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Keeping contamination under control.

Play to win.
Uptime Feb-Mar_2009.indd 67 1/23/09 8:41:52 PM
Anchoring Reliability in
Lean Manufacturing
Principles
Tale of a Maximo Upgrade
Common Reasons for PdM Failure
The Value of Inside Consulting
Seeing Sound: A Visual Acoustic
Analysis Case Study
the magazine for maintenance & reliability professionals
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contents
upfront
upclose lean manufacturing forms a
solid anchor for reliability
programs
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www.uptimemagazine.com
information technology maxing out a software upgrade
infrared knowing transmission rate ensures accurate data
lubrication doing homework on oil mist at a petrochem plant
maintenance management why PdM programs fail
motor testing the challenge of crafting standards
precision maintenance better than just proactive
reliability finding value on the inside
ultrasound gain a new perspective
vibration the acoustic analysis advantage
upgrade building better bearing isolators
38
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54
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8
Web Exclusive Articles
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Taking Reliability Beyond Time & Space
Read about how the latest technology,
including PDAs, Smart Phones, Text
and Instant Messaging can help avoid
downtime and, in the process, elevate
your PdM program to higher levels
New Tools for Analyzing Grease Samples
New methods have been developed that
allow analysis of small quantities of grease
(as little as 1 gram) to determine grease
mixing, contamination, wear and oxidation.
Well, the first quarter of 2009 has come and gone. How are things looking for
your company, and more particularly, for your maintenance department?
I have just returned from RCM/EAM/MTrain-2009 in Daytona Beach, a collocated
conference with focuses on reliability centered maintenance, enterprise asset
management and maintenance training. To my knowledge, this was the first
maintenance focused conference to take place in 2009. Many others were
scheduled, but as I understand it, could not draw enough people to actually be
held.
That alone gives you an idea of the state of the maintenance and reliability
industry. I applaud the companies that sent personnel to the conference in
Daytona, and I have a sneaking suspicion that they may be the ones who will be
leading the pack in their respective industries when the economy picks up steam
again. Making education and training a priority in the face of rough economic
times is the epitome of proactive maintenance, and those companies that forge
ahead with training are to be commended.
But we certainly understand that not every company can do that, which is why
Uptime strives to bring you information that will help you, in the here and now,
to increase your knowledge and performance. Not only in our printed issue, but
in our digital issue and on our newly super-enhanced website. Uptime 2.0 has
arrived. We invite you to buckle your seat belts and take us for a test drive.
All of the articles you see in the magazine are posted on the website, where you
can post comments about them, read our guest bloggers, participate in forums
and more. We hope you will become a valuable member of our maintenance
and reliability community by using our improved website to connect with fellow
maintenance professionals in order to learn, teach and share experiences. By
participating, you can help expand our communitys knowledge and reach.
The majority of us are being required to do more with less (something we
thought we were doing even before this economic downturn). This months
feature article by Andy Page (page 8) connects the dots from Lean Manufacturing
to Reliability, and we hope you can put some of the ideas from the article to
immediate use. Continuing in the more with less theme, Steve Thomass article
(page 46) provides some keen insight on tapping into internal resources to help
drive reliability initiatives.
No matter what the business environment, we can all continue to push for
continuous improvement, and I sincerely hope that Uptime can help you on your
journey to better maintenance.
I hope you enjoy this issue. As always, thank you for reading. We appreciate your
support, and hope you find value within these pages and on our newly revamped
website. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions that will make
Uptime more useful to you, please let us know.
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Moving Forward
uptime
PUBLISHER
Terrence OHanlon
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Jeffrey C Shuler
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volume 4, issue 34
Ron Eshleman
Greg Stockton
Ray Thibault
Jack Nicholas, Jr.
Dr. Howard Penrose
James Hall
Alan Johnston
Jay Lee, PhD
John Mitchell
Jason Tranter
april/may 2009
6
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
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All the best,
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Uptime Magazine is a founding member of
APPENDICES
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t4IVUEPXO5VSOBSPVOE.BOBHFNFOU
t5IF.BOVGBDUVSJOH(BNF
TAKE HOME WORKSHOPS
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t%FWFMPQJOH:PVS"DUJPO1MBOGPS.BOVGBDUVSJOH&YDFMMFODF
t"TTVSJOH1SPDFTT$POTJTUFODZEVSJOH/PSNBM0QFSBUJPO
t0QUJNJ[BUJPO:PVS1.1SBDUJDFT
PROGRAM:
Selecting the Right
Improvement Tools
Master Class
CLASS:
What Tool? When?
by Ron Moore
DATE & LOCATION:
1uly 29-30 - lr. Myers, lL
PLA5 RCl57R 70AYl 5A75 AR LlMl7.
Call toll free (888) 575-1245 or visit www.maintenanceconference.com
DAYONE
8:30am-10:15am Manufacturing Excellence The Basics
- |ntroductlons
- Overvlew of manufacturlng excellence
- The Pellablllty process for manufacturlng excellence
- Leadershlp prlnclples
- Teamwork
- Change management
- Organlzatlonal Structure
10:15am-10:30am Break
10:30am-11:15am Workshop: Current Tools in Use,
Benefts, Problems
- Self Audlt of Current Management Support and Plant Culture,
Operatlng Practlces, Malntenance Practlces
11:15am-12:30pm The Hawthorne Efect; The Pygmalion Efect;
The Beginning and End; Business Level FMEA -
Selecting the right improvement projects and
tools; Business Level FMEA Case Studies
12:30pm-1:15pm Lunch
1:15pm-2:45pm Lean Manufacturing
- Kalzen, lncludlng the Qulck Changeover Process
- Total Productlve Malntenance (TPM)
- OLL as a Means of Measurlng and Managlng waste
2:45pm-3:00pm Break
3:00pm-4:15pm Workshop Business Level FMEA
4:15pm-5:00pm Summary and Close
DAYTWO
8:30am-9:00am Discussion, Questions and Comments
9:00am-10:15am Six Sigma; Supply Chain Management - Two
Approaches
10:15am-10:30am Break
10:30am-12:15pm Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), plus:
- Predlctlve Malntenance
- Malntenance Plannlng and Schedullng
12:15pm-1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm-2:30pm Workshop: Case Studies What would you do?
2:30pm-2:45pm Break
2:45pm-3:45pm Root Cause Analysis; Performance
Measurement Cascade
3:45pm-4:30pm Workshop: Personal Refection and Action Plan
4:30pm-5:00pm Summary
5:00pm Close
by Andy Page, CMRP
april/may 2009
8
The concepts contained within Lean
Manufacturing are not limited merely
to production systems. These concepts
translate directly into the world
of maintenance and reliability.
R
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MANUFACTURING
and
LINKING
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t the core of Lean Manufacturing philosophy is the
concept of elimination of waste. It is about getting
precisely the right resources to precisely the right
place and at the right time to make only the necessary products
in the most efficient manner possible.
The concepts of the elimination of waste can be easily traced to
Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard encouraged the concepts of
elimination of waste in numerous ways. Adages like Waste not,
want not, A penny saved is two pence clearSave and have
and He that idly loses 5s. [shillings] worth of time, loses 5s., and
might as prudently throw 5s. into the river. Yes, it was Benjamin
Franklin that educated us about the possibility that avoiding un-
necessary costs could return more profit than simply increasing
total sales.
It was Henry Ford who took the concept of the elimination of
waste and integrated it into daily operations at his manufactur-
ing facilities. Mr. Fords attitude can be seen in his books My Life
and Work (1922) and in Today and Tomorrow (1926) where he
describes the folly of waste and introduces the world to Just-In-
Time manufacturing. Mr. Ford cites inspiration from Benjamin
Franklin as part of the foundation of these concepts.
However, it wasnt until Toyotas Chief Engineer, Taiichi Ohno
systematized these concepts and the concept of pull (kanban) into
the Toyota Production System and created a cohesive production
philosophy focused on the elimination of waste, that the world
was able to see the real power of Lean Manufacturing. Interest-
ingly enough, when Mr. Ohno was asked about the inspiration
of his system, he merely laughed and said he read most of it in
Henry Fords book.
Part 1 of this paper will focus on one very specific Lean Manu-
facturing method known as 5S. This section will detail how a 5S
initiative focusing on a plants preventive maintenance program
can immediately unlock resources within that maintenance de-
partment and make the preventive maintenance process signifi-
cantly more effective and efficient. Part 2 will look at the Deadly
Wastes (muda) of manufacturing and how elimination of these
wastes is also a focus of the reliability process. Part 3 will discuss
the overall objectives of Lean Manufacturing and parallel them
with the overall objectives of the reliability process. Part 4 will
discuss poka-yoke (mistake proofing) and see how several stan-
dard maintenance techniques are, in fact, poka-yoke techniques.
A brief discussion of kaizen and how both Lean Manufacturing
and Maintenance and Reliability initiatives share these very same
goals and objectives will summarize the article.
www.uptimemagazine.com
A
april/may 2009
Yet another way to look at this concept with
regard to order is the concept of load level-
ing the PM tasks, operator care and inspec-
tion tasks and lubrication tasks. The tasks are
grouped by functional area within the plant
and then arranged to insure that each person
has about the same load or amount of tasks
to complete and that the tasks are grouped
and arranged to be completed in the most ef-
ficient manor possible.
Seiso Shine and Scrub (cleanliness)
Lean Application: The workplace must always
be as clean as possible, giving the workplace a
tell-at-a-glance visual so that a visual sweep
reveals any out-of-place item. Waste and trash
must be dealt with quickly. Machines must
be kept clean making leaks and other defects
more easily recognized.
PM Application: When cleaning out a pre-
ventive maintenance (PM) program, it should
be scrubbed of all tasks that do not specifi-
cally address a failure mode or do not pass a
simple cost/benefit analysis. More specifical-
ly, it should be a failure mode that is appropri-
ate for preventive maintenance tasks. Weibull
analysis of failure data should show a strong
10
these tasks can be reassigned to other mainte-
nance functions like working down the ready
backlog.
Seiton Straighten (orderliness)
Lean Application: The workplace must be ar-
ranged in a systematic manner that will en-
courage efficiency and will reduce unnecessary
travel and/or motiona place for everything,
and everything in its place, clean and ready
for use with the minimum motion. Things
should be placed where they best meet their
functional purpose.
1
PM Application: Another 30% of the tasks con-
tained within most PM programs should be
reassigned either to operations or to a lubri-
cation route. Some of these tasks are gener-
ally classified as Asset Care tasks and should
be performed by an operator. Other general
inspection tasks should be reassigned to op-
erators once they have completed task quali-
fication training. Lubrication tasks should
be reassigned to a lubrication route where a
trained lubrication technician can ensure that
the task is performed to industry best prac-
tices standards.
5S
5S is the name given to the Lean Manufactur-
ing method for the clearing out of all unneces-
sary things to allow room for the acquisition of
tools and parts in the fastest and easiest man-
ner. A comparison of 5S methodology with
an evaluation and optimization of a preven-
tive maintenance program at a plant quickly
shows how similar these processes are.
Seiri Sort (tidiness and/or organize)
Lean Concept: The workplace is rid of any-
thing that is unnecessary. Tools and parts are
sorted, only the essential items are kept and
they are then sorted and stored by frequency
of use. This makes the workplace uncluttered,
safer and enables organization for productive
work.
Preventive Maintenance (PM) Application:
Studies agree that somewhere between 30%
and 50% of the tasks in most preventive main-
tenance programs are non-value added and
should be removed. These tasks actually cost
more to perform than the benefit they yield.
The labor associated with the completion of
W
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11
www.uptimemagazine.com
that detail nominal measurements with mini-
mum and/or maximum allowable limits. PM
inspections should require the use of mea-
surement tools such as calibers, micrometers
and torque wrenches. As Found and As
Left comments should be required fields and
their responses catalogued in the CMMS pro-
gram.
Performing a Preventive Maintenance Evalua-
tion (PME) identifies the amount of waste in
a PM program and also helps sort out which
PM tasks can be reassigned to other teams
within the maintenance and operations de-
partments. It is a very quick and powerful
assessment that can free up some manpower
within the maintenance organization to be
used for other things. Additionally, the PME
process will identify how many tasks need
to be optimized. A Preventive Maintenance
Optimization (PMO) is the process of revis-
iting those tasks that will remain in the PM
program and making sure all task procedures
are systematic, standardized and contain all of
Wear Out curve. This means that it truly
is a wear out mechanism and a tradition-
al interval based activity, or PM, should
be applied to properly combat it. Fail-
ure modes that exhibit a Weibull shape,
indicating random failure patterns, are
not good candidates for interval based
PM activities. For these failure modes,
a comprehensive inspection program is
more appropriate. Condition monitor-
ing technologies like infrared thermog-
raphy, vibration analysis and oil analysis
are very powerful tools for just such fail-
ure modes and easily pass a cost/benefit
analysis.
Seiketsu Standardize
Lean Application: Everyone agrees to and
documents critical standards for how the
workplace is organized and who has re-
sponsibility to maintain that organization.
PM Application: All of the tasks that remain
in the PM program should follow the same
agreed-to standard for format and content.
All of the tasks should include a clear defini-
tion of the task, specific steps, necessary safe-
ty warnings, appropriate tools and required
parts. Additionally, the tasks should contain
a revision tracking mechanism and should
have been through a technical review and ap-
proval process. Also, the procedure should
always provide for a feedback mechanism for
the crafts personnel to make suggestions and
corrections about the procedure. This mecha-
nism creates a continuous improvement loop
for the task procedure.
Shitsuke Systematize, Sustain
Lean Application: Maintaining a culture of dis-
cipline. Workplace standards are maintained
day after day, and there is a system in place to
ensure that 5S is sustained. Once attained, the
workplace is kept safe and efficient.
PM Application: Creating a culture of disci-
pline in the PM program requires systematiz-
ing the program, requiring the tasks be of a
nature that not only encourages craft person-
nel response, but includes tasks that super-
visors and managers perform to ensure that
craft personnel know and follow the stan-
dards. PM programs where the comments
and recommendations of the crafts personnel
are not acted on quickly become ineffective.
In creating a systematic, sustainable PM pro-
gram, all of the tasks should be quantitative
in nature with specific, measurable activities
the necessary information for the task to be
completed in the most orderly and efficient
manner possible.
The PME and PMO are a very powerful com-
bination of techniques that can be performed
on a PM program. Once completed, the PM
program will be rid of unnecessary tasks, tasks
that dont address a specific failure mode and
tasks that are more appropriately assigned to
other teams within the maintenance depart-
ment or to other departments. Remaining
tasks will be optimized for efficient comple-
tion.
Table 2 details the analysis of a PM program
and the number of craft personnel that can be
freed up, reassigned or used for other things
such as condition monitoring.
Many maintenance organizations complain
about having insufficient manpower to be able
to reduce their maintenance backlog. These
same organizations also complain about not
PM Task Action
Recommendation
# of Tasks % of Tasks
Man-Hours
Represented
Reassign to Operator Care 1,380 6.9% 5,605
Reassign to Lube Route 2,856 14.3% 11,600
Replace with PdM 6,437 32.2% 28,222
Re-Engineer 5,200 26.0% 26,221
No Modifcations Required 2,487 10.4% 8,987
Totals 20,000 100.0% 87,297
Table 2 - Detailed analysis of a PM Program
1 - A Second Look At 5S, James Van Patten, Quality Progress, October 2006
Lean Manufacturing Defnition
Japanese Name
English Translation
Preventive Maintenance Evaluation
Defnition
Organized: Distinguish between the
less essential and the necessary.
1
Seiri
Separate
Step 1: Eliminate all non-value added tasks
from the PM.
Neat: Put things where they best
meet their functional purpose.
1
Seiton
Straighten
Step 2: Reassign appropriate tasks to opera-
tions or to lubrication routes.
Clean: Inspect for and eliminate
waste, dirt and damage.
1
Seiso
Scrub
Step 3: Eliminate all tasks that do not
directly address a specifc failure mode.
Standardized: Maintain known,
agreed upon conditions.
1
Seiketsu
Standardize
Step 4: Insure all remaining tasks follow a
standardized format including clear defni-
tion, specifc steps, necessary safety warn-
ings, appropriate tools and required parts.
Disciplined: Practice the habit of
doing what is required even if its
dif cult.
1
Shitsuke
Systematize
Step 5: Make sure all tasks are quantitative
in nature with specifc, measurable activities
detailing nominal measurements with mini-
mum and maximum allowable limits.
1
Table 1 - Summarization of 5S concepts and their inter-connectedness.
april/may 2009
12
Elimination Strategy: The closer an organiza-
tion moves to a proactive strategy, the fewer
and fewer parts need to be kept on hand. As
defects are discovered early and job plans are
completed early, parts can then be ordered
and delivered on-time and as-needed, instead
of stored in the warehouse.
Motion
Lean Definition: Movement within a process.
Maintenance and Reliability Application: Once
again we find ourselves focused on the wrench
time of crafts personnel. Low wrench time
is a major area where improvements can be
quickly achieved. Most North American main-
tenance organizations are surprised to learn
that their wrench time is 20% - 35% or less.
And even more shocked to learn that World
Class is 55% - 60%. Most people guess that
their maintenance crafts personnel average
70% and that 95% is possible. Improvements
such as lower overtime and lower contract
labor costs are easily possible with improved
wrench time.
Elimination Strategy: Wrench time studies
should be scheduled every year to see how
the situation has changed/improved and
what adjustments need to be made to make
even more improvements. Items like im-
proved planning, scheduling and parts kitting
can make huge improvements to a facilitys
wrench time percentage.
Processing Itself
Lean Definition: Stand alone processes that
are not linked to upstream or downstream
processes. Using complex machines and pro-
cesses to do simple tasks. Not combining
tasks to simplify the process. Essentially,
processing itself = process simplification.
Maintenance and Reliability Application: An
excellent place to see the connection between
Lean and Maintenance and Reliability for the
concept of process simplification is the fact
that there is no standardization of parts across
like machines. Design engineers love to use
the latest and greatest parts and designs. If
there is truly a competitive advantage to be
gained by using a new part, then like parts in
the facility should be upgraded as well. If not,
then the more standardized solution should
be chosen at the time of design. Simply us-
ing a different seal or impeller, just because
it is new, can lead to unnecessary confusion
and downtime when a repair is needed. An
having enough manpower to staff an internal
PdM effort. And these same organizations
complain about having a PM program that is
too big, too difficult to manage, and does not
produce any results, i.e. doesnt reduce un-
planned downtime. By applying the 5S anal-
ogy to their PM program, companies more ef-
fectively achieve and sustain the benefits of
their PM effort.
Muda
Muda is waste. In the context of Lean Manu-
facturing muda is the elimination of waste and
is the core of the Toyota Production System.
In maintenance and reliability terms, muda
refers generally to the concept of wasted re-
sources spent in inappropriate maintenance
strategies and poor execution of daily main-
tenance activities.
Before wastes can be eliminated they must be
identified. And for each type of waste there
is a specific strategy surrounding its elimina-
tion. Toyotas Chief Engineer, Taiichi Ohno
originally named 7 deadly wastes but 2 more
have since been added. These are:
Overproduction
Lean Definition: Making more than required
by the next process, sooner than it is required,
or faster than required.
Maintenance and Reliability Application: An
analysis of a typical maintenance department
finds a tremendous amount of over mainte-
nance. Traditionally, time-based rebuilds or
component replacements have been used in
an effort to combat premature equipment fail-
ures. Not realizing the random nature of the
failures, a sense of frustration is felt with each
emergency repair. So the frequency of the
time-based replacement is increased. Mainte-
nance costs continue to rise and failure rates
are unaffected.
Elimination Strategy: The best way to eradi-
cate this deadly waste is to gain a better un-
derstanding of the true nature of the equip-
ments failure patterns, and then adjust the
maintenance strategy to match.
Transportation
Lean Definition: Any movement of people,
materials, or information.
Maintenance and Reliability Application: The
concept of transportation as a waste in a main-
tenance context refers directly to the amount
of time that crafts personnel spend doing go
gets whether they are getting parts in the
storeroom or information for the supervisor
or planner. While some transportation is
necessary, much of it can be eliminated. Ex-
cessive transportation is most often a direct
reflection of inadequate job planning or in-
complete Bill of Materials (BOM).
Elimination Strategy: Improved maintenance
job planning and improved job plan proce-
dures. Create an accurate Bill of Materials
for each asset. Insure parts are stored, main-
tained and transported in a manner that does
not reduce their life cycle.
Waiting
Lean Definition: Idle resources that cannot
move forward due to a delay in a downstream
or upstream process, and resources waiting to
be processed.
Maintenance and Reliability Application:
Waiting in the maintenance context is very
similar to the definition above. Instead of
people waiting for work to do, it is people
waiting to do work. This slight variation in
statements reflects a very common problem
for maintenance crafts people. Where the
amount of time spent doing value-added work
(a.k.a. Wrench Time) is low, it is very typical
to see a maintenance crafts personnel stand-
ing around and waiting for the opportunity to
work. The job is planned and may in fact be
planned well, but the timing with operations
was poorly coordinated. The inter-functional
coordination was non-existent or at best dis-
connected.
Elimination Strategy: Inter-departmental
communication and coordination must rise to
the top of the list of priorities.
Inventory
Lean Definition: Raw material, work-in-pro-
cess, work waiting to be processed, or fin-
ished goods that are in excess of the customer
demand.
Maintenance and Reliability Application: Or-
ganizations who continue to operate in a re-
active manner never know what is going to
break next. And as such, a large amount of
spare parts need to be warehoused on-site
or nearby to be available for the next emer-
gency.
Part 2
example might be using two different seals
for the same model pump in the same applica-
tion, when standardizing on one seal would
save time, money and confusion; especially
when one of the seals has proven to be a bet-
ter performer.
Elimination Strategy: Maintainability and
parts standardization must become a major
focus of design/redesign efforts.
Defects
Lean Definition: Any non-conformance in the
product or service that does not meet the pro-
cess specifications or customer requirements.
Maintenance and Reliability Application: For
maintenance, defects are the deadliest type of
waste. Not only do defects cause waste, but
the way that the organization addresses de-
fects can cause more waste. Processes such as
eliminating intrusive inspections, using preci-
sion maintenance techniques and implement-
ing a condition monitoring program can make
very large impacts on the number of defects
present in the asset base.
Elimination Strategy: The most important
point to make about
defects is that an or-
ganization has to be
ready, willing and able
to detect these defects
at their earliest stages,
immediately begin the
planning process to
deal with the defect and
then identify and elimi-
nate the root cause of
the problem. This is
the only way sustain-
able improvements in
productivity and unit
cost of production can
be realized.
Safety
Lean Definition: Unsafe work areas create lost
work hours and expenses.
Maintenance and Reliability Application: A
decrease in emergency repairs always results
in a decrease in safety incidents.
Elimination Strategy: And an increase in reli-
ability has proven time and time again to pro-
duce a decrease in injury rates. (See Figure 1)
Information
Lean Definition: The age of electronic infor-
mation and enterprise resource planning sys-
tems (ERP) requires current / correct master
data details.
Maintenance and Reliability: Maintenance and
reliability people and information are part of
the resources that need to be planned. Good
planning and scheduling and effective main-
tenance engineering relies on complete and
Steve, Reliability Engineer, Cleveland, OH
this tough economy and the layoffs hit our Reliability team hard.
But since we started using Azima DLIs WATCHMAN Analysis

