells the software or installed it for you), find a consultant or trusted advisor who has done this many times. Ensure a Maintenance SOP is written which identifies all of your maintenance processes then align the maintenance software with the processes. Develop a software SOP which will assist a maintenance person perform simple tasks in the software from opening a work order to ordering parts from your store room. Keep everything simple. Perform a trial test with the SOP on a couple maintenance team members from each crew and roll it out as people seem to grasp the new software.
Begin measuring the effectiveness of your maintenance processes by using “can reports” from your CMMS/EAM.
Provided by Ricky Smith CMRP
Cell: 843-725-8378
http://www.alliedreliability.com
Find out more about Ricky Smith’s new book Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers
June 05, 2008
Bonus Workshop at LubricationWorld
LubricationWorld
September 15-18, 2008
Omaha Nebraska
Introduction to Oil Analysis & The Oil Analysis Game™ by Ray Thibault, CLS, OMA and Paul Goldman MRT Laboratories
Level: Intermediate or Advanced
This hand’s-on workshop will give you the tools necessary to select the right program for your equipment and to interpret report data on making the correct decision for your equipment.
The class will be divided into two sections:
Report interpretation- Many real life situations will be examined by the use of oil analysis reports. Proper evaluation techniques will be stressed. After this session you should feel comfortable analyzing your own reports.
The second half of the course will involve team work in evaluating reports. Each team will be given basic data and also they will be able to purchase additional data to evaluate a piece of equipment. Five real world case studies will be evaluated. The team who utilizes the data most economically and effectively will receive a prize. A prize will be given for each of the five case histories.
June 05, 2008
Leadership Tip
Make Sure They Have the “Tools” They Need
Imagine this scenario: We’re out in the middle of a field. I’m the supervisor and I give you an assignment to dig a trench. After explaining why the trench is necessary, I give you the go-ahead to start digging. You inquire, “Where’s the back hoe?” I respond, “It’s in the shop.” You then ask, “So how am I supposed to dig this trench?” I hand you a shovel, and then I leave. I return two hours later and find that you haven’t made much progress. You’re tired and frustrated…and I’m ticked off.
A far-fetched story? Maybe so. But it does make a simple and important point: it’s tough for people to do a good job – to do their best work – when they don’t have the “tools” (resources) they need. That’s something your team members may be facing more often than you think. And as a leader, you need to do your best to do something about it.
Ask yourself, What do my people need in order to meet or exceed my expectations? Better yet, ASK THEM! Maybe it’s a new piece of equipment – or the fixing or updating of an existing one. Perhaps it’s a new software program, additional training, or an expanded supplies inventory. Or it could be that what they really need is more time, more help, or more information. Whatever your team needs, get it for them. And if you can’t, tell them why, look for other ways to support their efforts, and appreciate the fact that many of their achievements are happening in spite of how they are equipped, rather than because of it.
Tip excerpted from Start Right, Stay Right …LEAD RIGHT: Every Leader’s Straight-Talk Guide to Job Success by Steve Ventura
June 05, 2008
PdM-2008: Register 3 get 1 Free before June 15
Predictive Maintenance Technology Conference & Expo
LubricationWorld
September 15-18, 2008
Qwest Center
Omaha Nebraska
Learn about PdM Program Management, Vibration Analysis, Infrared, Motor Testing, Ultrasound, Oil Analysis and Lubrication at PdM-2008 and LubricationWorld
PdM-2008 Preconference Certificate Workshops September 15
• PdM Managers Workshop by Jack Nicholas Jr.
