Have you ever pondered the term of "preventative" maintenance?  Well, I have often done so and must admit that I had to laugh when I pictured how this was supposed to actually work in a plant setting.  It conjured up visions of maintenance people getting a "call" from the machine controls in question and telling them to come in soon as one of the bearing will fail next Sunday night at 4:05am.  While we are closer than ever in diagnosing machinery problems and averting the worst from happening, we are not able to be able to exactly "predicting" when the usable time of a piece of equipment will come to an end.  Precision maintenance is when you identify, prioritize and implement a condition monitoring philosophy that is trending based and is designed provide a review process for any process and incident occurrence.    

Trending is the key to success with precision maintenance.  At Aerzen USA we make good use of state of the art condition monitoring devices that fit any budget.  From low cost vibration sensor based switches to full blown online monitoring systems ranging from IFM Efector's VKS, Octavis and Multiplex devices we have the trending system that will fit anyone's budget. 

 

Any of the devices will at least alarm the user of trouble and also at the same time provide the output of external trending.  The more sophisticated Octavis and Multiplex units have their own built-in internal trending software, which is set up at the factory using our own expert information.  It can eliminate any blowers and compressors from any existing regular vibration analysis routes as the units are constantly monitoring the equipment in real time and are set up with their own alarm and shut down levels.  Customers with real critical pieces of equipment might even choose the Ethernet based connection that allows customer SCADA or DCS integration. 

In any system that you choose, make sure that you do not implement without prior planning session as well as planning to review your results.  Also, keep in mind that results are only as good as the accuracy of the information that goes into the monitoring equipment.  Then always focus on trending and only fix what needs fixing.  That is what I call Precision Maintenance.  One reading alone may not mean anything; or would you only consult one doctor before you undergo open heart surgery because of a single high blood pressure reading? 

Please drop me a note in case you have suggestions or questions.   

Aerzen USA
Ralf Weiser
rweiser@aerzenusa.com