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2009 Azima DLI | All Rights Reserved. | Printed in U.S.A.
Figure 1 - Correlation between Overall Equipment
Effectiveness (OEE) and Injury Rate.
I
n
j
u
r
y

R
a
t
e

(
%

o
f

B
a
s
e
)
O
E
E

(
%

o
f

B
a
s
e
)
135
115
95
75
55
35
15
120
115
110
105
100
95
90
41 37 33 28 25 21 17 13 9 5 1 53 48 45
Month
OEE
Injury Rate
Source: Making Common Sense Common Practice by Ron Moore
april/may 2009
14
correct machinery design and performance
information. The more incorrect or incom-
plete the information is for a given asset, the
longer finding the solution to particular prob-
lem will take to find and the more uncertain
that solution will be upon delivery. Some of
the information that needs to be current and
correct is the machinery failure data, bill of
materials (BOM) and machinery name plate
information.
Elimination Strategy: A culture of information
discipline must be fostered.
Key Principles of Lean
Manufacturing
A summary of Lean Manufacturing contains
six Key Principles. It doesnt take a detailed
analysis to find that all of these key principles
are common to both Lean Manufacturing and
Maintenance and Reliability.
Lean Manufacturing Key Principle #1: Pull
processing: products are pulled from the con-
sumer end (demand), not pushed from the
production end (Supply). The signal that trig-
gers pull is known as kanban.
Maintenance and Reliability: In the mainte-
nance realm, the concept of pull is used in
the design of the maintenance strategy. The
potential failure modes of the equipment and
the effects of those failure modes on that as-
sets ability to perform its function, and on the
system at large, determine the maintenance
strategy. Failure modes and their effects pull
the maintenance strategy into existence. The
OEM recommendations are not pushed as the
maintenance strategy of choice. Some peo-
ple may become confused at statements like
these and infer that the maintenance strategy
is reactive. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Just like kanban is not a reaction
to customer demand, neither is an Equipment
Maintenance Plan (EMP) based on failures. It
is based on failure modes. Failure modes are
how equipment might fail or is expected to
fail. The differentiating factor becomes when
this analysis of failure modes and effects takes
place. It is always to be done before the fail-
ures occur. It is something that is done pro-
actively not reactively. While there is a slight
difference in these two concepts, the implica-
tions of this slight difference are enormous.
Lean Manufacturing Key Principle #2: Build
quality in: quest for zero defects, revealing
and solving problems at the source.
Maintenance and Reliability: It is the identi-
fication and elimination of the root cause of
machinery defects that drive the continuous
improvement of the maintenance strategy.
Procedure-based organizations use quantita-
tive, documented procedures for both regular
maintenance jobs and the preventive mainte-
nance tasks to drive consistency and quality in
the maintenance process. Additionally, these
same organizations employ precision main-
tenance techniques to deliver right first time
results. The combination of these three pow-
erful forces has a large impact on the quest for
zero defects.
Lean Manufacturing Key Principle #3: Waste
minimization eliminating all activities that
do not add value & safety nets, maximize use
of scarce resources (capital, people and land).
Maintenance and Reliability: 30% - 50% of
the preventive maintenance tasks in a typi-
cal North American maintenance organization
are non-value added tasks. Additionally, most
maintenance organizations operate in a very
reactive mode, and in doing so, waste a tre-
mendous amount of valuable resources. Most
studies agree that on average, 30% of the la-
bor and 50% of the parts and materials used
in unplanned jobs is wasted; not to mention
the amount of unplanned downtime associ-
ated with such jobs. Those same productiv-
ity studies agree that the combination of
these three items (labor, parts and downtime)
along with other benefits (increased safety,
decreased spares inventory, etc.) can account
for as much as a 30:1 return on investment
that most North American facilities have here-
tofore been unwilling to reach for.
Lean Manufacturing Key Principle #4: Con-
tinuous improvement reducing costs, im-
proving quality, increasing productivity and
information sharing.
Maintenance and Reliability: At the core of
every good maintenance and reliability per-
son exists the concept of continuous improve-
ment. Continuous improvement is an attitude
and a way of life. They are always striving for
a better technique, a better designed part, an
improved methodology or an easier way to get
Part 3
ng ng
www.uptimemagazine.com
15
it done. Every maintenance person looks for
a solution that makes assets easier to main-
tain and more reliable. And every reliability
person looks for a solution that makes asset
availability and plant productivity increase,
and life cycle cost and unit cost of production
decrease.
Lean Manufacturing Key Principle #5: Flexibil-
ity producing different mixes or greater di-
versity of products quickly, without sacrificing
efficiency at lower volumes of production.
Maintenance and Reliability: Flexibility is the
key to keeping up with the changing business
environment. It is no different for mainte-
nance and reliability. As the market chang-
es, so does the mix of products and volume.
While the core function of a manufacturing
facility rarely changes, the requirements for
its operation do change and consequently the
reliability and criticality of different machines
can change almost on a daily basis. The onus
is then on the maintenance and reliability
function of a facility to create systems and pro-
cesses whereby changes in the market place
do not create such drastic changes in the daily
execution of the maintenance process that
the process itself becomes dysfunctional.
Lean Manufacturing Key Principle #6: Build-
ing and maintaining a long term relationship
with suppliers through collaborative risk shar-
ing, cost sharing and information sharing ar-
rangements.
Maintenance and Reliability: In the sentence
above, simply replace the word suppliers with
the word operations. Now it reads: Building
and maintaining a long term relationship with
operations through collaborative risk sharing,
cost sharing and information sharing arrange-
ments. A partnership must be established be-
tween maintenance and operations. And as
with any true partnership, it must be born of
mutual respect and the attainment of common
goals. A partnership that is based on winning
and losing or an attitude of This is my plant
and you work for me! is destined for failure
or, at best, mediocrity.
Poka-Yoke
Poka-Yoke was first introduced at the Toyota
Motor Corporation in 1961 by Shigeo Shingo,
one of their industrial engineers. Originally
named baka-yoke, fool-proofing or idiot-
proofing, the name was changed to poka-
yoke or mistake-proofing in 1963 to provide
a more honorable, and less offensive, name.
Poka-Yoke can take the form of a mechanism
designed to ensure that proper conditions ex-
ist before a process step occurs, thereby pre-
venting a defect from occurring. Poka-Yoke
can also be a procedure designed to identify
and/or eliminate defects as early as possible
in the process. Essentially, poka-yoke is the
concept of easily and quickly detecting and re-
moving defects. There are many parallels be-
tween Lean Manufacturing and Maintenance
and Reliability with respect to poka-yoke. The
concept of detecting and removing defects is
the very heart of maintenance and reliability
efforts; and any technique that helps accom-
plish this easier, quicker or earlier in the pro-
cess is a poka-yoke technique.
In explaining the origin of defects, Shingo
said The causes of defects lie in worker er-
rors, and defects are the results of neglecting
those errors. It follows that mistakes will not
turn into defects if worker errors are discov-
ered and eliminated beforehand. Addition-
ally, he stated, Defects arise because errors
are made; the two have a cause-and-effect re-
lationship.
Statistical analysis of machinery failures re-
flects essentially the same scenario. RCM
studies from the 60s and 70s have shown that
as much as 68% of failure modes detected in
machinery are the result of poor maintenance
and/or operating procedures; and another
14% are the result of random events caused by
peoples carelessness. Add to this another 7%
for wear-in failures and a total of 89% of the
failures are the result of peoples lack of atten-
tion to detail or an incomplete understanding
of their operations. This leaves only 11% of
the failure modes to be the result of age, wear
and fatigue. Studies from the 80s and 90s
reflect that proper attention to procedures
dropped the previously reported 68% to as
low as 6%, but the 14% from random events
climbed to as high as 25%. So while improving
maintenance and operating procedures did
lower the instances of infant mortality, care-
lessness in other areas related to operations
didnt improve.
Three different types of inspection were ex-
plained by Shingo in the concept of poka-
yoke.
Judgment Inspection
Judgment inspection was identifying defec-
tive products or material after the completion
of the process, essentially finding the defect
when it is too late. Shingo warned that re-
lying on this method isnt effective quality
management and therefore judgment inspec-
tions should be avoided when possible. Main-
tenance and reliability personnel sometimes
have no choice but to utilize this method of
defect detection, as it is not manufacturing
defects, but machinery defects, that are being
sought. Best practices organizations use con-
dition monitoring technologies like vibration
analysis, infrared thermography and oil analy-
sis to identify machinery defects. While there
are some benefits to identifying these defects,
and handling them in a proactive manner,
the real benefit lies in using these condition
monitoring technologies to help identify and
eliminate the root cause of these defects. Not
using these technologies to help eliminate the
root cause of defects was the type of inspec-
tion that Shingo and the rest of the quality
culture were warning against. Do not be sat-
isfied with the fact that defects occur in your
systems, and that you are able to successfully
identify and eliminate them. You must move
further back in the process to identify them
and eliminate them at their source.
Yet another way that condition monitoring is
considered a judgment inspection is in its use
as a troubleshooting tool. Organizations that
do not use condition monitoring technologies
have to rely on the traditional troubleshooting
techniques such as trial and error, disassem-
bly and parts replacement. Utilizing condition
monitoring technologies can give the crafts
person a tremendous amount of information
before the job has begun. Things like gear
problems, electrical problems in motors and
contaminant ingression can be highlighted
and detailed before the machine itself is ever
shut down. Using condition monitoring to
help with troubleshooting, and to help identi-
fy the root cause of machinery defects, makes
condition monitoring itself a very powerful
judgment inspection poka-yoke technique.
Informative Inspection
The second type of inspection in the poka-
yoke system is the informative inspection.
This type of inspection is used to prevent de-
fects though utilizing data gathered from the
inspection process. The most common exam-
ple of an informative inspection is the use of
statistical process control. Dr. Shingo offered
two different types of informative inspection.
The first method was for the very next station
in the manufacturing line to perform a qual-
ity check or defect inspection on the mate-
rial that just came from the previous station.
Part 4
16
april/may 2009
16
While this method was reliable and cost ef-
fective, the second method of informative in-
spection reduces the time and cost of the ad-
ditional inspection to almost zero. And that
was to have each station perform a pre- and
post process inspection. Thereby simultane-
ously checking the quality from the previous
station and checking the quality of their work
before sending it to the next station.
From a maintenance and reliability perspec-
tive, an example of using this type of informa-
tive inspection would be performing Weibull
analysis to constantly adjust the maintenance
strategy for a piece of equipment or system
within the plant. In doing so, the defect
that the inspection process is detecting is an
inadequate maintenance strategy. Many or-
ganizations believe that using the mean time
between failure (MTBF) as the proper interval
for time based replacements and/or overhauls
is the best method to cost effectively prevent
unplanned downtime. This is not correct and
results in higher costs than necessary. Weibull
analysis shows that for a group of machines,
by the time the MTBF is reached, 63.21% of
the machines have already failed.
The better type of informative inspection
would be to use failure data to populate a
Weibull analysis model for the machine or sys-
tem and let the analysis show the most cost
effective time to perform the maintenance
action. In the absence of a comprehensive
failure history, a single failure point and some
local knowledge about the frequency and
types of failures can lead to some excellent
approximations of the actual Weibull shape.
This method is known as Weibayes and is a
very powerful technique.
By using the failure data that comes into the
CMMS system on a daily basis to keep the fail-
ure modes library and Weibull analyses up-to-
date, the maintenance strategies can be ad-
justed as more detailed information becomes
apparent. Using statistical analysis in this way
makes Weibull analysis an extremely effective
informative inspection poka-yoke technique.
Source Inspection
The third, and final, type of poka-yoke in-
spection is the source inspection. Source
inspection is the inspection of an operating
environment or materials before the pro-
duction process begins, to ensure that the
proper conditions exist. Source inspections
in the maintenance and reliability arena are
very common. They take at least three forms
when considered in the context of machinery
repairs.
Precision maintenance techniques are a type
of source inspection. Precision maintenance
technique is defined as any technique that
makes the likelihood of extended defect free
operation more possible. Some examples of
precision maintenance and reliability tech-
niques might include:
All rotating equipment will be balanced in-
place to a minimum standard of 0.05 inches
per second. This is significantly lower than
most balance standards but not impossible.
This tighter balance standard would lead to
measurably longer bearing component life
(in the absence of other issues).
All rotating equipment will be aligned to
<0.5 mils/inch. Just like the balance stan-
dard, this is tighter than most alignment
standards and will lead to much lower
radial and axial loading on the bearing
and therefore longer bearing life.
Milling the bottom of all cast frame motor
feet so that they are all flat and co-planar.
www.uptimemagazine.com
17
This technique makes the alignment pro-
cess quicker and easier. It also helps pre-
vent a condition called soft-foot which
leads to warped motor frames, high fre-
quency vibration in the motor bearings
and reduced bearing life.
All electrical connections will be installed
using torque wrenches and will be torqued
to manufacturers specifications. Contrary
to popular belief, tighter isnt necessarily
better. Some types of electrical connec-
tions can be too tight, which spreads the
individual strand of wire out more and cre-
ates the very problem that was trying to be
avoided, a high resistance connection.
All lubricant will be removed from the bulk
container and placed into lubricant reser-
voirs via filter carts with a 3 micron filter.
This prevents solid contaminants from be-
ing introduced into the machinery reservoir
that would be detrimental to asset health.
By no means a comprehensive listing, these
are just a few examples of precision mainte-
nance techniques. Using these techniques
extends the amount of time between machine
commissioning and the point of defect ingres-
sion. As such, they are techniques that ensure
the proper conditions are present for defect-
free operation and are, therefore, a type of
source inspection poka-yoke technique.
The most comprehensive source inspection
poka-yoke technique is the use of procedures
when performing machine repairs and inspec-
tions. Even with the most skilled crafts per-
sonnel, mistakes are made, steps are skipped
and conditions are overlooked. A technically
accurate, well constructed procedure decreas-
es the conditional probability of a mistake be-
ing made. A feedback loop from the crafts
person to the planner ensures the continu-
ous refinement of the procedure. A techni-
cal review and approval process ensures that
all procedures are correct and up-to-date. As
these procedures are designed to help elimi-
nate the possibility of a workmanship defect
during a repair or inspection, it is a source in-
spection poka-yoke technique.
Another type of source inspection poka-yoke
technique is the use of condition monitoring
as a post-repair commissioning inspection.
