Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1275515
34 | July - August 2020 | www . machinerylubrication.com Being a consultant in the reliability field, you often get to see the latest and greatest in condition-monitoring tools and predictive data. It is very easy to get hung up on these tools and overlook simple machine inspections as a source of valuable information. If you have ever sat through one of my presentations or courses, you will often hear me refer to lessons taught to me by my grandfather. Perhaps one of the most influential came when I was a senior in high school working on my Suburban that was giving me problems. After what seemed like days pouring through a Chilton manual and trying to diagnose some erratic noises and performance issues, my grandfather came to the shop to see how it was going. He asked me to start the vehicle. He listened to if for a moment and then pulled a dollar bill out of his wallet. He placed the dollar bill over the exhaust pipe and watched how it moved. He then put the bill back in his wallet and informed me that I had a burned valve. With that he left the shop and I was left to ponder what just happened. Come to find out, he was right, and I was amazed. Some of the most impactful machine inspections can be carried out with minimal instrumentation, but it does require an individual that knows what they are looking for. W hile routine monitoring using vibration analysis, ultrasound, infrared, oil analysis and a litany of other technologies will always be important in providing hard, quantifiable data. e importance of daily inspections by operators and craftspeople cannot be over- stated. Having a technician that is around the equipment daily is truly the first line of detection for abnormal conditions. Early detection of potential failure is the key to minimizing the impact of those failures. While instrumentation will be able to detect faults with more granularity, few pieces of equipment get monitored everyday with these technologies. With the use of real time sensors is gaining popularity, these devices are often reserved for the critical 1-5% of machines. e remaining majority of the equipment falls into routine analysis that may be anywhere from weekly to quarterly analysis. is leaves far too much time between events and the likely hood of catching a failure early is greatly diminished. The Ultimate in Machine Inspections Some of the most impactful machine inspections can be carried out with minimal instrumentation " M achin e Insp e c tions IN THE TRENCHES Wes Cash | Noria Corporation