| By Alan Bandes & Chuck Peterson
“health” of a machine is monitored for the earliest signs
of impending failure, is how thousands of plants worldwide are saving
billions of dollars annually. Early predictions of machine illness is
essential to reducing energy waste and eliminating downtime while increasing
production output as well as asset availability. Establishing an effective
predictive maintenance program that utilizes powerful and accurate technologies
such as Ultrasound and Infrared, enables maximum profitability through
the ability to see and hear areas of concern we never could before -
with precise, timely results, granting an enormous advantage over standard
predictive maintenance practices.
The Combined Power:
Condition based Monitoring is nothing new to the industry. Today,
every company is utilizing at least one system for inspecting potential
problems within plant operations. What is relatively new to the industry
however, is the combined power of using multiple technologies such as
ultrasound and infrared.
Since we were born, we have been taught that if you can’t see
it or hear it, it is not there. Through the ultrasound and infrared,
we are able to eliminate this picture from our mindset and extend our
senses and creative problem solving through technologies that have been
developed to see and hear everything we can’t.
Combining ultrasound and infrared testing methods is the safest and
most un-intrusive way of testing that allows inspectors to easily see,
hear and record areas of concern that have been difficult to detect
before, extending the ability to accurately diagnose all areas of potential
failure within a plant environment.
Combined, infrared thermal imaging and ultrasound can be used with
a wide range of equipment and plant operations including: aircraft inspection,
bearing and mechanical inspection, electrical inspection, electric arc
flash, steam trap testing & maintenance, bearing condition, rubbing
conditions, pumps/motors, lack of lubrication, steam traps, switchgears,
transformers, relays, bus bars, substation electrical inspections, electrical
distribution systems, electric motor inspections, refinery process line
insulation loss or leak detection, heat exchanger quality and efficiency
evaluations, HVAC equipment evaluations and even pest infestation inspections.
These are mentioning only a few.
The point is clear, that nearly any industry, especially plant conditions,
can benefit from the using both ultrasound and infrared technology.
It’s a power that can predict failures in machines before they
become unmanageable - detecting weak spots, leaks, worn bearings, and
overheating of electrical equipment and machinery and much more.
The importance in all industries taking advantage of combined predictive
intelligence is that machine failure can be effectively managed before
its run to death through the detection technology that is most appropriate
for the application. When a machine is inspected using the wrong detection
instrumentation, the possibility looms that potential problems will
go unnoticed, allowing equipment to perform until it reaches melt down.
Often this damage is far more involved then it would have been if spotted
and handled at its earliest warning stage using either ultrasound or
infrared. In fact, costs can inflate to be as much as 5 to 40 times
higher after machine failure. The loss of profits is also significantly
higher when downtime extends over the course of days as well as statistics
for energy waste, transportation, and steel, which have all risen 4
to 20 percent over the past years.
Safety issues present an entirely different perspective on predictive
maintenance. Death ratios are estimated at 42 percent as a result of
explosions, 14 percent from fires and burns, and 13 percent from poisoning;
numbers that could drastically decline with accurate predictive maintenance,
as seen in plants that use combined predictive maintenance, reporting
statistics below the average in all categories, as well as higher profit
margins.
Integrated Ultrasound and Infrared – the Power
of Two
Chuck Peterson, president and owner of PPM, “Peterson’s
Predictive Maintenance”, saw the opportunity that these combined
resources had to offer, and started his company focusing on its benefits
in 2001. Peterson’s company promotes predictive maintenance practices
and equipment, and hosts educational seminars that teach techniques.
Six years after inception, Peterson has proven to be correct in his
estimates for the potential of combined CbM; saving industry leading
corporations hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
During Ultrasound World III, the nation’s premier conference
focused on ultrasound inspection technology, Peterson was invited to
speak about the integration of ultrasound and infrared technologies.
His theories about energy conservation and monetary saving have brought
him clients such as Boeing, Kroeger, and Abengoa. He also supports training
operations on infrared for roughly 25 hospitals in Kansas.
Peterson sites several examples of how these combined technologies
can help to significantly reduce the potential for failure in most plant
applications – saving companies days or sometimes weeks in downtime.
Some of these studies include:
Detection of Bearing Failure
It is a fact that inboard bearing failure is certain. Specific to motors,
most run hot due to an overload from bearing drag – likely caused
by over greased bearings. Infrared thermal imaging will show immediate
signs of the motor being over greased while ultrasound can identify
the exact problem and determine how much grease to apply to a motor.
