Tipsblog

Dependability Tip

One Secret You Want to Know About Dependability / Reliability

Companies are concerned about the dependability of their assets everyday and thus the cost of meeting their customer’s needs continue to rise as customers take orders and place orders sometimes within minutes of each. (This is the future so we must wake up NOW)

Companies cannot afford inventory so how can a company achieve this radical shift in culture?

The secret is simplistic; however the process is not so simple. First must have a vision of no inventory (I visited a plant recently that stores a large inventory because of this problem and thus struggles with cost).

The mission must then represent all parties in the plant and states all have ownership in this vision because “Dependability” represents safety, production, asset reliability, maintenance, quality, etc. All of these areas must function in unison in order to achieve the Dependability the customer demands.

Add Dependability to your scorecard and let’s chat on my blog at http://www.maintenance.org about this issue before it is too late.

Tip provided by Ricky Smith, CMRP
Co-Author - Rules of Thumb for Maintenance and Reliability Engineers and the Industrial Repair Handbook

Read Ricky Smiths Blog at Maintenance.org

DC Motor Tip

My name is Joe Junion and I work for L & S Electric, Appleton, Wisconsin Division going on 13 years. L & S Electric is one of the largest Electric Motor Service companies in the Midwest if not the largest. My title is Reliability Specialist and one of the services I provide my customers is routine DC Motor Inspections. During these inspections I strive to optimize the performance of the motor by installing the best carbon grade for the application. This provides the best commutation, resulting in good filming and the least amount of brush and commutator wear. I work very closely with Morgan AM & T (formerly National Electrical Carbon Products) to optimize the brushing.

I would like to expound on the information about seating DC motor and slip ring brushes:

Seating brushes is important because if the brush is not making good contact with the commutator it will cause sparking. The sparking will etch the commutator and brush surfaces. Once the commutator surface starts to degrade, it will require maintenance to correct it. This can be very expensive and may even require turning and undercutting the commutator. A brush’s primary function is to conduct current to the armature circuit, but it also shorts the commutator bars. If proper brush seating is not performed the brush will not make contact across its full face, thus will not short bars as designed and contribute to more sparking.

It is OK to not sand a brush if the motor has 4 or more brushes per arm and only changing 25% or less of them.

When in the field we have found the best way to seat brushes is to use a piece of sand paper about 12” long and a little wider then the brush width. We just slide it back and forth under the brush until it is fully seated. It is important to keep the sand paper down against the commutator so you don’t round the edges of the brush face. When a motor is worked on in the shop we use the technique of taping the sand paper to the commutator and rotating it.

Not just any sand paper is acceptable to use either. Standard emery cloth is made of aluminum oxide a conductive substance and is absolutely not to be used. We use Martindale Garnet Commutator Paper. The 80 grit is exceptional for in place seating brushes. The coarse grit makes it a much easier task and your maintenance personal will love you for it. The 150 grit is what we use in the shop when we tape it down.

Respectfully Submitted,

Joe Junion
Reliability Specialist
L & S Electric, Appleton, WI
http://www.lselectric.com

Thank you Joe - that reply was so good we are sending a Maintenance Tips hat and a Stainless Steel, Diamond Plate Reliabilityweb.com coffee mug your way.

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Lean Maintenance Tip

Lean Maintenance is defined as delivery of maintenance services to customers with as little waste as possible or producing a desirable maintenance outcome with the fewest inputs possible.

Inputs:

1) Labor (any kind including labor from the operator, mechanic, clerk, staff and contractor)
2) Management effort (reduce headaches or non-standard conditions requiring special management inputs)
3) Maintenance parts, materials, supplies
4) Contractors
5) Equipment rental
6) Service contracts of all types
7) Raw materials
8) Energy
9) Capital
10) Overhead

Outputs:

1) Improved reliability (uptime)
2) Improved output quality
3) Improved repeatability of process (less variation)
4) Improved safety for the employees, the public, and the environment

Tip excerpted from “Lean Maintenance” a new Industrial Press book by Joel Levitt

Get a copy of Lean Maintenance

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Balancing Tip

Chasing your Tail

You may have experienced occasions on balancing jobs where you seem to be chasing your tail. Trim run after trim run seems to only move the imbalance or even make it worse. Often the trim runs were preceded by an initial correction weight that did not bring the balance down as much as one would have expected.

It is time to go back to the basics. A spectrum and a bode plot of a start-up or coast-down are invaluable tools to make sure you are not trying to balance when a different problem is actually the source of vibration. No matter how much you try to balance, you cannot correct a problem like looseness, a bent shaft, or misalignment by balancing.

Tip provided by LUDECA, INC.
ALIGNMENT * VIBRATION * BALANCING
http://www.ludeca.com
305-591-8935

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Improvement Tip

Perspective on Improvement Initiatives

Hey… What Are YOU Looking At?

