Volume 1, Number 1

In This Issue

·    NEW ! Pocket VibrA Pro

·    Failure Analysis Part 1 - Contamination

·    Case Study – Results of Condition Monitoring

Links

Low Cost Portable Vibration Analyser

Attachments

PocketVibrA Brochure

AVS Services Offered:

-       Laser Alignment of all rotating equipment,

-       Fan / Rotor Balancing,

-       Vibration Analysis

-       Condition Monitoring (total site contracts)

-       Technical Support and Solutions

AVS Products Offered:

-       Pruftechnik Laser Alignment Equipment

-       Pocket VibrA Vibration Analyser

-       Stainless Steel Shims

-       Training

Contact Us

align@alignvib.com.co.za

Tel: 012 661 7844

Fax : 086 670 9045

our website will be up and running by end of March 2008 !

Quote of the month:

Normal people … believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke , it doesn’t have enough features yet.

  References : emerson bearing, IDCON inc,

AVS -  South African Distributor of a Low Cost Portable Vibration Unit

PocketVibrA is a relatively low cost vibration analysis system

that includes asset management and allows the user to carry out vibration analysis over any range of frequencies up to 15 kHz (900,000 RPM). The system allows a user to view and record vibration data from asset measurement points that are then automatically displayed as trend plots on a PC using the included FreeTrend™ software. FreeTrend also includes a Report Wizard that produces editable Word and Excel files.

The system trends vibration in different frequency bands to show up faults such as unbalance, misalignment, looseness etc and bearing quality based on internationally accepted methods The system has sufficient resolution to allow complex vibrations (such as gear mesh frequencies for example) to be identified from the spectral plots. The system fully supports in-house condition based monitoring and predictive maintenance.

The system is so intuitive it really doesn't take long to work out how to use it although we do offer training on system usage and vibration analysis.

An added benefit is that the rugged Pocket PC can also do other jobs such as thermal imaging (simply by attaching our low cost Infra Red camera) or by acting as a data entry terminal so that other process parameters can be trended using FreeTrend.   

All this for under R100 000.00 !!!  Please contact Sue Opperman for more information – 083 456 7886 / sales@avsrsa.com

Failure Analysis : Contamination

Contamination is one of the leading causes of premature bearing failure. 

Symptoms of contamination are dents or scratches embedded in the bearing raceways and balls/rollers, resulting in undue bearing vibration and wear.
	Contaminants may include airborne dust, dirt or any abrasive substance that gets into the bearing.
Principal sources are dirty tools, contaminated work areas, dirty hands and foreign matter in lubricant or cleaning solutions.

Case Study: Results of Condition Monitoring 

One often gets the following two questions:

1. With what condition monitoring technique are failures usually found?
2. What is the cost saving associated with finding failures?

Condition Monitoring Technique Used:
Data was collected for question 1 above by assigning an inspection technique to each work request that turned into a work order. The study was done for 7 months. If a work order for a coupling was turned in, the condition monitoring technique used was assigned to that work order, for example: Found by stroboscope. By collecting data for seven months in a plant, the following was found:

How failures were found in this particular plant:

Cost Savings from Condition Monitoring
To find the cost saving without using too much effort, the plant did a quick cost savings estimate for each inspection that saved downtime. For example, a coupling found in bad condition is estimated to have caused about 2 hours of downtime, and an unplanned job for maintenance.

The calculation would look like this:

A: Cost If coupling broke without warning: Downtime * Cost of Downtime/hr + Direct maintenance cost (unplanned & Unscheduled) + Potential damages

B: Actual cost of repair: Downtime (if any - should be fixed in scheduled shutdown) * Cost of Downtime/hr + direct maintenance cost (planned & scheduled) + Damages(= 0)

A- B = Cost avoidance

The cost avoidance calculation was done by operations and maintenance in the daily planning and scheduling meeting. The result was a cost avoidance of $3,100,000 in 7 months.