When discussing improvement opportunities in your plant, does preventive maintenance ever come up? I’m sure it does. We are often in plants when these discussions take place. An interesting phenomenon is that most plants haven’t defined what preventive maintenance is, even though the topic has been discussed for years. Many feel it is obvious what […]
Definition: Preventive Maintenance (PM) Read More »
Water in oil is a common, but often overlooked reliability problem. Water will not only destroy the oil film strength, but may also cause flash-vaporization which causes erosive wear if there is enough water content in the oil. Oil containing about 0.1% (1000 ppm) water will turn cloudy in appearance. At this point, about 75%
Technique: Inspection Read More »
If you have slow moving bearings that you need to inspect without disassembling and cleaning them, the smart hook can be a good tool to use. If you can get access to the bearing from the side you can use the sharp point of the hook to feel the bearing and roller element surfaces. Very
Technique: The smart hook Read More »
When it comes to benchmarking, a popular measurement is maintenance cost (MC) as a percent of Estimated Replacement Value (ERV). The data from our SIMATM database shows that the MC/ERV for process industry is: Maintenance Cost as a Percent of Estimated Replacement Value (ERV) Low High Total 1.5 % 6.3 % Labor 0.6 % 2.4
Technique: Benchmarking Read More »
“The basic function of a Vacuum Pump?” A Nash pump operates with a positive displacement using water as a compressant. The rotor keeps a ring of water rotating in the body. Water advances into and recedes from the rotor chambers, because the rotor axis is offset from the body axis. This is what sets up
Technique: Vacuum pump Read More »
Assalub of Sweden has a powerful cordless rechargeable grease gun. The gun does not require air or electric connections; it functions on a rechargeable battery. The grease gun has a meter that accurately measures the amount (volume) of grease feed to the bearing. Thanks to the harness, the gun is easy and convenient to use.
Tools: Cordless Rechargeable Grease Gun with Volume Meter Read More »
We are taught that dirt is bad for bearings. But why is it bad? If dirt enters between the ball/ roller and the bearing race, the oil film breaks and dirt will grind between the roller elements and the bearing race. But isn’t it a bit much to ask craftspeople to wear gloves, work in
Technique: Dirt is bad for bearings Read More »
Break-in jobs is a term used for identifying maintenance jobs that are added to a schedule without proper lead time allowed for planning and scheduling.
Break-in Jobs are often incorrectly identified as a synonym to break downs, or true emergency work. In our experience, break-in jobs are often NOT true emergencies, instead they are often EMOTIONAL emergencies.
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The purpose of a steam trap is not as the name may indicate to trap steam, but rather to trap condensate in a steam line. The trap is mounted on or adjacent to a steam line. The trap should open and capture condensate when there is condensate in the steam line. The trap should be
Technique: Steam Trap Read More »
Did you know that fittings for hydraulic units are very different from regular fittings for air and instrumentation? The hydraulic fittings have much deeper and thinner threads in order to be more resistant to leakage. The fitting nut is also longer than that for a CFI fitting. However, the thin threads on the hydraulic fitting
Technique: Hydraulic Fittings Read More »
That a perfect .000” alignment can sometimes be the wrong thing to do? Rarely, if ever, do two machines in a machine train generate the same temperatures during operation. These factors can cause perfectly aligned shafts to be misaligned out of tolerance while operating. Let’s take use the following motor driven pump as an example
Technique: Alignment Read More »
A stroboscope is a wonderful diagnostic tool for belt drives. With a stroboscope light you can: Read the original belt’s number & manufacturer without stopping the machine: Run the strobe at the belt’s speed and the label and manufacturer will “stop”. See if one in a series of belts are slipping: Shut down the equipment,
Reduce your costs with an effective PM program