Oil analysis and vibration analysis make a great tag team when it comes to assessing rotating equipment condition.  Even if oil analysis trending is carried out by itself it still can be a powerful tools assessing whether or not there may be trouble coming down the pike – rolling element bearings, gears and other key components leave key evidence of them failing behind in the lubricant.  Depending on your plant size and usage of lubricant, quite a few lubricant suppliers also offer free oil analysis.  While that seems great at the first glance, there are quite a few wrinkles that can lead straight to catastrophes that the analysis was supposed to help prevent.  I will review a few issues and elaborate on what an analysis report should cover in the course of this blog. 

Tags: Aerzen, positive displacement, rotating equipment, screw compressor, pd blower, rotary lobe blower, turbo blowers, WWTP, pneumatic conveying

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. 

Tags: Aerzen, positive displacement, rotating equipment, compressors, Aerzen USA, pd blower, rotary lobe blower, pneumatic conveying

Is it not amazing how many different lubricants there are in a industrial or even a municipal waste water treatment plant?  At the outset the problem is not all that challenging.  Lubrication or maintenance managers usually start by compiling a complete list of machines and the lubricants they need as per their respective operation manuals.  So far, so good.  Than it starts to get complicated, because maintenance techs, operations people or lubrication crews need to do the actual work and more often than we realize they need to make their own mental notes to remind themselves which machines takes what lubricant.  Sometimes people use permanent markers or other devices and leave themselves scribble notes directly on the machines themselves.  How many times has that caused any machinery trouble at your plant? 

There are many solutions that can help avert such issues.  One effective one comes from the Lean Manufacturing program called 5S in which - among other important aspects - lets you sort and mark all items you need to do your job with.  This is perfect for lubricants.  Visual signals such as color coding bins, drums and cans and using the same colors on markings on the actual equipment will make anyone's life a lot easier and also help you reach the maximum service life of your equipment. 

Tags: Aerzen, positive displacement, compressors, oil-free screw process gas compressor, Aerzen USA, pd blower, rotary lobe blower, oil-flooded screw compressor, pneumatic conveying, aeration

Tags: Aerzen, positive displacement, rotating equipment, compressors, screw compressor, oil-free screw process gas compressor, pd blower, rotary lobe blower, turbo blowers, sliding vane compressor, oil-flooded screw compressor

Sizing - Proper sizing of the blower begins when the buyer provides performance requirements to a blower manufacturer. The buyer should understand the differences between scfm (volumes at standard conditions) and icfm/acfm (volumes at intake or actual conditions).  Knowing the ambient conditions (elevations and temperature ranges) and the required operating pressures which the blower must produce will also effect the manufacturer's selection.

Performance - Only buy Aerzen's blower packages... just kidding, but there is a serious point here.  Any manufacturer's claims of performance need to be verified to insure the correct amount of pressure will be generated for the application.  Insist on knowing the performance and efficiencies (power requirements) of the complete blower package you buy not just the performance of the bare stage.  An undersized drive motor will limit performance.

Tags: Aerzen, positive displacement, rotating equipment, pd blower, rotary lobe blower, turbo blowers, pneumatic conveying