Machinery Lubrication magazine published by Noria Corporation
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/793941
4 | March - April 2017 | www.machinerylubrication.com AS I SEE IT • Differential filter pressure • Magnetic plug collections • Oil level, color and clarity at all sight glasses • Leak zones Don't overlook the need to pull samples frequently and run onsite checks for cleanli- ness levels and wear debris. Typically, there is no need for a lab to perform these checks. Many different field methods do an adequate job, including patch testing, the Durban method and blotter spot testing. Run Inspection I've covered this subject in the last several Machinery Lubrication articles. Yes, there is a difference between Inspection 2.0 and conventional practices. An enhanced state of reliability demands an enhanced state of operator involvement. It is not just about quickly looking at a machine, but rather it's about examining the machine frequently and intensely with a skilled, probing eye. For all "bad actor" machines under your care, there is a critical need for Inspection 2.0 vigilance. These are the machines that are pushed beyond their design limits. They are most responsible for business interrup - tion and lost production, as well as for 80 percent of the costs of downtime and repair. Stop Inspection Stop inspections allow you to access those hard-to-reach machine conditions and frictional surfaces. Of course, as previ- ously mentioned, you should avoid all unnecessary invasions that can introduce a root cause for failure. That said, you often can safely gain access to gear teeth, sump walls, couplings, shaft seals, bottom sedi- ment and water (BS&W) bowls, magnetic plugs, bearing clearances, etc., for a brief look at the condition. Cameras, including borescopes, may be helpful. Repair Inspection Repair and rebuild inspections present a valuable opportunity that too often goes untapped. What a wonderful learning opportunity failure can be. This not only involves what failed and why it failed, but also what else you can obser ve while you are performing the autopsy. Consider the following: What are rebuild shops teaching you about the causes of failed electric motors, cylinders, gearboxes, pumps, etc.? Do you receive inspection reports from these rebuild shops on what they find when they open up your failed machines? Do they give you guidance on prevention? If so, how is this knowledge (feedback) used to improve your maintenance practices today? Do you procrastinate when it comes to performing needed breakdown autopsies? Once operation has been restored to your process or machine, do you fail to investi- gate the cause of the failure? Does it take three or even four similar failures before action is taken to seek the cause? Besides the search for failure root causes, do you use the opportunity to inspect other wear zones and machine surfaces? How about used filters, strainers, sump floors, seal condition, corrosion, journal bearings, etc.? Does your organization have assigned responsibilities for failure reporting, anal- ysis and corrective action system (FRACAS) activities? How about root cause analysis? One of the problems with repair inspec- tions and failure investigations is that the people assigned to the task are often the same people who are directly or indirectly a target for blame. Asking a maintenance organization to find fault in itself has inherent challenges for which there is no easy solution. Part of the answer is culture. Building a culture of continuous improvement and not a culture of blame and finger-pointing goes a long way. We all make mistakes. How can we learn from them? I've detailed the five states of machine Inspection 2.0. How does your reliability organization compare? About the Author Jim Fitch has a wealth of "in the trenches" experience in lubrication, oil analysis, tribology and machiner y failure investigations. Over the past two decades, he has presented hundreds of courses on these subjects. Jim has published more than 200 technical articles, papers and publications. He ser ves as a U.S. delegate to the ISO tribology and oil analysis working group. Since 2002, he has been the director and a board member of the Interna- tional Council for Machiner y Lubrication. He is the CEO and a co-founder of Noria Corpo- ration. Contact Jim at jfitch@noria.com.