Technologies like vibration analysis, structure-
borne ultrasound, infrared thermography and
motor circuit analysis are all excellent tools to
certify repairs and new installations. Should
workmanship defects like inadequate align-
ment or the presence of a bearing fault due to
improper installation be identified, then the
defect can be corrected before the machine
is returned to service. Using condition moni-
toring technologies can help easily identify
defects or conditions that will cause defects
early in the process and is therefore a source
inspection poka-yoke technique.
Kaizen
Continuous Improvement is the translation
most often used for the Japanese word kai-
zen. Contrary to the popular use of the term,
kaizen is not an event. Kaizen is a frame of
mind or the attitude with which you address
things. It means always looking at a situation
with what martial arts instructors refer to as
shoshin, which means first mind or a begin-
ners mind. Beginners are always learning.
With each moment of learning, improvements
are made. With each improvement, more
learning is desired so that more improve-
ments can be made. This becomes a continu-
ous cycle. With more learning comes more
improvements. The moment learning ceases
is the moment improvement ceases. The mo-
ment improvement ceases is the moment your
competitors start to gain ground. The term
expert bears the connotation of nothing left
to learn. In an environment that embraces
kaizen there is no such thing as an expert.
Just like kaizen, concepts like 5S, kanban,
poka-yoke and muda are not single events.
They are concepts that are practiced on a daily
basis. Kaizen is an attitude; it is a way of life,
and is the style with which Lean Manufactur-
ing is managed on a daily basis. Kaizen is also
the attitude with which maintenance and reli-
ability should people operate on a daily basis.
Just a few examples include:
Improving maintenance job plans so that
the number of side trips a crafts person
has to make to acquire parts, materials
and permits approaches zero.
Improving the written maintenance proce-
dures so that everyone, regardless of spe-
cific experience with that plant or machine,
knows the proper steps to affect the repair.
Improving the inspection process to iden-
tify defects closer to their point of incep-
tion, thereby giving the planning function
more time to adequately deal with the
problem.
Improving the operations of the plant to
reduce the variations in the process.
Numerous other examples could be cited, but
suffice it to say the concepts of Lean and the
concepts of improved maintenance and reli-
ability go hand-in-hand. It is not just difficult
to separate these concepts, it is quite frankly,
impossible.
Reference
1. A Second Look At 5S, James Van Patten,
Quality Progress, American Society Quality,
October 2006
Andy Page is the Integration Director with
GPAllied. As the Integration Director, he is
responsible for combining the philosophies
and daily practices of the two companies that
came together to form GPAllied; General Phys-
ics and Allied Reliability. Most recently Andy
was a Vice President for Allied Reliability and
was responsible for the alignment of the daily
practices with what was being taught in their
Reliability Engineering training classes. Prior
to being a Vice President, he was a Program
Director for Allied Reliability responsible for
the Mosaic account consisting of 27 analysts
and technicians across 9 operations. Andy
has 15 years in the maintenance and reliability
field where he has played several different
roles. First as a Maintenance Engineer for
Noranda Aluminum where he was respon-
sible for implementing a comprehensive PdM
program and continuous improvements of
the planning and scheduling function. Next
he held the role of Regional Services Manager
for CSI where he provided technical services
to new customers and for the sales staff.
After that he worked for Martin Marietta
Aggregates as the Asset Reliability Manager re-
sponsible for PdM and maintenance improve-
ment process effort across 23 plants in Ohio,
Indiana and Michigan. Next he served as the
Vice President Operations for a small con-
sulting firm called Reliability Solutions, Inc. in
central Ohio providing PdM services primarily
to the mining industry. Andy is well grounded
in reliability and maintenance engineer-
ing topics with particular emphasis on PdM
technologies to include advanced experience
in vibration analysis and ultrasonics and Level
2 certifications in infrared thermography and
oil analysis. Andy has an engineering degree
from Tennessee Technological University
and is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability
Professional (CMRP) through the Society for
Maintenance and Reliability Professionals
(SMRP) and is a Six Sigma Black Belt. Andy
can be contacted at 888-414-5760 or pagea@
alliedreliability.com
april/may 2009
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Get ready for Web 2.0
The bad news is that communication options are expanding
even further, with instant messaging and chat applications,
Blogs and Micro-blogs, Voice Over IP (VoIP), Google voice,
Video, Audio, Web enabled Smart Phones, RSS (Real Simple
Syndication), Social Networking and Career sites.
The good news is that the communication tools are begin-
ning to work together in ways that make it easier for you to
effectively manage your communication.
We will leave the subject of personal communication, online
honey-do reminders, classmate reunions and online dating
for someone else to cover. We will focus on managing the
information we need to do our jobs better, and improve our
professional lives, in this first of what I hope is a regular se-
ries on using Web 2.0 to connect and communicate.
Web 2.0
After the dot com bubble collapses in 2001, people started
refining what the potential of the Internet actually was. At
that time, many had confused the importance of the web
with the economic value of the web, which did not exist
prior to 2001, but has since manifested into reality.
Web 1.0 demonstrated that we can use the web as a very
convenient and effective way to get information. Search
engines like Google indexed the vast majority of web sites
so we could zero in on almost any subject with pinpoint ac-
curacy. Had the internet stopped there, it would still be a
very useful tool.
However, many innovators had an idea that the Internet was
more than a tool, and could actually be a platform. Web 2.0
websites allow users to do more than just retrieve informa-
tion. Now, many sites are actually applications that allow
software to be operated through a browser like Internet Ex-
plorer, Firefox or Google Chrome.
What Useful Web 2.0 Applications Can Do
Our friends at Dimension Technology Solutions (www.dts-
global.com) represent the future of application in the main-
tenance and reliability community. They offer eMESA as a
browser-based planning and scheduling application, but,
because of its Web 2.0 architecture, it has an even much
greater potential.
For those of you familiar with Google Earth, where satellite
images of the entire Earth are available for you to drill down
all the way to street level detail, imagine that you work for a
company with geographically dispersed plants. You can now
use the entire earth as your starting point.
The eMESA application is delivering Enterprise performance
indicators to you through a browser that, even if you are
over 50 (myself included), you already know how to use.
If you need to know how your Canadian plants are perform-
ing, you can simply rotate the earth and click on Canada to
see those indicators. Drill further to see how plants in On-
tario are doing, and with one more click, you can zero in on
the Hamilton site.
By the way, no worries if Canada is running on Maximo and
Europe is using SAP. eMESA does not let trivial matters such
as data source ever get in the way of data delivery. Web 2.0
is completely agnostic in terms of where data originates.
In addition to seamlessly interfacing with plant data his-
torians, SAP, and Maximo, eMESAs latest release incorpo-
rated and aggregated Twitter (www.twitter.com/RCM09)
posts from a variety of accounts that were posting informa-
tion about the RCM-2009 Reliability Centered Maintenance
Managers Forum, so maintenance professionals who could
not attend in person could keep up with innovations being
revealed. In addition the eMESA start page included RSS
feeds from Reliabilityweb.com and MaintenanceForums.com
as well as current global stock exchanges and the latest AP
headlines. Switching from Global to Local only required a
couple of clicks. Focusing on internal performance metrics
to an Enterprise view was a short scroll. And to make the IT
and Digital Security geeks happy, all of this is operating on
a small server installed behind your firewall at your site with
remote management and support options can be included
for a small monthly fee.
Useful Web 2.0 Site Example
Uptime Magazine (www.uptimemagazine.com) has recently
implemented a new web based content management and
online publishing system with Web 2.0 functionality built in.
Your Web, Your Way
Web 2.0 Offers New Ways to Connect and Communicate
by Terrence OHanlon, CMRP
Life used to be so simple when the primary modes of communication consisted of walking to the mailbox and open-
ing letters (usually stacks of payments due), and answering a ringing (and wired) telephone in real time. Remember
how high tech fax, voice mail, mobile phones, internet and e-mail seemed. These new technologies opened incredible
opportunity to expand communication, but did very little to manage them for our benefit. We began to experience
information overload. After all, what percentage of these new messages actually added value to your life or work?
www.uptimemagazine.com
19
Currently readers and subscribers can create a
FREE membership account and profile that will
allow them to post blogs, comment on current
articles and rate posted articles in terms of
their value to the community.
Eventually, Uptime Magazine will allow activity
trails such as Linked-in, Facebook, Twitter and
more to be included in member profile pages.
In other words, the old paradigm about what
web site address or domain you are visiting will
be less important. With Web 2.0 , information
is portable, so you can bring whatever informa-
tion you want to wherever you want it.
The goal for Uptime Magazine is to move from
a model of pushing information technology to
more of a virtual circle model where our edi-
tors listen and read as mush as they talk and
publish. They learn as much as they teach,
and they take as much as they deliver. Each
exchange is designed to enrich the knowledge
and experience of all who participate.
Roll Your Own Web 2.0 with RSS
Personally I begin my day by opening my cus-
tomized start page at Yahoo! This page is
http://my.yahoo.com and includes RSS feeds
from all of the Reliabilityweb.com network of
web sites, the Association for Maintenance Pro-
fessionals web site, my Facebook and Twitter
updates, and all of the major maintenance and
reliability publications from around the world
that offer RSS feeds. Prior to my first cup of
coffee in the morning, RSS allows me to see an
entire region of interest in one easy to navigate
page. Yahoo! and other sites like iGoogle.com
make it very easy to create your own custom-
ized start pages using RSS.
With Web 1.0, I would have had to visit over
20 web sites to get the same information I now
get on one single start page in my Web 2.0
world. The beauty for me is that I only get the
information that I want.
Registration and Privacy in a Web 2.0
World
There has been one Internet columnist in our
community who seems to think that online reg-
istration is inherently evil, even though his em-
ployer would never send you a magazine with-
out requiring you to register on their site.
Registration adds value in a number of ways.
It confirms that you are a real person and not
a spammer, and it demonstrates that you have
interest in being a member of the community.
Imagine if our neighbors were all anonymous.
How would it work if your community leaders
were all anonymous?
He is still living in a Web 1.0 flat world of Search
and Find, while the more productive people are
moving to a Web 2.0 world of doing things that
make their lives easier. Web 2.0 allows me to
connect in a trust-based way with people I am
interested in and who may also have an interest
in what I can share. I am now able to access
a deep and rich community that is willing to
share knowledge and experience with me - and
that will make my job, and life, much easier.
It is important that you understand the nature
of the organization you are registering with.
Here are some questions that maintenance
and reliability professionals may find useful:
Is there a published privacy policy? Every web
site should feature an easy to understand pri-
vacy policy.
Is the privacy policy 3rd party audited? Many
site have privacy certification from organiza-
tions such as the Better Business Bureau or
TRUSTe.
Is this organization an independent publisher?
Anyone can create a blog, forum or member-
ship site and many do. Independent publishers
must remain vendor and technology neutral to
be valid, and to offer the best and broadest in-
formation. We have seen a virtual explosion of
vendor and consultant blogs appear in the last
6 months.
Is this organization a vendor or consultant?
Hmmm. The site may be useful, but visitors
should be aware that the motivation of what-
ever is being delivered is designed to make you
a value added client. There is nothing inher-
ently wrong with this concept, providing you
do not mistake the vendor/consultant self pub-
lishing context with an independent publishing
context.
Managed correctly, Web 2.0 is a powerful plat-
form that allows you to control your internet
experience, changing it from a one-size-fits-all
gunny sack to a one-of-a-kind, custom tailored
suit. I know which one I prefer, how about
you?
Dive into Web 2.0
To support your journey to Web 2.0 visit the
following sites, create FREE accounts, build
your profle and then connect with us in a
virtuous maintenance and reliability profes-
sional community circle.
Twitter - If you are already on Twitter, fol-
low UptimeMagazine by:
1. Sending follow UptimeMagazine from
IM or your phone.
2. Clicking on the follow button on the
UptimeMagazine profle page <http://
twitter.com/UptimeMagazine>
If you arent on Twitter, create an account
at <https://twitter.com/home> then fol-
low the instructions above.
Dont know what Twitter is? Watch this
great introductory video from the folks
at Common Craft <http://www.common-
craft.com/Twitter>
Twitter Help: http://help.twitter.com/fo-
rums
You may also wish to follow other interest-
ing related Twitter sites as follows
Reliabilityweb.com
http://twitter.com/reliability
Maintenance-News
http://twitter.com/MaintNews
Maintenance-Tips
http://twitter.com/MaintenanceTips
Social Bookmarking
Check out the Reliabilityweb.com Top 100
sites at Delicious http://delicious.com/Reli-
ability
Please send us links to your own Delicious
links so we can share them with our wider
audience.
Professional Networking Sites
The Association for Maintenance Profes-
sionals - Join over 6000 others in what is
being billed as Facebook for Maintenance
and Reliability professionals at www.main-
tenance.org
In addition check out the real Facebook
(www.facebook.com) and Linked-in (www.
linked-in.com) while you are at it.
Simple searches on maintenance or reliabil-
ity at any of the sites referenced above will
begin to support the building of your own
start page and professional network.
Send us a contact or friend request or follow
up and we will follow you. We look forward
to being part of the community you build!
april/may 2009
Maximo to the Max
Following One Organizations Upgrade Experience
by Shelley Whitener, CMRP; Ed Williams, CMRP; Sabine Boruff and Tom Arcuri
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andia National Labs has been using Maximo almost since its inception. Over the years we have utilized the
Maximo tools that conformed nicely to our maintenance processes. We took advantage of the software
capabilities to improve our planning and tracking of maintenance work. However, we still fell into the
same category of most Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) users, that is, we were
only utilizing a fraction of the systems capabilities to improve our processes.
Early in 2006, we were given a corporate mandate to
upgrade to the current web-based version of Maximo
in order to support the Oracle 10g upgrade. This time,
we made the choice to think big and see how we could
improve our maintenance processes as part of the
upgrade project. This article will discuss the approach,
activities, and outcomes of our upgrade project. We
will demonstrate the successful partnership between
Maintenance, Engineering, IT, and the vendor (IBM),
as well as how we used Lean Six Sigma tools, such as
Value Stream Analysis, to identify process improvement
opportunities. We will also discuss the integration of
stand alone, in-house legacy applications and databases
into Maximo. We believe our experience may provide a
road map for others facing similar challenges, illustrat-
ing the importance of advanced planning, an integrated
project team, partnering with your vendor(s), as well as
our lessons learned.
About Sandia National Labs

Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) was established
on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
in 1945 during the Manhattan Project as a division of
the Los Alamos Laboratory. On request of President
Harry Truman, Sandia became an independent labora-
tory on November 1, 1949. Sandia is now a multi-pro-
gram national security laboratory operated by Sandia
Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S.
Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Ad-
ministration (NNSA).

Sandia employs about 8,600 full-time (equivalent)
personnel at several locations: its main facilities in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California;
test ranges in Tonopah, Nevada, and Kauai, Hawaii; the
Pantex Plant weapons facility near Amarillo, Texas; and
the Carlsbad, New Mexico, Field Office, which leads the
nations transuranic waste disposal efforts.

Since 1949, Sandia has expanded its mission to develop
science-based technologies that support our national
security. Today, Americans depend on Sandias technol-
ogy solutions to solve national and global threats to
peace and freedom. Primary sponsors are the NNSA,
the Department of Defense, and the Department of
Homeland Security. Sandia also works with other gov-
ernment agencies, industry, and academic institutions
to accomplish missions in five key areas:

Nuclear Weapons: Ensuring the stockpile is safe,
secure, reliable, and can support the United States
deterrence policy
Energy and Infrastructure Assurance: Enhancing the
surety of energy and other critical infrastructures
Nonproliferation: Reducing the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction, the threat of nuclear
accidents, and the potential for damage to the
environment
Defense Systems and Assessments: Addressing new
threats to national security
Homeland Security: Helping to protect the nation
against terrorism

Other research disciplines, which support these mission
areas, include materials and process sciences; compu-
tational and information sciences; microelectronics and
photonics sciences; engineering sciences; pulsed power
sciences; manufacturing sciences; surety sciences;
chemical and earth sciences; and biotechnology.