After detecting the problem via infrared and then listening to the bad
bearing via ultrasound, inspectors can ensure that the motor runs cool
and it has even heat inboard to outboard – making sure the center
of the motor is the only part of the machine that is warm, thus eliminating
over heating and pending failure.
Misalignments
As is often the case during inspection, several machines may appear
to be running fine. However, when checked closely you may notice quite
a bit of vibration or other causes of alarm. Infrared inspection may
show a bad misalignment, indicating inboard bearings are hot and the
center of the coupler is showing heat where it should not be warm at
all. After seeing this problem through infrared, ultrasound could quickly
hear the problem in both inboard bearings. This allows inspectors to
immediately act on the concern with the justification that both detection
tools found fault within the system.
From loose or dirty connections where an infrared camera can detect
areas of concern through heat discoloration while ultrasound hears arcing
in the loose connection, to loose fuse clips where ultrasound tracks
the looseness of the fuse and infrared can detect that the fuse clips
have lost tension or where the wire on the fuse appears loose, both
technologies compliment each other in several ways – helping inspectors
determine the most appropriate next steps, whether trending and reporting
over time or immediate part adjustment or replacement.
Case Studies:
Chevron USA, Perth Amboy NJ has six to eight thousand steam traps
throughout the plant. The plant generates close to 500,000 lb./hr. of
steam. A steam trap audit with ultrasound and infrared revealed the
trap failure rate was up to 28%. Because of this discovery, the refinery
has increased its steam trap reliability by 15% within two years after
ultrasound technology was put into use as a compliment to infrared.
The reduction in steam losses is saving at least $50,000 a month.
As another example to the benefits of how these technologies compliment
one another, Peterson notes that a large plant he worked with shut down
for an afternoon, used a regular stethoscope and picked up a bearing
noise with a machine running at low speed. The housing they listened
to contained two bearings at a cost of $1,500 each. Their stethoscope
could not determine which bearing was going bad. With the plant back
in operation the next day, and all other machinery running, they used
ultrasound in combination with infrared to check the machine in question,
while running at top speed. Ultrasound identified the front bearing
as being the culprit while the back bearing was okay. Infrared thermal
imaging acknowledged the same problem through discoloration in the bearing
due to heat. They immediately replaced only the front bearing at a cost
of $1,500, and were back into production much sooner than would have
been the case had they replaced both bearings.
Another interesting example of combined CbM via ultrasound and infrared
is noted by Peterson through one of the largest construction companies
in the Southwest United States. This company currently uses ultrasound
to check the hydraulic systems on earth moving equipment, tower cranes,
etc. while utilizing infrared to gauge any faults with all of its pumps
and motors. Recently, ten minutes of predictive maintenance prevented
the destruction of two pumps worth $2,000 each by indicating over lubrication
of bearings within the motors. This diagnosis saved the company a number
of potential losses: two or three days downtime, the cost of eight hours
of maintenance time (at overtime rates), air freight charges to fly
in new pumps, and even the possibility of a penalty for the delay in
completing the project.
Avoid Potential Catastrophies with Infrared and Ultrasound
By combining these two technologies, plant managers can easily and
quickly avoid potential catastrophic events while maintaining the most
efficient plant operations possible. An advanced warning to potential
danger, decreased production and downtime, both ultrasound and infrared
offer quality and accurate diagnosis to ensure productivity, safety
and profitability – enabling plants to remain one step ahead of
the potential for failure at all times.
Going Green-the color of monetary anti-waste:
Billions of dollars are lost every year when calculating total energy
waste. In fact, last year it was estimated that $3.2 billion dollars
were lost due to poor energy conservation through compressed air leaks
alone. Another way of relating that figure and what most companies don’t
realize is the total profit loss from compressed air leaks can amount
to 40% of their electric bill. When taking those numbers into perspective,
a large percentage of those figures could have been eliminated and utilized
as company profit with the combined technology of ultrasound and infrared.
There is yet another up side to the use of ultrasound and infrared
technologies. It’s a way for organizations to “go green”.
In addition to adding to the benefit of monetary increase, the conservation
of energy is a global health necessity, especially now with the political
upheaval that is stirring in regards to global warming. By initializing
combined technologies of ultrasound and infrared there is a significant
energy waste decline, which is an environmental effort to control the
amount of wasted fuels, and control conditions that are presenting themselves
as alarming hazards.
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