Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1433576
36 | November - December 2021 | www . machinerylubrication.com ENVIRONMENT ere was a chemical manufacturer who installed condition monitoring equipment onto their gear- boxes to meet the facility cleanliness targets of ISO 16/14/12 or better. As the reports came back, they noticed a gearbox was trending higher iron levels. ey realized this was due to the gearbox operating outside its original design envelope. While they still had to order a replacement gearbox, they were able to make the necessary adjustments to prolong the remaining life to bridge the replacement lead time. Because the gearbox was still in operating condition, they were able to relocate the gearbox to continue its use. Improve Equipment Functioning You can also evaluate the equipment's energy efficiency by tracking its production output. For example, if a machine is capable of producing a certain number of parts in a given amount of time and after proper lubrication and monitoring practices are implemented, it can produce a higher volume of parts in the same amount of time, then the machine has become more energy efficient. During times of supply shortages, improving equipment performance can have a significant impact on a company's profitability. Here is an example of how to document performance improvement. ese cases can be invaluable when determining which projects return the best value. For example, by installing condition monitoring equipment, a plastics manufacture was able to reduce machine contamination, improve oil cleanliness and increase machine productivity by sampling and filtering on the fly. Reduce Unnecessary Maintenance Oil analysis is one of the earliest predictors of impending machine failure on the PF Curve. e PF Curve represents the behavior of an asset or compo- nent before function failure has occurred. e P-F interval may vary, lasting days, weeks or months, depending on the equipment's condition. When used effectively, it can provide a significant amount of time between the latest inspection and functional failure to prioritize, plan and execute the necessary maintenance activities before the failure occurs. Machines can still run after failure has begun, but once an incident occurs, it is only a matter of time before the machine fails. A mature oil analysis program can sample and analyze suspended particles in lubrication oil and then reveal specific individual component wear early Condition-Based Methods move point P (potential failure) to the earliest time possible, maximizing the P-F Interval. Point where failure starts to occur (not necessarily related to age) Point where we can find out that it is failing P F Point where it has failed (functional failure) Oil Analysis (Months) Vibration (Weeks to Months) Thermography (Weeks) Noise (Weeks) Condition Time Heat (Days) P-F Interval Smoke in the deterioration phase. As we saw in the earlier example, early detection allows for the neces- sary parts to be obtained and the development of a restoration plan to rebuild a component before complete failure. Typically, this knowledge can be invaluable when consid- ering what maintenance is really necessary and avoiding crises with scheduling and shutdowns. In these times, with fewer people doing more work, unnecessary maintenance is not sustainable in the long term. However, some- times due to improper oil sampling, these reports can be misleading. Improving oil sampling methods can improve the accuracy of these reports. Take these cases into consideration: A pulp and paper company found their oil analysis results on a pump set frequently came back with high particle counts; their solution was simply to replace the pumps — an $8,000 cost. A new reliability engineer hypothesized that their sampling method might be the cause behind these high counts, as they were just drop- tube sampling from the breather port on the shared reservoir. It was decided to install sampling valves separately on each pump so they could tell which pump might be failing. ey also added filtration so that high particle counts did not contribute to further deterioration or replacement of the pump. ese changes resulted in reports that no longer showed high particle counts, saving them from replacing perfectly functioning pumps. A marine company in the Pacific Northwest suspected a problem when their main engine's oil analysis report continuously came back indicating coolant was in their system. ey would drain the engine, inspect and see nothing wrong; this would cost Figure 2: PF Curve