Predictive maintenance case story ref

Predictive Maintenance The Case Story “This plant is only two years old, and we’re fortunate that our upper management decided to go with a predictive maintenance program from the very

Summary

Case story of setting up and operating a cost-effective predictive maintenance program at Champion Paper Company

Predictive Maintenance Case Story

MB02006

SKF

4 pages

April 2002

SKF Reliability Systems

@ptitudeXchange

5271 Viewridge Court

San Diego, CA 92123

United States

tel +1 858 496 3554

fax +1 858 496 3555

email: info@aptitudexchange.com

Internet: www.aptitudexchange.com

Predictive Maintenance

The Case Story

“This plant is only two years old, and we’re

fortunate that our upper management decided

to go with a predictive maintenance program

from the very beginning,” advised John

Daniels, predictive maintenance specialist at

the Champion Paper Company plant in

Quinnesec, Michigan “We have two people

assigned full-time for vibration analysis …

plus two SKF Condition Monitoring Microlog

portable data collectors, an IBM PC computer

with a Bernoulli box, a real time analyzer and

plotter, and a printer.”

The predictive maintenance program

currently monitors approximately 6,600

points For each unit they take vertical,

horizontal and axial readings … so that one

motor and pump represents 12 monitoring

points There is one weekly data collection

route which is run each Thursday, and consists

of critical equipment that affects production

throughout the entire plant In addition, there

are 29 monthly routes and two quarterly routes

… with each route including approximately

250 points and taking 2-3 hours to collect

“At first, we listed every piece of equipment

in the plant that we wanted to monitor, and

divided those into four areas; the pulp

machine, the pulp mills, the boilers and the

wood yard area,” he continued “We had

approximately 1,000 machines that we wanted

to look at, and thought that a monthly

schedule would be the most efficient for the

majority of the points.”

“In fact, after we set up the data collection

routes we found that we could conveniently

include less critical points that were in the

same area, and monitor them on a monthly

rather than quarterly basis."

When the program was started two years ago,

they looked at a variety of vibration

monitoring equipment and selected the

Microlog system developed by SKF Condition Monitoring, of San Diego, California “At the time we selected SKF Condition Monitoring, their system offered some of the most

enhanced features available,” he added “In fact, we were a beta test site for them, and were able to work closely with them on any questions, concerns or problems that came up.”

Figure 1 SKF Condition Monitoring’s Microlog Portable Data Collector

“One of the most important considerations that we found in integrating this technology into our plant was educating our people We developed one program that allows our mechanics the opportunity to spend 2-3 days working with the system … outlining what we’re trying to accomplish, and providing basic information about how the system works We let them load the Microlog with the computer, go out and take a route, then dump the data back into the computer.”

“This experience is important for two reasons;

first, it helps them understand what we’re trying to do in this department and how it relates to their job and second, if a problem develops during the second or third shifts

Predictive Maintenance when our people are not here, one of these

mechanics can come to our office, pick up one

of the Micrologs and use it to record critical

information They might not understand all of

the details of the program, but they can be

very helpful in an emergency.”

“We’re also in the process of developing a

similar program for all of our managers and

production people One that provides an

overview of what we’re doing and the type of

information that we collect and process

We’ve found that some managers who were

not aware of vibration analysis have been

amazed at what we have been able to do …

they too have become believers.”

Even though the plant is relatively new, there

have already been a number of situations

where the predictive maintenance program has

been particularly cost-effective

“One of the systems is a 1,250-hp primary cleaner pump motor which we monitor on a monthly basis,” he continued “We noticed that the system had a high axial vibration reading, and by trending the data we found that it was consistently climbing each month

We scheduled to replace it during the next scheduled downtime, and when we got it into the shop we found that the motor had a 0.050”

differential in the air gap fitting That is something that you can’t see, feel or hear … and without the analysis we would have run the motor until it had failed … probably when

we could least afford it; at 3 a.m some morning.”

“Production downtime represents a

significant cost for us, in addition to the cost

of parts and labor to repair a piece of equipment That experience alone saved us thousands of dollars.”

Figure 2 “By trending vibration readings they can identify developing problems that otherwise would go

undetected.”

Predictive Maintenance

“We make a point of documenting each of

these instances where the predictive

maintenance program has made a difference,

and we present the data in a variety of reports

and graphs We keep educating our

management on the problems that we control

or prevent, and then put these abilities into the

financial and production terms; terms that they

more easily understand As a result, our

management usually supports our annual

budget requests, as well as requests for special

project funding.”

“We’re also constantly working to improve

the efficiency of the program We’re currently

re-evaluating which pieces of equipment are

included in the program, and we’re trying to

determine if we can reduce the number of

points that we monitor on each machine … for

example, from 12 points to 8 points If we can

reduce the number of points that we monitor

in the current program, we’ll be able to add more of the less critical points to the schedule, and expand our information data base even more.”

“The best advice for someone who is considering starting up a predictive maintenance program is to sit down and identify what equipment you have, and what you want to accomplish,” he concluded “Over the last three years a lot of new diagnostic equipment has been developed, and you can accomplish just about anything that you might want with one form of the technology or another.”

“However, if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want, you may end up with state-of-the-art technology that sits on the shelf … or that provides information that really isn’t useful