• Bearing fault detection: Three keys to great results by Jason Tranter
• Save Energy – A 3 Part Workshop on becoming a Greener, Leaner Company
by Howard Penrose PhD, Paul Klimuc, SDT Ultrasound and John Snell, Snell Infrared
• Establishing Predictive Maintenance and Lubrication Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by Ricky Smith
• Leveraging the Visibility of your PdM Program at the Corporate Level by Carl Schultz, MRG
• Basic Failure Analysis Techniques by Neville Sachs
• OMA 101 - Oil Monitoring Analysis by Jack Poley and Michel Murphy
Conference Highlights
• Keynote address by acclaimed author and reliability expert Heinz Bloch, PE
Emphasize People, NOT PdM - Or You Will Affect Uptime
• 36 Predictive Maintenance and Lubrication Case Studies
• Solutions and Innovation Sessions
• Advanced Interactive Vibration Analysis Learning Lab
• Uptime Magazine PdM Program of the Year Award Presentations
• Professional Certification Exams by STLE and SMRP
• Optional 3 day Roadmap to PdM Excellence
• Casino Night for Networking, Prizes and Fun
• Biggest Challenges Discussion and Take Away Summary
• Alienware Laptop Giveaway
• 70 Leading PdM and Lubrication Solution Providers
• Conference Special Interest Group at the Association for Maintenance Professionals
FREE Bonus – Post-conference Certificate Workshops (included with all conference passes)
• Association for Maintenance Professionals Breakthrough and Benchmarking Session – Asset Health Management
• Reliability Game
• Oil Analysis Game
• Lubrication Fundamentals
• Alignment Fundamentals
Bring your entire PdM and Lubrication Team
Progressive Team Discounts and Early Bird Registration Savings
Register 3 get 1 Free before June 15
Register 4 get 1 Free before July 15
Register 5 get 1 Free before August 15
June 05, 2008
Ultrasound Tip
Sounds terrible, “Sniff the Bag House”. Doing so may be able to reduce the run-time on vacuum pumps and at the same time reduce the particles in the air.
If you are a manufacturer of paper products or textiles, or any manufacturer who employs the use of a “dust collector system”, you may want to try scanning the bag house exterior with an ultrasound receiver.
This is a rather simple application for you to use your airborne ultrasound receiver. Consider taking your instrument without the rubber cone or long range horn on the front of the instrument, use the standard scanning module (wider- field of view) to scan and listen for leaks.
No success? Then use the long range horn or long range module and/or parabolic dish and scan with high sensitivity both the duct work leading to the bag house, as well as the bag house structure or frame. If you have a flexible wand or short extension these are great to use also to help you focus in on the leak.
What’s it going to sound like? Try holding your scanning module under your nose (instrument on) and with the headphones on your head and over your ears the breathe thru your nose. Vacuum or in-leakage sounds is what you should hear.
You’ll be quite surprised at how many leaks you will hear. A little caulking, putty or my favorite “DUCT TAPE” will help seal those leaks. Pay attention particularly around the doors and/or windows of the structure, as well as bolted frames, etc.. Take it a step further and try and read the amperage of your compressor. When does it cycle off? Does it cycle off? Or does it stay ON and continuously run?
Please don’t forget to scan the bags themselves. Minute holes in the bags can allow fiber or dust particles to escape the bags and float into the air. This may also allow much needed air that is normally used to circulate those same particles for filtering to escape (no wonder your compressor never stops).
Tip provided by James Hall
Ultra-Sound Technologies
phone: 770-517-8747
June 05, 2008
Top 10 Common Sense Fallacies in Maintenance
Maintenance Fallacy #7
Preventive Maintenance Compliance is a good metric as long as it is completed in a reasonable amount of time.
– PM Compliance is loose and should not be held in strict control.
Example A: A PM states the bearing must be lubricated every 30 days. On the first of the month there is not enough time to lubricate the bearing, too much emergency work. At the end of the month the crew has time to lubricate the bearing, PM Compliance is met. At the beginning of the next month (on the 3rd) things are going well so the bearing is lubricated again because it is a new month even though it was lubricate 4 days ago. Next month things are not going well at the beginning of the month so it is lubricated at the end of the month. The PM Frequency is out of control, 4 days and 48 days, over-lubricated, under-lubricated. Bearing failure will occur prematurely.
Example B: The right way. The bearing is lubricated every month within 3 days of the designated due date or it is out of compliance. In this case this bearing is on as critical asset which requires 100% PM Compliance and so the schedule is met every month. Bearing failure is a rare occasion.
Provided by Ricky Smith, CMRP
Cell: 843-725-8378
http://www.alliedreliability.com
Find out more about Ricky Smith’s new book Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers
June 05, 2008
Lubrication Tip
Keeping Equipment Clean
More reasons than one for keeping equipment clean should be considered. Each reason, by itself, may seem insignificant. But when put all together, can be significant.
Dirt and dust tend to hang onto water longer than a clean surface. Clean equipment is not only for looks. Clean equipment runs cooler, but perhaps more important is that moisture that is trapped in dirt is slowly released. This slow release of moisture, when near a breather, will get past the breather into the head space.
This small amount of moisture adds up and becomes droplets of water. And we all know the effect water in oil has on bearings.
Reader tip provided by Garry Sands
Lube Tech
Tembec Inc.
Temiscaming Quebec
Thanks Garry - your stainless steel, diamond plate, Reliabilityweb.com coffee mug is on the way
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