Facilities Facts

The Facilities Management and Operations Center at
Sandias Albuquerque, New Mexico site manages over
900 buildings comprising over seven million square
feet. There are approximately 120 in-house craftsmen
supporting these facilities. Some additional facts about
our facilities and infrastructure are:

35 miles of paved roads, 53 miles of unpaved roads
75 acres of pavement
100 miles of power transmission lines (5kV, 46kV,
115kV)
70 miles of water lines
17,670 tons of chilled water cooling
20
S
23 miles of natural gas lines
46,000 facilities maintenance work
orders per year
25,000 additional facilities service
requests per year
37,000 assets managed through Maximo
30,000 items managed through Maximo
inventory

Where We Were (2005)

Sandia was one of the earliest Maximo users.
For the past several years we have been run-
ning Maximo 4.1.1, with the basic philosophy
of not upgrading with every new release, but
waiting until a new version was well vetted
before we upgraded. In late 2005, we were
preparing to upgrade to Maximo 5.2 when
we learned that a corporate mandate would
require us to move to Maximo 6, which sup-
ported the Oracle 10g relational database. At
the time, Maximo 6 was generally available to
all customers, but the upgrade scripts from
Maximo 4.1.1 were not released yet. Thus,
this time we would not have the luxury of
waiting until all the bugs were eliminated in
a new release. The big question was, Are we
ready for this? The prospect of change was a
bit daunting to many users because they were
so accustomed to Maximo 4.1.1.

To some extent, we were using most of the
available applications in Maximo 4.1.1. We
had a solid master equipment list, but with
varying degree of details recorded for the
equipment. We used the preventive mainte-
nance (PM) application extensively, and many
PMs had equipment-specific job plans with
engineering standards. Every maintenance
job was tracked in the work order application.
We were also starting to use the condition
monitoring application in select areas. The
labor, inventory, and purchasing applications
were all integral to Sandias Maximo database.
However, some of Maximos valuable tools
(such as Safety Plans) were not implemented at
Sandia, and the new version offered features
that would enable us to incorporate more of
our facilities asset management activities into
one system.

We saw this upgrade as an opportunity to
implement previously unused Maximo ap-
plications, and enhance the use of existing
applications to improve the effectiveness and
efficiency of our maintenance processes. Si-
multaneously, we were seeking solutions to
other identified sources of inefficiency and
inconsistency. For instance:
Like many other companies, Sandia had
developed several other stand-alone
databases over the years to manage assets,
projects, and services. For the most part,
these other databases did not communi-
cate directly with Maximo or with each
other. In many cases, overlaps in informa-
tion for the various databases resulted in
duplication of work and even discrepan-
cies in data.
We lacked a single, standardized process
flow for getting maintenance work accom-
plished. Each crew had developed unique,
undocumented processes that worked for
them.
We did not have consistent, well-defined
roles and responsibilities for team supervi-
sors, planners, technical assistants, etc.
Scope of the Upgrade
The magnitude of this upgrade was signifi-
cantly larger than typical upgrades because
we were spanning two major application ver-
sions in the move from Maximo 4.1.1 to Max-
imo 6.2.1, as well as introducing new add-on
applications. Several key aspects of the up-
grade contribute to the expansive scope of
the project:
Technology change from client-server
to web-based
Complete rewrite of all reports
conversion from SQR to Actuate
Use of Maximo Enterprise Adaptor (MEA)
to initially load/refresh person, location,
and user data
Integration of help desk functions into
Maximo
Replace legacy software with Maximo
Service Desk
Replace legacy customer query tool
with Maximo Self Service
Implementation of new Maximo Mobile
Inventory Manager
Each of these areas introduced complexity to
the project, but each also brought new advan-
tages to our overall work management pro-
cess. Having a web-based application would
provide greater accessibility and more intui-
tive navigation to users. Reports integrated
within Maximo would be more useful and effi-
cient. Implementing the Maximo Service Desk
would consolidate an in-house application, as
well as, creating a single point of entry for all
requests for service. Maximo Mobile appli-
cations would also directly integrate with the
core Maximo applications rather than simply
www.uptimemagazine.com
21
interface.
Minimizing customizations to migrate during
the upgrade was also very important to our
project scope. This would be accomplished in
two ways. First, many of our customizations
could be replaced by newly available functions
in the Maximo 6. Second, some customiza-
tions which couldnt be replaced with new
functionality could be eliminated by changing
or improving our work processes.
Our Approach
To ensure that we would be ready for the
changes ushered in with this major upgrade,
we decided to take an approach that was new
for us at Sandia. Typically, software upgrades
are primarily the responsibility of the IT de-
partment, forcing them to seek user input
and buy-in. For this Maximo upgrade, the
Maintenance Engineering department formed
a cross-functional project team to manage the
upgrade. The team included the following
representation:
Functional Lead Maintenance Engineer
Technical Lead Maximo Developer/IT SME
Key Maximo Users 2 Maintenance
Planners, Other Ad-hoc Users
Technical Support Team 4 Maximo
Developers, Database and Server
Administrators
Key Stakeholders Warehouse Supervisor,
Maintenance Manager, Planning Supervisor
Ad-hoc Consulting Support (IBM)
We began with a Project Charter
1
, which con-
cisely documented the objectives, purpose,
description, deliverables, schedule, and cost
of the upgrade project. The charter was ap-
proved by management from both the Mainte-
nance Engineering and IT departments. From
the onset, we recognized that strong manage-
ment support would be especially critical to
the success of this upgrade. Because of the
significant changes it would impose on the
user community, it was very important that
senior management visibly and vocally sup-
ported this effort from the top down. The
project team reported periodically to a steer-
ing committee comprised of managers from
Facilities and IT.
The first task of the project team was to de-
velop a project plan and master schedule. The
project plan identified and described eight
major objectives (see Table 1). Sub teams
were then formed to focus on each objective.
april/may 2009
22
Each sub team was lead by a member of the
project team, who identified key individuals
for each sub team. Each objective required
collaboration between IT and users.
The project team solicited and encouraged
active participation from the user commu-
nity, including the evaluation of existing
processes. For example, the sub team work-
ing on Objective #4, Work Flow, conducted
many interviews and mapped out the various
existing process flows for preventive and cor-
rective work orders. This exercise helped us
recognize the need to consolidate and stan-
dardize into a single, more efficient process.
The team organized a Lean Six Sigma Value
Stream Analysis event to achieve this objec-
tive. We invited key users and stakeholders
to participate, and we engaged the Maximo
experts to ensure that our new process could
be supported by and integrated into the Maxi-
mo 6 configuration. The event was a success-
ful and essential step in our goal of improv-
ing the maintenance process
1
as part of the
Maximo upgrade.
The IT members of the project team continu-
ally analyzed existing customizations with
the goal of eliminating them either by new
configuration options or new functionality
available in Maximo 6. Users were consulted
regularly on the impacts, if any, these changes
would have on work processes. These efforts
increased the efficiency of future upgrades by
reducing the amount of non-standard configu-
rations within Maximo.
A common goal shared by all team members
was to learn about and utilize new applications
and features offered with Maximo 6. Rather
than fighting to maintain status quo, every-
one kept an open mind in seeking practical
ways that the upgrade could help improve our
processes and satisfy business objectives. For
example, adding the Service Desk module as
the front-end to the application provided the
opportunity to incorporate two stand-alone
databases and the potential for more consoli-
dation in the future. This decision brought us
much closer to realizing the vision of a one
stop shop for facilities services. Also, by
building meaningful and personalized home
pages, called Start Centers, for our users, we
recognized the opportunity to improve com-
munications, ease-of-use, and data accessibil-
ity for all users and in-house customers. The
team embraced these and many other oppor-
tunities to improve our existing processes.
We also communicated frequently with the
vendor early in the project. This became
even more important when our vendor, MRO
Software, was purchased by IBM in the early
stages of our project. We involved our key
vendor contacts in software, services, and
support throughout our project. This meant
that when problems arose they were already
aware of our situation and able to respond
appropriately. Without this relationship in
place, emergencies that occurred would most
certainly not have been resolved as effectively
or with the same shared sense of urgency.
Finally, we designed the framework of the up-
graded system with consideration for future
expansion and additional system and process
consolidation. Other groups within Sandia
are becoming Maximo customers and we also
support the facilities at our satellite site in
California. The potential for a single database
encompassing multiple sites and different
types of service is now possible, thanks to the
forward thinking of the IT department.
Where We Are Now
We went live with Maximo 6.2.1 on October
22, 2007. We were a few months behind our
original master schedule, but with our team-
based project approach, we were still able
to accomplish the upgrade successfully. Not
to dwell on excuses, but a few of the events
that caused delays in the schedule were:
Upgrade scripts came later than originally
expected, and early scripts were prob-
lematic. This issue resulted in a six month
impact to our original schedule.
Consulting support was delayed two
months due to contract/procurement
negotiations.
Unexpected upgrade errors occurred (as-
sociated with being one of the first cus-
tomers to attempt this upgrade). The
cumulative effect of these errors on our
schedule was one to two months.
Mobile inventory application functional-
ity and performance issues required
several dedicated resources at both Sandia
and IBM for approximately five months.
This created a huge impact on the project
because the initial estimate was that the
application could be installed and config-
ured in two weeks.
The delays in schedule and unanticipated
problems caused us to move our go-live
date from May to October. Still, in order to
meet the October target many activities had
to be compressed, and the implementation of
some applications and features had to be put
on hold until after the upgrade. For example,
we originally planned to install the mobile
application for managing work orders in the
field as part of the upgrade, but it had to be
postponed due to the difficulties in getting
the mobile inventory application working to
our standards.
Once the upgrade was complete, we then
faced the challenging task of implementing
the process and culture changes in conjunc-
tion with the software upgrade. For the past
18 months, several teams and individuals
have been experiencing maintenance process
improvements, and Maximo has helped facili-
tate and reinforce these improvements. This
is the phase when the rubber meets the road.
In tandem with training users on the new soft-
ware, we are also impacting the entire main-
tenance culture at Sandia through process
changes. Some of the key process improve-
ments include:
Streamlined process for all service re-
quests (maintenance, custodial, projects,
etc.)
A single maintenance work process
Well-defined roles, responsibilities, and
accountabilities
Weekly scheduling (phased in on a crew-
by-crew basis)
More thorough feedback from craftsmen
on work done
In June, 2008, we successfully upgraded our
Sandia California site to Maximo 6.2.1 and
greatly improved the consistency of asset and
work management between New Mexico and
California.
Where We Are Going
By no means was this project complete when
Maximo 6.2.1 was installed and operational.
Continuous improvement plans and mile-
stones were established, and many post-up-
grade improvements have been implemented.
Maximo 6.2.1 was an integral part of process
Objective Description
1 Existing Mobile Maximo Conversion
2 Full Mobile Maximo Evaluation Plan
3 Site Project Request System (SPRS) to
Maximo (Service Desk)
4 Work Flow
5 Maximo-driven Process Upgrades
6 Maximo-facilitated Process Optimizations
7 Training
8
Continuous Improvement &
Sustainment Plan
Table 1 - Project Plan Objectives
www.uptimemagazine.com
23
redesigns during our recent Facilities Trans-
formation effort. Some of our on-going goals
include the following:
Incorporate several additional stand-
alone databases, which will achieve a
corporate initiative of consolidation,
simplification, and standardization.
Install interfaces with other systems to
enhance communication with other
processes.
Display meaningful Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) on Start Centers.
Develop the qualifications application so
that training and qualification records are
integrated into the Maximo database.
Install and deploy the Maximo Mobile
Work Management application for work
orders, meter reading, and condition
monitoring.
Expand the Maximo Workflow to
increase process efficiencies.
Key Accomplishments / Lessons Learned
In summary, we would like to review the pri-
mary activities that set this upgrade project
apart and transformed the experience from
painful to pleasurable.
(1). The project charter & plan
(2). The cross-organizational project team
(3). Engaging the vendor
(4). Constant communication, internally
and externally
(5). The use of Lean Six Sigma (value stream
analysis) to improve processes
(6). The development database
(7). Training focused on embracing the
change
(8). Management support and engagement
from beginning to end
It is a simple list which may seem obvious to
anyone who has been through a change of
similar magnitude. However, it is very easy
to lose sight of the improvement goals and
fall back to status quo during a lengthy proj-
ect full of obstacles. The tools listed above
provided the structure and motivation to
keep those involved pressing for the goal. At
Sandia, we have realized the benefits of our
perseverance with a contemporary CMMS sys-
tem, fully integrated with, and supportive of,
a greatly improved maintenance process.
Reference
1. Both the Project Charter and the improved
work process can be viewed online at www.
uptimemagazine.com. From the home page
Center at Sandia National Laboratories. Ed
has been with the Labs for 35 years in various
positions including journeyman, planner,
supervisor, program manager and several
manager positions. He is a graduate of
Sandias Mechanical Apprenticeship Program
and holds a BBA and MBA from the College
of Santa Fe. He can be reached via e-mail at
ejwilli@sandia.gov.
Sabine Boruff is an analyst/programmer with
Sandia National Laboratories. She is the
Maximo team lead for the Facilities Technical
Support Systems group. She can be reached
via e-mail at saboruf@sandia.gov.
Tom Arcuri is an account manager with IBM.
He can be reached at tom.arcuri@us.ibm.
com or (301) 803-2174.
follow the links to Articles. You can navigate
by either subject matter (Information Tech-
nology) or by issue (April 2009)
Shelley Whitener, P.E., CMRP, is the Opera-
tions & Maintenance Strategic Planner for the
Facilities Management and Operations Center
at Sandia National Laboratories. She is a cer-
tified RCM2 facilitator and a Lean Six Sigma
Greenbelt. Her previous experience includes
engineering roles with LOreal USA, Maytag
Appliances, and Eastman Chemical Company.
She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
from the University of Tennessee. She can
be reached at 505-284-1853 or via e-mail at
swhiten@sandia.gov.
Ed Williams, CMRP, is the Manager of Busi-
ness, Information, and Resource Support for
the Facilities Management and Operations
april/may 2009
Recently, upon reflecting on Dr. Robert Maddings
original research on infrared window transmissivity (IR
Window Transmittance Temperature Dependence 1),
I became very interested in the practical implications
of transmissivity errors (short of complete transmis-
sion loss) on real-world inspections. Specifically, what
degree of error could one expect to see if the transmis-
sion rate of an infrared window optic were to change
and if the thermographer failed to accurately compen-
sate for that change?
For the purposes of this article we will use the follow-
ing definitions:
Emissivity: symbolized as and defined as the effi-
ciency of an objects surface to radiate infrared energy.
Transmissivity: symbolized as and defined as the
ability of radiation to pass though an object. Although
target transmissivity is important and relevant in many
thermography applications where radiated energy
from sources behind the target might pass through the
target and thereby influence temperature calculations,
this is generally not a factor in industrial electrical
thermography applications where the predomination
of targets are opaque (or non-transmissive in the long
wave infrared spectrum). Instead, this paper will focus
on the use of infrared windows and the implications of
IR window transmissivity. We will use the term trans-
missivity interchangeably with transmittance, trans-
mission, and transmission rate whereas the rate is
discussed as a fraction of being 100% transmissive.
Transmission Degradation: the continued loss in trans-
mission rate across the infrared spectrum resulting
from the nature of certain optic materials to lose trans-
mission rate due to inherent properties of that mate-
rial. (The focus of this article is on Calcium Fluoride
crystal windows, symbolized as CaF
2
, which is known
to degrade due to its hydroscopic nature, and due to
refraction caused by mechanical stresses of vibration
and high frequency noise.)
s the saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. This truism is every bit as applicable in thermography as
it is in computer data-mining. The difference is that the inaccurate data which leads a thermographer
to a false-negative conclusion could result in a multi-million dollar catastrophic failure of a companys
electrical distribution system. In fact, the implications to personnel safety, plant assets and production
downtime make the results of transmissivity errors more like toxic waste than mere garbage.
When using infrared (IR) windows or sightglasses, it
is imperative to understand the accurate transmission
rate of the optic used in the infrared window. As this
article will explore, failure to accurately compensate for
actual transmission attenuation can lead to significant
errors in data. The magnitude of the error is based on
the exponential effect that target surface temperature
has on radiated infrared energy. In short, temperature
differences (T) will appear to be minimized if the ef-
fects of transmission attenuation are not considered,
or if not accurately compensated for. Such errors in T
may thereby lead thermographers to underestimate the
magnitude of many serious electrical faults.
As an instructor for both ITC and for TEGG Corporation,
I have noticed that many Calcium Fluoride windows,
even in controlled environments, have lost significant
transmission rate within just a two to three year time-
frame. In fact, in 2003, I came across a Calcium Fluoride
infrared sightglass (shown in Figure 1) which had lost
all transmissivity in the infrared and visual spectrums.
It was being used in a motor termination box in an
electrical generation plant in Tennessee. Of course,
this is an extreme case to be sure, but it is not without
precedence.
i
n
f
r
a
r
e
d
u
p
l
o
a
d
Is What You See, What You Get?
The Effects of Tranmissivity on Data Accuracy
by Joe DeMonte
A
24
Figure 1 Calcium Fluoride Sightglass
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www.uptimemagazine.com 25
Physics of Thermography & Temperature
Calculation
Nothing actually measures temperature per
se. A thermometer, for example, measures
the expansion of mercury against a static
background. The amount that the mercury
level rises is then correlated to a tempera-
ture. If the amount of mercury in the vial was
less than what the lines were calibrated for,
then the apparent temperature reading will
be lower than the actual temperature. In this
case, a mother might send her child to school
with a 103 temperature thinking the child
was a healthy 98.6.
Similarly, a thermocouple does not measure
temperature. The difference in Voltage out-
put from two dissimilar metals due to the
thermoelectric effect, can be calculated and
correlated to known temperatures. If the
amount of differential voltage was somehow
filtered over a longer cable run, and that at-
tenuating affect was not compensated for,
then the resulting temperature calculation
will be lower than the actual temperature of
the bearing it was measuring. In this case,
the PLC (Programmable Logic Controller)
might fail to trigger an over-temperature
alarm until the process seized up.
Non-contact infrared thermography mea-
sures the radiated infrared energy from a tar-
get. The amount of radiated energy is then
calculated and correlated to specific temper-
atures. To ensure accurate temperatures and
accurate temperature comparisons (or differ-
ences in temperature, referred to as Delta T
and symbolized as T), the thermographer
must have detailed knowledge of the science
of infrared radiation and must properly con-
trol the variables which affect how the im-
ager (camera) interprets and calculates the
radiated infrared energy it receives. These
variables include (among others) the emissiv-
ity of the target, reflection of radiated energy
from other sources, and transmissivity of the
atmosphere and/or infrared window being
used.
To properly control for emissivity variations
on electrical components, thermographers
should standardize the emissivity by amend-
ing target surfaces with some type of highly
emissive, permanent treatment. Common
practices include grill paint, electrical tape
or high-emissivity stickers, any of which can
give thermographers values of 95%.
With consistent and high target emissivity,
reflection issues are minimized and a trained
infrared thermographer will be able to prop-
erly calibrate the imager for a targets emis-
sivity value, in most cases. This leaves the IR
windows transmissivity as the key variable
to control.
IR window transmission rates can be derived
from the manufacturers literature, however,
this poses several potential problems:
1. Transmission rates are typically variable
across the infrared spectrum
1
. Yet the
manufacturers specified transmission
rate is generally relevant for a specific
wave length and is therefore not neces-
sarily accurate for thermography per-
formed using standard infrared ther-
mography cameras which sense a wide
april/may 2009
26
band of infrared (for example: 7.5 to 13
m), rather than a single wavelength.
Furthermore, the sensing arrays of dif-
ferent cameras have variable sensitivi-
ties along the infrared spectrum. Your
camera might be more or less sensitive
at the wavelength where a window
manufacturer specified transmissivity.
2. If transmission values change over time,
then the manufacturers specified trans-
mission rate for a new window is irrele-
vant as it ages.
3. Some optic materials such as CaF
2
have
been shown to vary from one window
to the next
2
.
A preferred method of establishing the base-
line for transmittance adjustment is to cali-
brate the imager using an infrared window
and a target which has achieved a stable
temperature in the range you anticipate
your actual target to be operating in
1
. Do-
ing so will give a thermographer the most ac-
curate baseline value. But what if that
value were to change? What effects will that
change have on data accuracy?
Magnitude of Error
One of the most misunderstood concepts
in thermography is the degree to which er-
rors in emissivity and window transmissivity
calibration will affect temperature and T
accuracy. As demonstrated in the Stefan-
Boltzmann Law, the radiated infrared energy
emitted by a target surface is exponentially
related to the absolute temperature of that
surface:
Stefan-Boltzmann Law: W = T
4
Whereas:
W = total radiant Power in Watts/m
2
= emissivity (unitless)
= Stefan-Boltzmann constant1.56X10
-8
W/m
2
K
4
T
4
= temperature (absolute) in Kelvin
Therefore, as the temperature increases, ra-
diant energy increases proportional to the
absolute temperature to the 4th power! An
infrared cameras built-in calibration helps
correlate this fact of nature into accurate
temperatures and temperature comparisons.
However, incorrect camera settings such as
emissivity and infrared window transmission
rates will result in errant temperature values.
Furthermore, because the relationship is ex-
ponential, this error will worsen as the target
gets hotter if transmission rates or emissivity
settings are not correct. Consider the effect
on T comparisons (either between historical
and current temperatures or real-time com-
parisons between two or more similar parts)
which are by their nature a comparison be-
tween different temperatures. The resulting
calculations are apt to be radically understat-
ed, which could easily lead thermographers
to misdiagnose the severity of a fault.
If transmission rates are changing over time,
and the thermographer is trending values
to determine the health of an application, a
steadily decreasing transmission rate could
cause temperature values to appear to be sta-
ble, or decreasing, over time, while tempera-
tures were actually increasing significantly
over the same period. The implications of
flawed data to a reliability or predictive
maintenance program are obvious.
Test Specifications
For my Test Window, I used a Calcium Fluo-
ride (CaF
2
) window typical of those offered
from various manufacturers. It is a window
that I have had in my possession for rough-
ly two years. I use it for training purposes
when discussing infrared windows in my
training classes. It has mostly been exposed
to office and living environments with mod-
est levels of humidity, temperature, vibration
and high-frequency noise.
I utilized a Control Window to provide a ba-
sis of comparison. The optic of the Control
Window is made of polymer with reinforcing
grills on either side of the optic. As with the
Test Window, the Control Window is a com-
monly used infrared window which I have
been using for training purposes, so it has
been kept in the same environmental condi-
tions as the Test Window. One notable dif-
ference is that I have demonstrated the im-
pact resistance characteristics of the Control
Window many times by hitting the optic with
various instruments. Those demonstrations
have resulted in several superficial scratch-
es and surface blemishes on the optic and
grills.
This window makes a good control sample
because the polymer optic has been proven
to be stable over time, even when exposed to
a variety of environmental conditions. Fur-
thermore, the Polymer Control Window and
the CaF
2
Test Window were shown to have
nearly identical transmission characteristics
when they were new.
For purposes of these tests, I used a FLIR P65
infrared camera, with a standard 24 lens.
When taking images through the infrared
windows, the camera lens was pressed up
to the window optic as is standard practice.
The window temperature and reflected ap-
parent temperature were the same as ambi-
ent room temperature. The targets were
placed approximately 18 inches (46cm) from
the window, and care was taken to ensure
that targets were properly in focus.
The low-temperature target was a standard
overhead line clamp. Electrical tape was af-
fixed to the bolt head to serve as the target,
and was adjusted to 0.95. The target was
placed on a hot plate and its temperature
was allowed to stabilize at 115.8F (45.6C).
The high-temperature target was a solder-
ing iron tip. Emissivity of the irons tip was
known to be 0.95 from an earlier test. The
imager was adjusted to compensate for emis-
sivity, and the soldering iron was left running
until its temperatures stabilized at 661.3F
(349.6C).
Test: Effects of Transmission
Degradation
When the Control Window and Test Win-
dow were new, they were both shown to
have a transmission rate of 49%. Therefore,
a thermographer using either window would
expect to receive accurate data if they were
to adjust their imager to compensate for the
attenuating effect of the secondary optic.
However, this was not the case for the CaF
2

