Be Sure the Grease Tube is Cleared
When following the procedure for greasing bearings with an ultrasonic data collector, one recommendation is to switch to half shots from the grease gun once the ultrasound level decreases. This will avoid over greasing; which can be done with just one full shot.
A lube tech noted that after the initial first shot of grease no noticeable change in the ultrasound level was observed from the measured dBµV display, nor was any change noted in the headphones. Looking closely into the matter he realized that the grease tube between the grease fitting and the bearing had recently been changed and was empty. After 2 or 3 shots (dependent on tube length) the decibel reading started to decrease.
Be aware when greasing bearings where the fitting is located on a grease tube that additional grease may be required to fill the tube, and, that the tube may be blocked with old, dry grease. Once the dB level does begin to decrease, follow the half shot rule to avoid pressurizing the bearing or rupturing the grease seal.

Tip provided by SDT North America
http://sdtnorthamerica.com

By Ricky Smith, CMRP
Companies around the world are facing an economic crisis, which most have never experienced before. If perception is reality then……do you perceive this as an insurmountable problem or an incredible opportunity?
When the economic drivers in the world economy slow down, the world seems to come to a screeching halt! You and I both know that it doesn’t! You may not realize it but, there are companies in the world who see this economic crisis as strategic advantage to overtake their competitors’ position in the marketplace. Having worked with executives with global corporations, I have witnessed this in the “think tank” of strategic planning sessions.
What they are determining behind closed doors is not “how do we keep our doors open” but “how do we grow our market share, take the leader position and shut down our competition”! In essence, they are working hard at closing the doors of their competitors and they are leveraging the economic crisis to do it. They are achieving this through optimizing process reliability and asset reliability.
Here’s how it works:
If you drive down the cost of units produced to a level where you can drop your cost of sales per unit, which is below what your competition can produce, a product success is on the horizon.
How many companies have large amounts of cash reserves where they can “wait out” the economic crisis? Very few would stay this course…even if they had the money in the bank. Why? Why change anything if you can lean out a little and coast till times are better?
Let’s imagine that a competitor (your competitor) can optimize their assets’ reliability, optimize their processes and begin selling (for a profit) their product below the cost of what you are producing your product at….doing so - they CAN control the market and thus drive YOU out of business!
Do you think this has ever occurred? It is occurring right now and most companies either do not know it or are sticking their head in the sand. You know what it looks like? First you lose a few business opportunities because the competition underbids you and you probably think it’s just that they are taking a lesser profit margin.
Facts are, they’re optimizing, cutting their production costs, selling quality product for less and cutting into your market share. Very soon, probably after it’s too late, you’ll ask how they can do that and stay in business. By the time you’re asking this – you probably won’t have much time to work out an optimization strategy and you’re facing a vortex that is going to be hard to pull out of.
If you think it can happen to your company, you’re right! What do you really think?

Watch Ricky Smith’s 8 minute iPresentation - Economic Crisis – 6 Slides What to do about it NOW

Improve profitability and avoid the pitfalls of reactive chaos - without high travel costs. We bring any of the public Maintenance and Reliability Courses presented by People and Processes, Inc. to you!

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The philosophy of Predictive Maintenance is expressed by the words of the definition that are printed in bold text and relating them to something humans are more familiar with: personal health.
• Monitoring means watching carefully
• Diagnosis means to determine health status
• Forecast means to project or predict future status
• Degradation means deficiencies (relative to best possible health)
• Maintenance in the context of the definition means to return the health to normal
• Prior to failure means before complete loss of function or incapacitation
So the philosophy of predictive maintenance is to: Watch carefully. determine health status, predict future status, and return health to normal before complete loss of function.
Those involved with health of humans (and pets) follow this philosophy.  Those involved with the health of machinery, by adopting a predictive maintenance approach, are following the same philosophy.

Tip excerpted from Predictive Maintenance Management by Jack Nicholas Jr., P.E.

Tip sponsored by Industrial Vibration Consultants

Never touch a hydraulic filter with your bare hand during installation.  By touching the filter you will introduce contamination to the hydraulic system.

Tip excerpted from Industrial Machinery Repair by Ricky Smith and R. Keith Mobley

Tip sponsored by Lubrication Engineers Inc - Leaders in Lubricants

Reliability Centered Lubrication Session 1: Creating an Effective Lubrication Survey by Mike Johnson, CLS

Friday, January 23, 2009 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EST

Web Workshop Highlights:
• Peter Jost’s potential savings from better lube practices
• Elements of a machine criticality assessment
• Evaluating the key components

Reserve your web workshop seat now

The First Law of Infrared Thermography

Infrared instruments “see” infrared radiation from the first 1/1000th of an inch of the surface of most solids and liquids.  They DO NOT measure or see temperature.

Tip from Reliability Roadmap Web Workshop: Infrared Level 1 Session 1 (75 minute playback here)

Related content offered by IRISS:  Download or read Infrared Windows and Arc Ratings

RCM- Functional Analysis
The first part of an RCM Study is a functional analysis to determine the required functions of equipment in the operating context of the plant. When facilitating an RCM Study always include a knowledgeable plant operator from the area. Not only will that ensure the correct operating context for subsequent maintenance decisions, but it will also build support from operations for the maintenance plan. You will also be surprised how much information the operator will have in respect to reasons for plant downtime and how it can be easily fixed.
Tip provided by ARMS Reliability Engineers

Find out more about RCM from ARMS