Choosing the Correct Infrared Equipment

If you are in the market for infrared equipment in your maintenance department, take that little extra time to do your research. The industry has changed dramatically in the last few years with several new players in the market offering more options and features to choose from than ever before.

Since we all have to live within our budgets, cost is often the first thing considered when identifying the correct purchase. Because of this, it is best to approach the process from a Life Cycle Cost perspective rather than a simple Return On Investment approach. Ask yourself what the ramifications would be if a quality infrared camera was needed for your application and a low end camera were to be purchased? How much longer will the inspection routes take? How many anomalies could be missed due to having the wrong tool and what would those costs be?

The first step in this process is to identify your own particular needs to help narrow down the options. Typical maintenance infrared needs fall into one of the three following categories. To determine which is right for you, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do you need equipment for operations or maintenance technicians to have in their tool bags for random- or rounds-type temperature measurements?
• If so, spot radiometers would work well for this application.

2. Do you have the need to complete follow up checks on electrical repairs made from an outside contractor and perform basic mechanical checks?
• Where visible images are critical but having a high end radiometric camera may not be needed, you should go with a middle of the road non-radiometric camera.

3. Do you need a higher end camera for a route based condition monitoring program?
• In this case you would want to consider a radiometric camera that has quality, easy to use software for reporting.

Once the selection has been narrowed by determining your overall needs, you can begin looking into the features of the equipment in the category you selected. It is highly advisable to research the key infrared features and terminology prior to discussions with vendors if you are not already familiar with the equipment or vendor.

The final step to purchasing an infrared camera is giving it a test drive. Vendors are more than willing to come to your site and let you give their camera a trial run. Take advantage of this offer and don’t skip this step. Just as each car you drive has a different feel, each camera has a different feel and comfort level as well. If you follow these guidelines, you will find a camera that fits your needs and makes you happy.

Tip provided by Dallas Fossum, Reliability Solutions Director, Allied Reliability

Discover the secrets of the best PdM programs in the world

Always document “Lost Opportunities” in your predictive maintenance program. “Lost Opportunities” occur when equipment goes down due to an unpredicted failure. This documentation allows the predictive maintenance program to evaluate that the correct technologies and setup are being applied to correctly determine the failure modes on equipment. Also, this documentation can be used as an example to management for identification of additional technologies or additional resources that may be required to identify the equipment failures in the future.

Tip provided by LUDECA, INC.
ALIGNMENT * VIBRATION * BALANCING
http://www.ludeca.com
Tel: 305-591-8935

Make plans to attend PdM-2006 in Chattanooga

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Become an Infraspection Institute Certified Infrared Thermographer®. Complete 32 hours of Distance Learning and take your certification exam at one of our convenient locations.

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Clean Sensor Placement is Key to Repeatability

Testing bearings is a critical element of most ultrasound inspection programs and storing data for trending and analysis purposes leads to early detection of advanced wear and lubrication needs. Paying attention to sensor placement is just as important for ultrasonic monitoring as it is for vibration.

One mistake to avoid is taking ultrasound readings through a lot of dirt, grime, and multiple layers of paint. Ultrasounds are low energy sound pressure waves. Their travel from the source (Your bearing) to the destination (Your ultrasonic data collector) depends on a medium that is consistent and continuous. If their journey is interrupted by molecular air gaps, layers of paint, and built-up dirt, what implications does that have for corrupting data? Ultrasonic trending and analysis relies on comparing measurements over time. Clean the sensor placement area to ensure measurements are collected in an environment that’s as free from variables as possible.

This tip supplied by SDT North America
Tel: 905-377-1313

Read Airborne Ultrasound - Predictive Maintenance for the Masses White Paper

Grouping Failure Modes is a common mistake that often leads to missed Failure Modes and lost opportunities for improvement. Evidence of Failure Mode grouping is a vibration analysis task that looks to detect the failure mode for “lack of lubrication.”

Reliability Centered Maintenance requires discipline from your facilitators and team members the end result is a maintenance strategy that is designed for what could happen to your equipment. The true value of Reliability Centered Maintenance is only achieved through experience and discipline.

Tip provided by Doug Plucknette
Reliability Solutions
Tel: 585-349-7245

iPresentation Tutorial: Preparing for Your RCM Analysis

Gain a thorough understanding of what it takes to make your plant more reliable – and achieve breakthrough performance. Join the legend, Al Weber, an internationally respected authority on reliability and founding chairman of the SMRP (Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals) for an invaluable educational experience.

Attend Ivara’s 2-day workshops, “Reliability – Preparing for Tomorrow’s Maintenance World” to learn a proven, low risk method of improving asset reliability. Drawing on over 30 years of experience in multiple plants in various industries, Al will provide insight on how you can realistically start improving reliability on one asset when you return to work.

Make a difference in your organization! Next workshops dates: May 9 – 10 in Houston, Texas.

Seating is limited. Register now.

When writing procedures, using upper and lower case text increases the retention rate. This is because the mind does not read words, it reads patterns that form words. When using all UPPER CASE text, the patterns for each word are rectangular and tend to make all words look the same. This is opposed to upper and lower case text in which each word has a unique shape or pattern. UPPER CASE lettering should be used sparingly to draw the eye to it and indicate highlighted importance or urgency.

Tip provided by the Reliability Center Inc.
Tel: 804-458-0645

Learn More About Human Error Reduction for Supervisors Workshop

Voltage distribution on motor startup

Of electrical failures in motors, the vast majority of problems begin in the winding insulation, not the groundwall insulation. Everyone owns a meg-ohm meter but may not realize its shortcomings. A meg-ohm meter puts an even voltage across motor windings and will basically tell you if the motor is grounded or not. It is extremely limited as a predictive maintenance tool. You can drive a nail through the copper windings and not detect this with a meg-ohm meter unless it interferes with the groundwall insulation. During startup, a motor experiences voltages 3-5 times operating voltage due to contactor bouncing and other reasons for a vfd application. How many times have you witnessed a motor fail on startup? This voltage decays exponentially as it travels through the motor windings, thus causing a voltage difference between copper windings. The highest voltages are near the lead terminal and the ONLY way to duplicate this phenomenon as far as voltage amplitude and rise-time is the surge test. Surge testers output a fraction of the actual current a motor sees during startup. Find arcing problems early on with the surge test weeks or months before it turns into a shorted turn. Once a shorted turn is present, you will have a failed motor before you finish your lunch.

Tip provided by Baker Instrument
Tel: (800) 752-8272

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