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In today’s world-class facilities, maintenance and reliability departments require data collection on a consistent and periodic basis to guarantee that assets in a plant operate efficiently and reliably. Vibration monitoring actively monitors the health of critical assets for potential failure conditions. This yields great results in identifying potential failure conditions for repair before unwanted downtime or […]

A topic I like to highlight and elaborate on during a training session is alignment tolerances. In my experience, I have found that most people involved in alignment don’t give tolerances much thought. Alignment tolerances are useful in that they give the technician doing the alignment a stopping point. But tolerances can vary widely: From […]

Precision Maintenance is one of the 15 foundational processes that is a must if you want to develop a complete maintenance system. Precision maintenance is the tasks that take place typically at commissioning or recommissioning to extend the life of an asset. Commissioning takes place at the initial startup of a newly installed asset or […]

Reliability groups are often expected to collect data on critical assets in a consistent manner to ensure the asset’s health is monitored efficiently, and to maximize the life of that equipment. Doing this task manually may pose a safety or health risk to the personnel responsible for collecting the data. One of the solutions is […]

We previously went over our glossary of alignment terms with, “What is Alignment? Check out our Glossary of Alignment Terminology from A-H!” and later with Alignment Terminology from I-R.  In the world of alignment, there is a multitude of technical terms. We provide definitions for some of these terms that you might hear from an engineer […]

Precision Maintenance can be used as a process improvement strategy. A strategy that will pay dividends. This process is easy to implement. In fact, you do most of the work already. The beauty of it all is that there is not a lot of cost involved and if you are smart, you can implement the […]

Unbalance can be caused by many possibilities such as listed below but not limited to just this list. Possible sources could be many more than those listed. Generally, if the rotor is dirty, clean it, as this alone may correct any unbalance. If it has damage fix it; if it’s loose tighten it, if a […]

If your machine’s gearbox, pump and motor shafts are not in alignment, the cost of failures and repairs can be drastic. Misalignment of this nature will significantly reduce its performance and mean time between repairs, as well as the functional longevity of the gearbox, motor, and the machines as a whole! It’s important to be […]

We previously went over our glossary of alignment terms with, “What is Alignment? Check out our Glossary of Alignment Terminology from A-H!” In this blog, we continue the alignment alphabet from I-R.  In the world of alignment, there is a multitude of technical terms. We provide definitions for some of these terms that you might hear […]

A few simple practices could help to prevent damage to your spare belts and chains: Label chains and belts by type, size, number, and date stored. Label shelves in accordance with in-house MRO guidelines. Maintain constant temperature and relative humidity. Store in a clean and dry environment to prevent ingress contamination. Keep belts out of […]

The following facts are principles that form the basis for the balancing of machinery. When a person determines that a rotating machine needs to be balanced, a few things should be kept in mind The vibration caused by imbalance always occurs at 1× RPM of the unbalanced rotor. The vibration is directly proportional to the […]

If we want to get into precision maintenance, we need to be aware of the differences between shaft alignment tolerances and coupling tolerances. I just recently read an article from an online Reliability Maintenance website. It’s from a well-known organization that sells training for Reliability Centered Maintenance and Condition Based Maintenance programs. The title read: […]

I recently spoke to a reliability engineer who was rolling out our alignment and vibration equipment to fifteen plants across the U.S. He involved us early on in the process. His company didn’t just set aside budget money for the equipment purchase, but also enough to properly train their field service personnel in how to […]

In the field of vibration analysis, there is an abundance of technical terms. We provide definitions for some of these terms that you might hear from an engineer or technician as well as read in reports and might need further clarification. We welcome you to check out our glossary of terms relating to vibration analysis, […]

We previously discussed in this series, Environmental Compliance Through Efficient Work Practices: Part 2. In this blog, we discuss goals for efficient work practices like bearing lubrication and fan pitch/balance. Upgrading tools and introducing more complete training should be part of any company’s operating plan, so we will see how much impact can be made by […]

What is machinery installation? Machinery installation is an essential phase in every machinery’s lifecycle. It’s the first moment of bringing machinery into production. Why is proper installation necessary? The installation process has a direct impact on the machinery. It’ll determine the operating conditions in the performance and lifecycle cost. How the machine gets installed determines […]

What is the proper technique for performing steam trap inspections? My short answer never changes. It involves two readings…one was taken a few feet upstream of the steam trap to ensure there is flow, and the other reading was taken immediately after the steam trap. If the steam trap is operating correctly, you will hear […]

We previously discussed in this series, Environmental Compliance Through Efficient Work Practices: Part 1. In this blog, we discuss goals for efficient work practices like proper alignment and belt alignment. Upgrading tools and introducing more complete training should be part of any company’s operating plan, so we will see how much impact can be made by […]

Inspection Technique Greasing of bearings using ultrasound, often described as best practice, helps us understand how much grease needs to be applied. Ultrasound is a good measure of friction – too little or too much grease in a bearing produces elevated friction levels. Using ultrasound, the right quantity of grease is determined by assessing the […]

  Obviously, getting leakage repaired after the detection effort is done is extremely challenging and sometimes frustrating in today’s economy. But, where many plants fail, others do extremely well in managing their leakage levels. The latter plants are the ones using best practices. In conducting leak assessments four important steps come up when researching the […]