Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1487844
8 | November - December 2022 | www . machinerylubrication.com Bennett Fitch | Noria Corporation Onsite Oil Analysis Solutions Support Reliability Advances in software that integrate the expert knowledge of the onsite equipment specialist and lubricant analyst are available to help maintenance professionals justify oil analysis programs within their facilities and maximize equipment life. Understanding how to quickly and effectively implement Industry 4.0 techniques becomes increasingly important in an era when many maintenance programs are being downsized or absorbed by other areas of the company. Effective oil analysis techniques that provide value to the facility require the incor- poration of two main concepts: knowledge of the component behavior and an understanding of the lubricant data generated by the compo- nent. By pairing these two concepts, proper diagnostics and recommendations can be made that are practical and easily implemented by the maintenance staff. Connecting Globally Enterprise thinking is the practice of considering the entire organization in the decision-making process, not just an individual department or group. Enterprise thinking can make the organization leaner and more agile. Enterprise solutions typically develop at the corporate reliability level with the intention of promoting efficiency, consistency and a more system-wide approach to the complex process of asset management. Networking of knowl- edge is an efficient way to share information over a certain platform at varying locations. is mentality works best when an organi- zation already has a well-established site and can easily share that information with other locations or parts of the organization. Orga- nizations that have standard equipment across multiple sites, have similar KPIs or use the same software are good candidates to deploy enterprise solutions. Onsite Analysis Case Study: Food and Beverage Industry In the Food and Beverage Industry, there are two processes where oil analysis can play an important role: the washdown process and the drying process. In food processing appli- cations, proper cleaning and sanitation are key to producing a safe product. Cleaning and sanitation involve a washdown process. ey COVER STORY ONSET OF FAILURE OPERATING HOURS EQUIPMENT FAILS OPTIMAL WORKING CONDITION PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE Monitor Oil Condition & Contamination: • Viscosity, oil chemistry, water • Particle count with ISO codes • Elemental analysis of normal wear particles • Total ferrous PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE Monitor for Abnormal Wear: • Total ferrous • Wear particle analysis • Elemental analysis EQUIPMENT CONDITION FAILURE usually have 16-18 hour shifts of running equipment, then shut down for 4-8 hours for the complete washdown and cleanout of the facility. During this process, water contamination is of primary concern. For the dry processes, like breakfast cereal, fine dust particles in the air can enter the oil. In this case, oil cleanliness is of primary concern. In the Food and Beverage Industry, the real interests lie in increasing availability and avoiding shutdowns and unnecessary spending. Here is an example: • A plant has 1000 assets. • 10% are considered critical equipment (100 of them are critical). • Overall equipment availability is 93%. • Total downtime is 58,800 hours. • Downtime Cost = $200/hour. • Equates to about 11.8M annual down- time cost. • Assuming implementing an onsite oil analysis program improves the avail- ability by 0.1% (from 93% to 93.1%). • Drive down the downtime by 840 hours (from 58,800hrs to 57,960hrs). • Equals to $168,000 in annual downtime cost savings. Conclusion Maintenance cost savings and an increase in productivity continue to be driving forces for implementing condition monitoring programs. Lubricant analysis plays a critical role in a condition monitoring program and pairs well with other technologies such as infrared, ultrasound and motor circuit analysis. Being able to quickly and effectively implement the data is now a reality with advancements in onsite techniques. When adding onsite oil analysis to a facility, the management and proper distribution of the data to equipment owners becomes pivotal in justifying program costs and sustaining a reliability program. Software that captures expert knowledge of the machine behavior and lubricant are both critical in creating analysis reports that are helpful and easily implemented at the plant level. Once those initial rules, limits and observations are captured by the expert, enterprise tools and other features can be deployed company-wide to synchronize reliability programs within an organization. ML Figure 1: Machine Failure Curve showing the typical progression of problem to failure of the component.