Test Window. (For details on how to test
for and adjust for transmission attenuation,
please refer to Madding, 2004.
1
)
Test 1 Low Temperature
Thermogram 1.1 (on the following page)
shows the thermal image of the overhead line
clamp with no infrared window. The target
temperature is shown to be 115.8F (45.6C).
We will call this the true temperature.
Thermogram 1.2 shows the same target
through the Polymer Control Window, with
the set to 0.49 per the baseline established
when it was new. The target temperature is
shown to be 115.9F (45.6C): a statistically
insignificant 0.09% error between apparent
www.uptimemagazine.com 27
and true temperatures, which is well within
the +/-2% accuracy ratings for the camera
used in the tests.
Thermogram 1.3 (following page) shows the
same target through the CaF
2
Test Window,
with the set to 0.49 per the baseline es-
tablished when it was new. However, in this
case the apparent temperature registers as
82.4F (28C), resulting in a 33.5F (17.6C)
or 28.84% error between apparent and true
temperatures.
Thermogram 1.4 shows the target after reca-
libration of the imager to the degraded val-
ue of the CaF
2
Test Window. Transmittance
was adjusted to 15% to bring the apparent
temperature in line with the true tempera-
ture. This represents a 69.4% degradation in
transmission of the CaF
2
Test Window over a
two (2) year period.
Thermogram 1.1 Thermogram 1.2

