Deploy Complimentary Technologies for Condition Monitoring
Reliability programs relying on only one condition monitoring technology to assess machine condition set themselves up for mistakes. Take for example the lessons learned by the facilities maintenance department at this South Western Ontario University.
They asked an untrained summer student to measure spot temperature on the library’s rooftop air handlers for the HVAC. During a very hot and humid sunny summer afternoon, bearing temperatures spiked (unexplainably) on the southwest side of the building. They shut down the system and overhauled a perfectly good bearing.
The $6,000 in labour costs should have been contributed toward an ultrasound system that measured spot temperature and vibration simultaneously. Three data sets from one instrument in the hands of a moderately trained operator could have saved this unnecessary shutdown.