Industrial Manufacturing
Includes companies who manufacture durable and non-durable goods which include the automotive, consumer products, industrial machines, fasteners and food & beverage industries.
Critical Assets to Monitor
Industrial manufacturing presents a unique situation in terms of reliability, primarily due to the nature of production. While a wide range of other industries can run at reduced loads or output after suffering unexpected downtime, nearly all assets in industrial manufacturing can be viewed as critical. All assembly line style of manufacturing equipment is dependent on other equipment up line or down line to be operating during production. Even a small issue can severely cripple or entirely halt production. Therefore, it is highly critical to monitor any asset that has the potential to slow or halt production to reduce or eliminate unplanned downtime.
Best Condition Maintenance Technologies to Apply• Vibration Analysis is the preferred technology applied throughout a manufacturing facility as most equipment has standard rolling element bearings, gears and belt drives. Nearly all the equipment in the production line would benefit from regular periodic monitoring to develop planning strategies for asset repair or replacement during scheduled production shutdowns. Vibration provides the widest spectrum of deliverable and actionable results considering the cost of the technology.
• Motor Testing has specific uses on electric motors. Larger process equipment, such as reciprocating compressor drive motors can benefit from annual motor testing to detect stator, winding, or rotor bar issues.
• Infrared Thermography falls into the same category as motor testing as most electrically-driven equipment is small, therefore the MCC buckets and voltages are lower. It is recommended to have at least one annual IR scan of MCC’s. Infrared plays a key role in determining issues with MCC buckets and other higher voltage systems. Infrared can be utilized in rare instances to identify issues with conveyor belts and other multiple-bearing systems that are generally too costly to monitor with other technologies.
• Oil Analysis is an extremely valuable technology in manufacturing lines, primarily due to multiple gearboxes, fluid drives, and hydraulic systems. Oil analysis can give the absolute earliest warning of initial machinery failure modes; however, it comes at the cost of only being specific to oil-filled equipment. Used in conjunction with vibration analysis to determine other mechanical or electrical faults oil analysis plays a key role in manufacturing.
In any manufacturing operation there should be zero tolerance for unplanned downtime. Specifying the appropriate PdM technologies for each specific industry will greatly reduce or eliminate unplanned downtime, thereby maintaining maximum uptime and profitability.