Vibration Institute
A NOT-FOR-PROFIT CORPORATION
THE VIBRATION INSTITUTE
6262 S. Kingery Highway, Suite 212
Willowbrook, Illinois 60527
See Web Site: http://www.vibinst.org for details
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machine diagnostics and case histories
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Announcing the
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monitoring applications
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april/may 2009
28
Test 2 High Temperature
Thermogram 2.1 (following page) shows the
thermal image of the soldering iron tip with
no infrared window. The target temperature
is shown to be 661.3F (349.6C). We will
define this as the true temperature of the
target.
Thermogram 2.2 shows the same target
through the Polymer Control Window, with
the set to 0.49 per the baseline established
when it was new. The target temperature is
shown to be 658.1F (347.8C): a 0.49% error
between apparent and true temperatures.
Again this margin of error is not significant
since it is well within the cameras +/-2% ac-
curacy specifications.
Thermogram 2.3 shows the same target
through the CaF
2
Test Window, with the
set to 0.49 per the baseline established
when it was new. However, in this case the
apparent temperature registers as 485.7F
(252.1C), resulting in a 175.6F (97.5C) or
26.55% error between apparent and true
temperatures.
Thermogram 2.4 shows the target after reca-
libration of the imager to the degraded val-
ue of the CaF
2
Test Window. Transmittance
was adjusted to 30% to bring the apparent
temperature in line with the known true tem-
perature. Notice that this differs from the
15% transmittance at the lower temperature,
confirming Dr. Maddings findings
1
with re-
gard to the variability of Calcium Fluorides
transmittance across the long wave infrared
spectrum.
Conclusions
It is of critical importance to choose an in-
frared window made with materials that are
designed for the environment in which you
will be using them. As stated in 1.3 of the
UL 50V standard for Infrared Viewports, The
acceptability of an Infrared Viewport in any
particular application depends upon its suit-
ability for continued use under the condi-
tions that prevail in actual service. In other
words, it is incumbent on the purchaser of
the window to understand whether or not a
window will suffer effects of degradation due
to exposure to the environment in which it
will be used.
When IR windows were properly compensat-
ed for, as with the Polymer Control Window
used in these tests, it was easy to obtain ac-
curate data which could be trusted.
The Control Window used in this article is
made of a polymer which has been proven
to maintain a stable transmission rate in a
variety of conditions. In this test, it proved
to maintain a stable transmission rate over a
two (2) year period even when subjected to
abusive impact resistance demonstrations.
I am confident that the data taken through
this type of window will be accurate when
a qualified thermographer controls for rel-
evant variables.
Conversely, after just two (2) years in relative-
ly controlled environments, my CaF
2
window
has shown considerable transmission degra-
dation and is not yielding accurate results.
In both tests the temperature error using
the CaF
2
Test Window was in excess of 25%.
To make matters worse, the error resulted
in apparent temperatures which were lower
Thermogram 2.2
Thermogram 2.1
Thermogram 1.4
Thermogram 1.3
than the true temperature, which means that
the error is likely to produce a false negative
result for the thermographer. Furthermore,
there was no visible evidence of the change
in transmission rate, so the thermographer
would likely have no obvious cues to check
for transmissivity changes.
In the event that a thermographer is using
an IR window material which is known or
suspected to degrade over time, accuracy
dictates periodic recalibration of the cam-
era to the changing transmission rate of the
window optic so that the new transmission
rate can be known and compensated for.
The recalibration requires the thermogra-
pher to test each window
2
with a target of
a known temperature. Therefore, the panel
cover holding each window must either be
removed or opened for window calibration.
In industrial applications, for time and safety
reasons, this is best done during a shutdown.
It may not seem practical, but it is absolutely
necessary if data from a degrading optic is to
be accurate and trusted.
www.uptimemagazine.com
29
Thermogram 2.4
Thermogram 2.3
Just as an infrared
imager will periodi-
cally calibrate itself to
compensate for drift
caused by the effects
of temperature on
the cameras Germa-
nium lens and internal
components, a ther-
mographer must cali-
brate his imager to ac-
count for attenuation
through an infrared
window. If the ther-
mographer chooses a
window with an optic
that remains stable
over time in their envi-
ronment, this calibra-
tion can be based on a
one-time transmission
test when the window
is new. Otherwise, pe-
riodic recalibration will
be required to ensure
accuracy.
Resources
1. Madding, Dr. Robert. IR Window Trans-
mittance Temperature Dependence.
Infrared Training Center, FLIR Systems,
Inc. 2004
2. Daugherty, Newberry & Schewe, Opening
the Windows. Uptime Magazine. Nov
2007: p. 22.
Joe DeMonte is currently the Director of
Operations and Training for TEGG Corpora-
tion. He holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts, and
an Associates Degree in Applied Technical
Science from Thomas Edison State University.
and is an ASNT/PdM Level III Thermographer
His experience includes an enlisted tour in
the US Naval Submarine force nuclear divi-
sion, and several years as a PdM Engineer and
lead infrared thermographer for Beaver Valley
Power Station. For the last 10 years, Joe has
helped write and teach the Infrared Training
Centers infrared thermography certification
program.
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april/may 2009
Looking Into The Mist
Oil Mist Lubrication for Positive Displacement Blowers
by Heinz P. Bloch, P.E.
reliability engineer was trying to explore the viability of a project to equip a number of Roots-type ro-
tary lobe blowers with oil mist. He had looked up a number of web-based papers, OEM manuals, and a
relevant text
1
. Although receiving input from both OEM and a highly experienced oil mist provider, the
gentleman expressed concern with certain issues that arose in the course of his research. We want to
share his questions and some of our answers.
Blowers Operate at a Range of Pressures
The positive displacement blowers at this engineers
plant are of the type illustrated in Figure 1. They move
air ranging in pressure from slightly negative suction
to about 15 psig positive discharge, as is typical for
polyethylene powder or pellet transfer. His machines
come in different sizes, but are predominantly 10, 12,
and 14-inch (shaft center to shaft center) rotary lobe
units. The drives at his facility include direct-drive mo-
tors, gearboxes, and belt arrangements. He noted that
some were splash-lube only, while some were forced-
feed lubricated.
When the blowers were installed many years ago, there
was, at that time, an understanding between the oil
mist provider and user-owner that pure mist (dry sump)
might later be retrofitted to the blower bearings. A
wet sump (purge mist) arrangement was considered
appropriate on the timing gear/oil sump side of the
smaller splash-lubricated units. In his research, the
user-owner found industry references to oil mist appli-
cation on small blowers at other facilities; however, the
engineer was now trying to determine if it was accept-
able to eliminate forced lubrication on the larger units.
Although not disallowing it, the blower manufacturer
apparently knew of no users that had eliminated forced-
feed lubrication.
Information supplied by the blower manufacturer
showed a general preference for forced feed lubrication
when a certain pressure rise (and, therefore, differ-
ential temperature) through the blower is exceeded.
However, the engineer didnt think he had found a
suitable reference on the temperature limitations of oil
mist applications. He also struggled with locating case
histories where elevated-temperature applications are
featured (with the exception of slow-turning bearings
for rollers, etc.) He knew that removing oil flooding
actually decreases the frictional heat generated within
the bearing; but, in the case of his more heavily loaded
bearings on larger blowers, he thought that it might be
the process (air) discharge temperature
that outweighed frictional heat genera-
tion concerns.
He quite correctly noted that getting
away from forced-feed lubrication
would greatly simplify the oil system,
eliminating a pump, cooler, piping,
thermostatic valves, and pressure
switches. With other than forced feed
lubrication, he thought he would lose
the benefit offered by even a marginal
filtration strainer. However, if he
could not remove the forced lube re-
quirement, he would not expect much
advantage of oil mist purge as opposed
to simple nitrogen purges on these
units. He acknowledged that some
beneficial oil-wetting of components
in standby equipment might occur, but
l
u
b
r
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
u
p
l
o
a
d
A
30
Figure 1 - Roots-type positive displacement blower at a
petrochemical plant.
(Source: Lubrication Systems Company, Houston, Texas)
noted that, on centrifugal pumps, his plant
used oil mist with nitrogen as the carrier
fluid.
The Quest for Case Histories
And so, he raised several specific questions
he hoped we might comment on. First, he in-
quired if we were aware of any users that had
switched to oil mist where forced lube was
previously used on blowers or similar equip-
ment. Our answer was affirmative, and con-
firmed that of the oil mist provider: oil mist
lube on blowers exists and has been used
quite successfully on many sizes for several
decades. Ref. 1 gives the shaft speed, bearing
size and load values for which oil mist lubri-
cation was designed, irrespective of machine
type. In fact, oil mist is viable at speeds and
velocities much higher than those encoun-
tered here. There will certainly be no prob-
lem applying this technology to any machine
type with rolling element bearings including,
of course, the blower sizes used at his plant.
As regards a strainer (or the loss of it), we
reasoned that, by the time contaminants or
other debris particles are large enough to get
caught in a strainer, a myriad of smaller par-
ticles will have passed through and will have
severely damaged the machines components.
Our view is that strainers are only inserted
in piping to catch hard hats and beer bottles
left by the construction crew. Contaminant
intrusion must be prevented by other means.
Intrusion can be managed by advanced bear-
ing housing protector seals a separate sub-
ject and one well worth studying. (For now,
lets just remember that a serious professional
examines how components operate and ques-
tions configurations that violate the precepts
of sound engineering and the science of elas-
tomeric materials behavior. Some products
stand accused of such violations, and at least
two of the cited references shed much more
light on the issue).
Next, the engineer asked for a case history
that we might comment on. Well, we know
the oil mist provider has access to such case
histories and would be pleased to share them
with any prospective client. The general con-
figuration of Roots-type positive displacement
blowers is depicted in Figure 2; it highlights
where and how both pure mist and dry sump
oil mist are applied on the same blower. Un-
fortunately, users are often reluctant to share
their success stories with the public and we
may have to depend on others to do the ex-
plaining. The bearings on the gear side are
splash lubricated from the action of the oil-
contacting gears. The space above the liquid
oil is not vented. Venting would lead to mist
flow and would cause more mist to coalesce
(become reclassified into liquid oil) and the oil
level would rise. By not venting the gear side,
one avoids adding to environmental pollution
and avoids having to actually remove oil from
the sump. Dry sump (pure) oil mist lubrica-
tion is used on the input side of the blower.
As to our opinion on using nitrogen purge in-
stead of oil mist: In this application, oil mist is
probably much less expensive than nitrogen.
Moreover, it imparts a lubricity bonus that
will be important for non-running equipment
under conditions of vibration being trans-
mitted from neighboring running machines.
Those are just two of the reasons why we
would stay with oil mist.
Also, the engineer had been led to believe that
his plant was stuck with purge mist on the
sump/gear side of the blower. Yet, he said,
in his studies he had come across some gen-
eral references to dry lubrication film devel-
opment on warmer (i.e. 80C+) gear meshes
utilizing oil mist, and was now wondering if
these kinds of studies might offer challenges
to his thinking. It wasnt clear to him when
it would be reasonable to use dry lube films
on the timing gears shown on the left side of
Figure 2. As to the oil mist lubricant path, he
www.uptimemagazine.com
31
expressed the view that, at high speeds, wind-
age could be a problem (windage is the fan
effect generated by an angularly oriented cage
in rolling element bearings). He observed that
the bearings on the timing gear side of the
blower are not contained in a separate hous-
ing. In our answer, we noted that dry lube
films are often used for speed reducing gears
in motorized hand drills. We then advised
against experimentation with dry film lubri-
cation in the engineers reliability-focused in-
dustrial setting and on Roots-type blowers.
Some More General Answers Worth
Pondering
Dry sump oil mist (properly applied) is a real
attractive lubrication method for rolling ele-
ment bearings in virtually all industries. Only
oil jet lubrication (a superior form of forced
lube) is technically better. However, oil jet
lube would be more expensive and probably
difficult to cost-justify for the positive dis-
placement blowers at issue here.
In short, it is well known that many Roots-type
blowers are lubricated by oil mist. However,
first and foremost, the dry sump (pure) oil
mist is intended for rolling element (errone-
ously called anti-friction) bearings and not,
in the case of these blowers, for sleeve (or
plain) bearings or gears. Dry film lubrica-
tion development is strictly a function of oil
type and temperature. For Roots-type blow-
Figure 2 - Roots-type blower cross-section with oil mist purge (left) and pure
oil mist (right) (Source: Lubrication Systems Company, Houston, Texas)
april/may 2009
32
ers, dry film lube sounds like a research proj-
ect with lots of variables. And so, we would
stay clear of that, for now.
The oil mist must be ported through the bear-
ings at the input side of the blowers. Except
for bearings only regions where dry sump
oil mist greatly excels over purge mist, wet
sump (purge mist) will help considerably by
preventing contaminant entry into the bearing
and gear housing. Thus, purge mist should
be used on the gear side of the illustration in
Figure 2, but the mist routing may not be the
same on different physical layouts or other
housing configurations.

Of critical importance to dry sump oil mist lu-
brication is the mist entry point. If applied
per API-610 (8th through 10th Edition), oil
mist will protect bearings better than anything
short of an oil jet impinging on the rolling ele-
ments. While oil mist may still work even if
not applied per latest API-610 recommenda-
tions, a facility that disregards these straight-
forward recommendations loses its claims to
be reliability-focused.

When utilizing an appropriate synthetic oil
(mist) for both bearings and gears, the maxi-
mum allowable temperature is usually set by
the bearing metal and bearing-internal clear-
ance considerations (230F), and not by the
lubricant temperature. The temperature per-
mitted by several available high performance
synthetic lubricants certainly exceeds 300F.

Reviewing Internal Sealing Provisions
On Roots-type blowers, process pressure con-
siderations rarely enter the picture. However,
that statement assumes that internal sealing
provisions (sealing between a bearing region
and the adjacent pressurized process envi-
ronment) are made with reliability focus and
forethought. Internal sealing may differ for
various machine sizes or internal features.
Chances are that seal upgrades are feasible
and merit inclusion in a pre-purchase review.
That kind of up-front review is done by Best-
of-Class companies and is neatly described
in books and articles, courses, and techni-
cal seminars
2
). For the past 43 years (since
1965), smart companies have allocated money
for these reviews by factoring the cost into
the project budget. As to the cost of such
reviews, these companies have claimed ben-
efit-to-cost ratios of 100-to-1 and higher. Sad
to say, the not-so-smart companies still base
their budgets on buying the cheapest possible
equipment and then wonder why their main-
tenance costs are high and equipment reliabil-
ity is low. Could it be that one only gets what
one pays for?
Experience surveys are fine. Nevertheless, we
should shy away from blindly trusting what
someone said, regardless of whether they
had good, or bad, or just so-so experiences.
Sometimes, Many peoples word-of-mouth ex-
perience may not be relevant at all. Most per-
sonnel dont know the difference between a
typical oil mist fitting, a spray fitting (for slow
speeds), a condensing fitting (for sliding ways)
and a directed oil mist fitting (used to over-
come windage). They probably dont perform
root cause failure analysis (RCFA) and a never-
ending stream of repeat failures at their plant
attests to the veracity of our suspicion. Any
feedback or opinions must be linked to sever-
al variables and would mandate that we knew
these variables. In any event, there is never a
substitute for understanding how parts work,
and how they fail.

