Prevent downtime with predictive maintenance

In a recent article in Process Engineering we point out that despite the many options for predictive maintenance available to manufacturers today, there are still many companies using what is an old and potentially flawed technique of running machinery until where faults caused to fail completely.

We cited the example of a company using a combination of on and off-line vibration detection devices to monitor the deteriorating conditions of conveyor pulley bearings. Although it was clear from the readings that the bearings were close to failure plant operators chose to ignore the warning signs, choosing instead to continue to operate
the machine. As a result, there was a catastrophic failure localised fire that caused considerable damage and potentially put lives at risk.

Cost of unplanned downtime and repair far outweighed the time that would have been taken to stop the machine and replace the bearings.

In the article we argue that predictive maintenance based on solid vibration monitoring techniques can not only reduce machine failure rates, it can also play an important role in improving productivity and thus profitability.

To read the full article online these click here.