Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1336798
www . machinerylubrication.com | January - February 2021 | 5 ML film strength, restricted part movement and obliterated oilways and glands. Impaired Condition Monitoring I've talked about the importance of having an unrestricted line of sight for visual inspec- tion of all machine surfaces. Dust cakes also interfere with the ability to properly perform condition monitoring data-collection tasks. For instance, there needs to be visible spots and hookups for taking vibration and temperature readings. "I wonder where the last guy took the readings for good comparison?" Clean surfaces are also needed for ultrasound, thermal imaging, stroboscope checks and motion amplification. Proximity probes function best under clean conditions too. Dust Cakes Hide Warnings and Other Important Data Many machine surfaces and adjacent objects will contain posted signs or other warning labels that are intended to remind personnel of safety concerns in the area. If these are not kept clean, the dust cakes can build up, making their presence go completely unknown. Better to keep these signs legible and avoid an injury event than to find out that dust was the root cause after the fact. Even nameplates, lubricant labels and maintenance data plates that are posted on the machine will go unnoticed if covered by dust cakes. is can lead directly to impaired lubrication and maintenance activity performance. Whack-a-Mole Exterior contamination and dust cakes telegraph the wrong message to staff and encourage a culture counter to machine reli- ability. Many plants, by the very nature and/ or location of their business, fight a seemingly unending battle with dust cakes, like a game of whack-a-mole. at said, turning a blind eye makes things so much worse and has a compounding effect. Having an honest understanding of the real costs and downtime associated with proactive (keeping machines clean) versus reactive (cycle of repeated repair and despair) is a good start. ML Special thanks to Tor Idhammar (IDCON), Torki Ibrahim (Yanbu), Kevin Albert (SULP) and Ronald van Druten (IJSSEL) for images and other contributions to this article. About the Author Jim Fitch has a wealth of "in the trenches" experience in lubrication, oil analysis, tribology and machinery failure investigations. Over the past two decades, he has presented hundreds of courses on these subjects. Jim has also published more than 200 technical articles, papers and books. He serves as a U.S. delegate to the ISO tribology and oil analysis working group. Since 2000, he has been the director and a board member of the International Council for Machinery Lubrication. He is the CEO and a co-founder of Noria Corporation. Contact Jim at jfitch@noria.com. Figure 5. Enveloping dust cake impairs ability to take vibration readings, use heat gun and visual inspection of all critical component surfaces on this machine/pump train. Ref. Tor Idhammar