August 29, 2013
We all become instantly nervous when we get some type of notification from the IRS. Are we about to be audited? This is almost never a pleasurable experience to be looked forward to. A Condition Monitoring (CM) technology and methods audit, on the other hand, can be very valuable. Have you considered having an outside […]
August 27, 2013
The most important thing that can be said about securely mounting bracketing is this: Whatever you attach the bracket to MUST be rigid to the shaft when you are not attaching to the shaft itself. When the bracket is secured and the laser/emitter is attached to it, rotating the shaft causes the bracket to rotate […]
August 22, 2013
Are others in your plant or corporation aware of the capabilities of the Condition Monitoring (CM) technology you utilize and all that you do with it? It is critical that management, maintenance employees, and production employees are aware of what you do and the value CM technologies provide. This will make them much more responsive […]
August 20, 2013
When a facility goes into a planned outage, many events needed to happen before the company gets to this point. The following are some interesting facts and activities a plant will undergo before an outage: • Planning for a major outage begins when the previous outage is completed. • Planning and scheduling play a major role. Prioritizing […]
August 15, 2013
I recently conducted training at a chemical plant. During a conversation with the supervisor, he mentioned how impressed he was with how much money the ROTALIGN® ULTRA laser shaft alignment tool had saved him. They had an upcoming outage and a three-coupling machine train alignment scheduled for the back end of that outage. They were […]
August 13, 2013
Triax transducers have three sensors within a single housing measuring all three vibration axes (X, Y, and Z). There is an argument in favor of mounting a Triax sensor in the middle of a motor, asserting that it can provide all of the necessary data for defect analysis. Triax sensors are also beneficial when collecting […]
August 8, 2013
For many vibration analysts, a magnet is the point of contact between them, with all of their sophisticated technology, and the rotating equipment they wish to monitor. This being the case, the magnet and its mounting characteristics occupy a very important position in the scheme of what they do every day, yet this crucial part of […]
August 6, 2013
During the recent AFPM Reliability & Maintenance Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, FL. Terry O’Hanlon, Publisher of Uptime Magazine and Reliabilityweb.com, gave a speech about proper maintenance practices. One of the subjects was ‘Proper Mounting of Bearings’. In the late 1960s, one of the large cottonseed processors in Nicaragua had an urgent need for a […]
August 1, 2013
Design, installation, and startup are the biggest contributors to a reliable or unreliable plant. It is difficult or impossible for a Maintenance Department to overcome issues inserted during one of these stages. Unfortunately, most often the focus is placed on fixing the equipment after some functional failure has occurred. The focus should be placed on […]