In keeping with the focus of Reliable Manufacturing®, this week we are going to start with a tool that can be used to do a simple check on machinery to assess the asset. The strobe light is a simple, inexpensive and easy to handle tool, a Strobe light, can be used for performing preliminary inspections onContinue reading “The value of Strobe Lights”
Author Archives: Reliability Guru
An Introduction to Precision Maintenance®
Why Precision Maintenance®? Did you know according to the Nowlan and Heap study 89% of all failures occur in a random nature. Looking within the famous “6 patterns of machinery failure” you’ll notice that 68% of machinery failures follow “Pattern F”. Within pattern F the majority of failures are due to infant mortality. This means that by eliminating theseContinue reading “An Introduction to Precision Maintenance®”
Are You Ready for the IIOT ?
As we start a new decade and reflect on the past decade one of the hottest reliability subjects is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT). Organizations are investing huge amounts in (if the marketing literature is to be believed) the ultimate answer to everything. While big data and increasing connectivity certainly brings new opportunities toContinue reading “Are You Ready for the IIOT ?”
Do You Look at Failed Bearings?
If not, why not? Bearing failures are a very common form of mechanical breakdown. Apart from identifying that the failure is occurring using a variety of techniques and tools, we rarely take the steps necessary to understanding and prevent the failure from happening again in the future. We can learn a lot about why a bearing failed by simplyContinue reading “Do You Look at Failed Bearings?”
Last Weeks Brain Teaser
Hello All and thanks for the responses to last weeks Brain Teaser. The correct answer was water marks caused by water intrusion followed by the motor then sitting for a period of time. The brown staining noticed by some was likely tarnish deposits cause by breakdown of the lubricant presumably due to the same waterContinue reading “Last Weeks Brain Teaser”
October Brain Teaser
So why did this bearing Fail? It is a cylindrical roller bearing from the drive end bearing of a 3 phase Induction Motor on a VFD. Clues in the video here First correct answer wins a gift from Myles’ desk
Putting Thought Back into Machinery Inspections
An interesting exercise is to go and review a dozen or so of your completed “operator care” round sheets (Electronic or paper). Assuming you could find them, what (useful) information did they contain? Too many times we visit facilities where machinery inspections (look listen feel) are in full swing, but the information they provide isContinue reading “Putting Thought Back into Machinery Inspections”
Checking Sheave Wear… the Forgotten Part of Belt Maintenance
We now have a wide variety tools to help us perform Precision Maintenance® on belt driven machines. These include laser alignment to optimize the alignment of the pulleys, sonic tension gauges to optimize the static tension of the belts, but what about wear on the pulleys?We often just look at it and make a judgementContinue reading “Checking Sheave Wear… the Forgotten Part of Belt Maintenance”
How Well Do Your Analysts Understand the Analysis Process?
With all the technology available to us today to determine the health of our assets, it is quite easy to lose sight of the fundamental approach of how to truly analyze a problem. Our need for immediate answers has tended to push us towards making snap judgements based on the limited data available. The currentContinue reading “How Well Do Your Analysts Understand the Analysis Process?”
Managing our Assets Cradle to Grave
We have all had the situation where, as a maintenance department, we have inherited from a project or new construction, a piece of equipment or asset that is in a less than reliable state. We then spend years and countless dollars and energy trying to manage it. Some believe that if we just do conditionContinue reading “Managing our Assets Cradle to Grave”