• All pipes are made of a long hole, surrounded by metal or plastic.
• All pipes are to be hollow throughout the entire length, do not use holes longer than the length of pipe.
• The inside diameter of the pipe must not exceed the outside diameter of the pipe, otherwise the hole will be on the outside.
• All pipes are to be supplied with nothing in the hole, so that water, steam or any other stuff may be put in at a later date.
• All pipe should be supplied without rust, this can be added later on the job site. N.B. Some vendors are now able to supply pre-rusted pipe, if this is available in your area it may save some time on the job site.
• All pipe over 150 meters in length should have the words “long pipe”, clearly painted on each end, so the contractor will know that it is long pipe.
• All pipes over 1 kilometre long must have the words “long pipe”, painted in the middle, so the contractor will not have to walk the entire length to determine whether it is long or short pipe.
• All pipe over 150mm inside diameter must have the words “large pipe”, painted on it, so the contractor will not mistake it for a small pipe.
• Flanges must be used on all pipe, the holes in the flange must be separated from the big hole in the middle.
• When ordering 90, 45 or 30 degree elbows make sure you specify right or left turn; otherwise you will end up having the pipe going the wrong way.
• Be sure to specify when you order the pipe, whether you want level, uphill or downhill pipe, otherwise if you use uphill pipe for going downhill, the water will flow the wrong way.
• All coupling should have either right hand or left hand threads, but do not mix the threads, otherwise the coupling being screwed on one pipe is being un-screwed from the other.

Funny Tip provided by Andy Page
Allied Reliability
http://www.alliedreliability.com

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is worthwhile to perform and saves a pump. We have 4 crews working 12 hours shifts at our combined cycle power plant. We had a crew replace a sump pump that our crew had changed only a few months ago. Due to the cost of repairing, the pump is scrapped a new one ordered.
We were surprised to see it in the scrap bin so we decided to disassemble it to see if we could determine the failure mode. Everything we checked was good. Bearings were tight and stator windings meggered good and showed good resistance balance. We were stumped until we looked into the 7-pin cannon plug that was cut off to save to install on a new pump cable. The wires were soldered wrong. Wire 9 was soldered where wire 6 should have been. As a result wire 9 which is the lead to a conductivity probe was exposed to 480V which caused a ground fault. We installed a new cannon plug and retested the pump which worked fine.

Reader tip provided by Carl Massart
O & M Technician
Allegheny Energy
Springdale PA

Thanks for the Tip Carl - your Stainless Steel Diamond Plate Reliabilityweb.com Coffee Travel Mug is on the way!

Register for the Reliability Roadmap Web Workshop:
Root Cause Failure Analysis Session 2: Failure Analysis and Reliability Analysis
Panelist(s): Jack Nicholas, P.E.
Fri, Feb 6, 2009 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EST
Registration Web Link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/113482664

The V-Trainer Library CD is incredibly simple.

It runs in a browser environment on your PC. Training manuals contain literally “hundreds” of animations and images that make the subjects far more interesting and understandable. The technical writing is done with the focus firmly on simple, common-sense explanations.

Find out more about The V-Trainer Library CD

It is always a good practice to collect a time waveform on gearbox applications. The time waveform will detect a “cracked-tooth” fault that cannot be seen in the frequency spectra. Another use is to generate a baseline of gear train modulation to trend over time. Amplitude modulation is not unusual in gearing due to minor gear imperfections, wear, and backlash. However, significant changes in modulation can indicate the onset of problems from looseness or accelerated wear during the life of the unit. Again, like the cracked tooth problem, changes in modulation are uniquely detected in the time waveform and can be completely absent in the frequency spectra.

Tip provided by Dan Ambre, P.E. [Modalguy]
Full Spectrum Diagnostics, PLLC
Plymouth, MN 55441
Phone: 763-577-9959
http://www.fullspec.net

Reliability is the probability that an item will survive to a specified operating age, under specified operating conditions, without failure.
Operator’s Maintenance Program Objectives:

1) Realize inherent safety and reliability levels of equipment

2) Restore safety and reliability to inherent levels when deteriorated
3) Gather information for design improvements when inherent reliability is inadequate
4) Accomplish these goals at a minimum total cost, including maintenance cost and failure cost

Tip excerpted from Reliability Centered Maintenance report prepared by F. Stanley Nowlan and Howard F. Heap - special condensed edition

March 23-26, 2009
Hilton Daytona Beach Florida
The Reliability Centered Maintenance Managers’ Forum is designed for beginners and advanced maintenance professionals to discover ways to create new maintenance programs and to ensure that current maintenance programs include the right work at the right time to ensure operational reliability.

Request an RCM-2009 Program brochure

The time is now …
With many organizations just coming out of shutdown and outage periods over the holidays, now is the time to critique the job planning results for improvement in the next shutdown cycle.  Were the job estimates accurate and did the job plans have the required amount of detail needed to effectively complete the job?  If the plans were lacking, hopefully someone documented the task steps and sequences with pictures and notes.  Now is the time to update those plans with the improved steps, right materials, and actual completion times so they are ready when needed again.
Tip provided by Jeff Shiver, CMRP, CPMM of People and Processes

Learn more with the upcoming January Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Training with Doc Palmer as a guest instructor

Listen and Learn from Others
Have you ever been in a situation where someone in authority starts talking about the workplace, and you think “This person has no clue!” because his words bear no resemblance to reality? Well, you’re not alone. All too often we forget one of the basics of leadership: Listening. Of all the leadership attributes, listening may be the most important. You can have all the other leadership skills, but if you don’t listen to people, it’s all for naught.
The leader who listens knows what’s going on around him or her because listening opens the doors to genuine communication. It demonstrates respect and caring for others. But listening only gets you part way to better leadership. You must also learn from it and use that learning to guide your actions. It’s only through learning that we are able to change, grow, and prepare for the future. Listening and learning help make a leader credible because they compel the leader to put people first. And that’s when really good things can happen.
Here are three tips to help you be a better listener…and a better learner:

1) Know the difference between hearing and listening. To hear means “to perceive by the ear.” To listen means “to pay attention.” There’s a big difference.
2) Get into the ACT of listening. Employ body language. Look at the person who is speaking. Make and keep eye contact. Position your body in a way that shows you are open and receptive to what the person is saying.
3) Adopt the 2/1 rule: Listen twice as much as you talk. Why do you think we have two ears and one mouth

Tip excerpted from 180 Ways to Walk the Leadership Talk: The How-To Handbook for Leaders at All Levels by John Baldoni