Ever wonder why it’s so hard to get everyone engaged in an improvement initiative? If it seems like everyone is going in a different direction, well, they are. Take a look at roles found in most organizations and what consumes most of their time, focus and energy.

Management: Focused on the 5-year plan and its execution. Future…

Operations: Focused on the next production schedule. Future…

Sales: Focused on the next sales cycle and established quotas. Future…

Quality: Focused on product quality right now. Present…
Maintenance: Focused on maintenance issues right now. Present…

H/R: Focused on succession planning for the site. Future…

Project Engineering: Focused on the newest project or toy coming to the site. Future…

Accounting: Focused on expenditures last week, month, and year. Past…

Information Technology: Focus driven by all. Past, Present, and Future…

It becomes much clearer when it’s viewed this way. This happens in every organization, it’s part of what makes each of our sites unique. It’s also what makes it extremely difficult to see any gains on an improvement initiative. A few things must be established to help offset this realism and make the changes you desire, happen:

• Engaged employees, get all involved, then everyone impacts everyone else.

• A detailed Plan of Improvement so everyone knows where to go and how to get there.

• Develop a Vision and Mission Statement and share it with the organization. This helps to bring things back into perspective when all are focused on the past, present or future.

• Develop Shared Beliefs or Core Values to assist in driving the right behaviors. It also makes it very obvious to all when unacceptable behaviors are displayed.

Still not sure on how to get all this pulled together to get your improvement initiative off the ground? Join us for the 4-part series, Maintenance and Reliability for Managers and get hands-on instructions to establish a culture for change.

Tip provided by Dave Bertolini, Managing Principal, People and Processes, Inc.

Learn more and register today for the 4 part series, Maintenance and Reliability for Managers in Jacksonville, FL

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Maintenance Management 201 Tip

Tip 2 - The right people will help you be successful

Management of people is clearly a different job than that of an individual contributor. Your performance is no longer solely due to your efforts; it is dependent on the performance of your subordinates. It follows, then, that your success depends on having capable individuals in every role on your team.

In the book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes one of the key attributes of great companies as having “the right people on the bus”. This attribute applies to smaller organizations as well. Some people are simply not capable of performing some tasks well because they do not have the innate talent to do so. As a manager, you will be tempted to devote a lot of time attempting to “correct” performance that is ultimately not correctable. When you do this, you are not helping the remainder of your team – you should be devoting your efforts to helping your good people produce at peak capacity.

Clearly, keeping someone in a position where they are a poor fit benefits no one. If you have an individual that continually produces substandard results, the other team members will spend their time compensating for the results of the poor performer. They will become frustrated and their performance will ultimately slip as well. Your organization will not produce superior results if you are continually compensating for someone who is not pulling their weight. The kindest thing to do in this case is to find a position – within the company or outside of it – where that substandard performer can excel. They will experience greater job satisfaction and your team will be more productive.

Tip provided by Bruce Hawkins
MRG - Management Resources Group
http://www.mrginc.net

iPresentation Tutorial Invitation: Maintenance 201 – More of the Basics

DC Motor Tip

Importance of Properly Seating Brushes on DC Motors

Brushes are used to carry current from the armature to the commutator. They must be seated properly to allow for proper current density across them.

If they are not properly seated, the part that is in contact with the commutator will have a higher current density than usual. This can result in overheating of the brushes causing them to come off of their neutral axis, arcing and sparking, streaking of commutator film, and damage to machine.

After an overhaul or periodic cleaning, it is a good idea to take a look at the wear on your brushes. If seating is required, the steps below detail one way to accomplish this:

• Take a roll of sandpaper that is the width of the commutator and long enough to wrap around the circumference of the commutator with 2 to 3 inches of overlap.

• Tape the sandpaper to the commutator using masking tape versus duct tape to avoid leaving a strong residue on the commutator. Wrap the paper around the commutator and have the overlap cover the tape. To the brushes, it seems as if you have one continuous roll of sandpaper underneath them.

• Load one brush holder with a row of brushes. Adjust tension so that paper can slide under them when the commutator is spun, but still get a firm grip on the paper.

• Spin the commutator by hand and observe the brush wear.

• Repeat for each row of brushes.

• Once seating is complete, remove the sandpaper and tape and clean out the commutator and armature area with a vacuum and/or low-pressure air.

• Remove any masking tape residue with a canvas wiper (rolled and looped canvas cloth). If the residue is too strong for the canvas to remove it, use a flexible abrasive stone (made like a large eraser). Be aware that if the flexible abrasive stone is used, you will end up removing film from the commutator. If some of the film is removed, you must completely remove the film via stone. A commutator film run in MUST be completed once the film is removed.

Tip provided by PdMA MCE Division
Tel: 813-621-6463
http://www.pdma.com

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