So, a simple review of the cross-sectional
configurations of the blowers in question is
Continuous monitoring of critical
assets and balance of plant
4-20 mA data is a standard input
for a PLC, DCS or SCADA system
Ideal for real-time monitoring,
alarming and simplified analysis
Makes distributed condition
monitoring cost effective and scalable
4-20 mA vibration monitoring
Wilcoxon Research Inc
20511 Seneca Meadows Parkway
Germantown, MD 20876
USA
Tel: 301 330 8811
Fax: 301 330 8873
Email: sensors@wilcoxon.com
www.wilcoxon.com
www.meggitt.com
Our Students Call It CSI...
for Engineers.
We call it Practical Plant Failure
Analysis Its a reasonably-priced
practical seminar with hundreds
of hands-on examples designed
for plant people and engineers.
Youll work with gears, bearings,
shafts, belts, fasteners, seals, and
a selection of corrosion examples. With the hands-on analyses,
youll learn how and why they fail and how to diagnose the
multiple causes.
Te public session is three days long and is held in Syracuse,NY
in November. Private sessions range from two to four days and
can be held at your site.
From the Reliability
Professionals who wrote
the book on logical and
practical plant failure
analysis. For more details
contact Dale Gamba at
315-487-4390 or email us
at reliable@twcny.rr.com
www.uptimemagazine.com
really necessary. Anything short of such a
review is just guesswork no value added,
just risk added. As long as the review is done
diligently, the owner-operator will prosper.
If he saves the relative pittance that such a
review will cost by not performing it, his facil-
ity will never reach the degree of low failure
incidence that others enjoy. In other words,
we believe the failure risk far outweighs the
cost of an up-front analysis and our engineer
is to be commended for asking some of his
questions up front.

But theres also some criticism due. We will
perhaps never understand why seemingly
modern facilities claim they cannot afford
funding the few hours it takes a competent
advisor to teach the underlying fundamentals.
Out of maybe a hundred questions that reach
us in a years time, at least ninety are asked out
of context. For us to quickly answer them is,
ultimately, not a productive endeavor. Whats
worse is that it very often leads to defensive-
ness on the part of the questioner.
Virtually all plants have training budgets, but
certainly not all of them spend their training
funds wisely. Truly teaching an understand-
ing as to how machines function and malfunc-
tion would pay huge dividends. Thats as true
for oil mist on blowers as it is for thoroughly
analyzing bearing housing (bearing protector)
seals where half the O-ring is contacted by a
groove in the stationary part and the other
half is contacted by a groove in the rotating
part. Did you ever wonder what happens to
the O-ring at slow-roll, or when there is axial
movement of the two parts relative to each
other
3
? When would we consider retrofit-
ting a dual-face magnetic seal
4
? Now that is
real food for thought! Once we upgrade to
oil mist lubrication, we might as well do the
whole job and do it right.
References:
1. Bloch, Heinz P. and Abdus Shamim; Oil-
Mist Lubrication HandbookPractical
Applications, (1998), Fairmont Press,
Lilburn, GA, 30047 (ISBN 0-88173-256-7)
2. Bloch, Heinz P.; Improving Machinery
Reliability, (1998), Third Edition, Gulf
Publishing Company, Houston, TX, 77520
(ISBN 0-88415-661-3)
3. Bloch, Heinz P.; Counting Interventions
Instead of MTBF, (Hydrocarbon Process-
ing, October 2007)
4. Bloch, Heinz P.; Consider Dual Magnetic
Hermetic Sealing Devices
for Equipment In Modern Refineries,
(Pumps & Systems, September 2004)
Heinz P. Bloch (hpbloch@mchsi.com) is a
professional engineer with offices in West
Des Moines, Iowa. He advises process
and power plants worldwide on reliability
improvement and maintenance cost reduc-
tion opportunities. Heinz is the author of
17 full-length texts and over 400 papers and
technical articles. His most recent texts in-
clude A Practical Guide to Compressor Tech-
nology (2006, John Wiley & Sons, NY, ISBN
0-471-727930-8); Pump Users Handbook:
Life Extension, (2006, Fairmont Publishing
Company, Lilburn, ISBN 0-88173-517-5) and
Machinery Uptime Improvement, (2006,
Elsevier-Butterworth-Heinemann, Stoneham,
MA, ISBN 0-7506-7725-2)
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As we enter a recession and maintenance staffs are
cut, we will once again be asked to do more with less.
This means that now we need to think about how we
conduct maintenance and determine how to do it more
efficiently and intelligently in the future whether that is
through new internal processes or outside help. As we
rise to meet the challenges of the emerging economy,
we implement best practices, restructure, invest in
infrastructure and are prepared to hit the ground run-
ning when the economy turns upwards again.
In the coming months, I will be writing a number of
articles addressing the subject of why PdM programs
succeed or fail from the managerial, technical and fi-
nancial perspectives. Whether one decides to use this
information to beef up or restart an in-house program,
determine what type of training may be best or to out-
source some, or all, of these functions, the hope is to
provide enough practical information to help you be
successful in your endeavor. The article you are reading
now will touch on some of the main themes that we
will be exploring in more detail in the future.
Lack of Vision
No program can succeed if it is not well conceived.
If done correctly, a predictive maintenance program
should change the culture, philosophy and work flow
of the maintenance department. It is not just the
addition of a new technology or tool, but a different
approach or strategy towards maintaining ones assets.
This approach is being undertaken in order to gain
specific benefits that can and should be measured.
These benefits include: increased uptime, reduced
failures, shorter planned outages, fewer preventive
maintenance actions and, ultimately, a more efficient
facility. Failure to adapt the culture to this new phi-
losophy, and benchmark the gains, will eventually lead
to the programs dissolution. Adopting new technolo-
gies without changing maintenance strategies will not
produce the desired benefits.
n the past few years we have witnessed a marked change in predictive maintenance (PdM) practices
whereby more and more companies are choosing to outsource their programs. While many facilities
routinely calculate 20:1 return on investment metrics, others cynically refer to aging data collectors as
dust collectors or use them as bookends. Although the concept of PdM is now widely known, and its
potential benefits generally accepted, many plants have failed to successfully exploit the available techniques
and technologies in practice. This state of affairs begs the question: Why do some programs succeed while
others fail?
Using a Tool without Understanding Why
Many facilities purchase a new technology, such as a
vibration data collector or alignment tool, spend time
and money learning how to use the tool, but little time
understanding why it is being used. As an example, a
particular facility I know of had the capacity and abil-
ity to detect incipient bearing wear in a pump using a
vibration analysis system. Although the pump showed
no signs of wear, the facility went ahead and changed
out the bearings according to their preventive mainte-
nance schedule. At another plant, a vibration analyst
was adept at detecting mechanical faults in his plants
machinery, but he was afraid to tell his supervisor
about all of the problems he found because his super-
visor might get angry at having to repair all of these
machines! Both of these cases demonstrate the use of
the technology as an end in itself without an overall
vision of why the technology is being employed.
Failure to Justify the Program
In those facilities where the technology is being used
correctly, and in the right context, I have often seen a
program fail because its successes were not adequately
documented. This is to say that the facility changed
their philosophy to a predictive mode, correctly em-
ployed technology to reduce preventive maintenance
actions and minimized catastrophic failures, but they
failed to adequately document the efficiencies and sav-
ings associated with these actions. So, while employees
within the maintenance department acknowledged that
their work was useful, they had no data to prove this
to those outside of their group. Sadly, they then saw
their program get cut when managers had to tighten
their budgets. In other cases, the person managing the
PdM program left and no one picked up the ball.
Lack of Consistency
Another component of a failed program is the lack
Avoiding the Pitfalls
Why Do Predictive Maintenance Programs Fail?
by Alan Friedman
I
april/may 2009
34
35
www.uptimemagazine.com
and will have a plant that operates smoothly,
predictably and efficiently over time. To at-
tain this goal, consistency is required over a
long period of time.
Training and Partnering
Ongoing training is an important ingredient
of a successful program. However, it needs to
be the correct type of training, a combination
of complimentary technology and managerial
expertise. ISO and ASNT-certified vibration
courses focus on machine dynamics and
vibrations on a general technical level. It
is important to take these courses, pass the
exams and become certified, but this training
alone will not necessarily translate to running
a successful PdM program.
Equipment vendor training is often useful
because it requires trainees to learn how
to use a data collector and correctly set up
software, but oftentimes does not expand
outside these topics to provide the user
with the tools he or she needs to run a suc-
cessful program. While learning how to use
data collection tools is an essential skill, it
defeats the purpose if that same person does
not know what to do with the data theyve
collected or how to manage a successful PdM
program. One last note to consider about
equipment vendor training: once the training
has been completed, there is often no one
around to ensure employees are using the
tool correctly.
Onsite training, database reviews, program
audits and choosing the correct long term
partner, or PdM service provider, will go a
long way to ensuring a successful program. If
done correctly, a service partner will provide
onsite training and support in managing your
ongoing program in different capacities as
your program evolves. At different times and
in different circumstances, a good partner
will take over parts of the program for you
and later provide training and support as you
bring the program back in-house.
Lack of Procedures / Methodology
As alluded to in the last section, a success-
ful monitoring program is more than just
interpreting graphs and data, it depends on
consistency and repeatable performance. In
general, we are interested in monitoring as-
sets in order to diagnose deteriorating health
or other problems. In order to do this cor-
of consistency over time. There are many
causes for this, ranging from a failure to
commit adequate personnel, lack of proper
training, loss of skilled personnel, change
in program direction/technology, failure to
adequately define the program at the start
and, finally, the lack of a consistent model
to monitor the efficacy of the program over
time. These false starts and stops add con-
fusion to the process and typically result in
a lack of faith by the workers who see the
company invest in change, but then quickly
revert back to old patterns.
A lack of consistency over time has the ad-
ditional ill effects of not allowing the facility
to evolve to a proactive maintenance mode.
As a brief review, there are four levels of main-
tenance practices: run-to-failure, preventive,
predictive and proactive. In run-to-failure
programs, facilities adopt a technology, such
as vibration analysis, to test or troubleshoot
machines they know have problems. Preven-
tive mode refers to maintenance departments
that test machines on a schedule much like a
preventive maintenance task, but do not act
on the information gleaned from these tests.
In predictive maintenance mode, one bases
maintenance actions on the results of these
tests to eliminate unnecessary preventive
actions and avoid catastrophic failures.
The next stage in maintenance evolution
is the proactive mode, whereby the facility
has enough historical information about the
machines and their failure modes to make
educated decisions on how to extend their
lives, replace them with machines of differ-
ent makes or models or weed out inherent
design flaws. To reach these lofty goals and
bask in the glory of a highly efficient plant,
one needs the backbone of an historically
consistent program to lean on.
Looking at these evolutionary stages from
a qualitative viewpoint, one will note that
a plant in run-to-failure mode will contain
machinery in various states of disrepair that
seem to fail at random. Personnel in a run-
to-failure plant will often be busy and may
think that they are too busy to adopt new
procedures! In the preventative mode, one is
taking better care of ones assets and they are
failing less frequently. In predictive mode,
one should be able to reduce preventive
actions where applicable, extend machine
life and drastically and reduce unplanned
outages. In proactive mode, one will have
removed or redesigned troubled machinery
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rectly and accurately, one needs to test the
assets in a repeatable fashion, month after
month and year after year for many years.
When this is understood, one will see that
a successful program depends much more
on consistency and program management
(unfortunately, this aspect is not often taught
in standardized courses) than it does on tech-
nical prowess. Another way of stating this
is to say that a successful program depends
on methodology and organization. A good
partner or service provider with a good track
record should be able to help you implement
a program with tried and true methodologies
and manage it for you.

Lack of Experience / Commitment
So far, we have touched on a number of dif-
ferent aspects of successful and unsuccessful
programs, and it may be clear that there are a
lot of issues involved. This highlights another
problem, which is simply a lack of experience
and/or commitment by a particular facility.
Even if one has the best intentions and the
highest level of commitment, it may take a
long time to train an employee or group of
employees to the point where they can imple-
ment a good maintenance program. In the
meantime, as they are learning, little may
be happening or things may be going in the
wrong direction.
More typically, one will see a facility trying
to accomplish a great deal without dedicat-
ing any money or people to the project or,
when they do dedicate one or the other, it is
only for a short period of time. Within this
window, corporate priorities change, per-
sonnel change positions and, subsequently,
the program gets shelved. Like many things
in todays world, PdM is becoming a highly
specialized area of expertise where, if one
wants to gain the depth and expertise cur-
rently existing in the market place, it takes
a great deal of dedication and time, which ,
unfortunately, may not be compatible with
the other 100 duties you are expected to
take care of as part of your other work. This
is one reason why partnering or outsourc-
ing has become a viable option for many
organizations.
Conclusion
Having gone through this brief exercise, per-
haps it is becoming apparent why there are
advantages to outsourcing PdM programs.
And, while many companies have the exper-
tise in-house to develop and sustain high
quality PdM programs, there are also many
companies who might benefit more, or at
least benefit more quickly, by outsourcing
their predictive maintenance programs. It
is a decision that each organization needs
to explore for themselves.
Service providers understand the context in
which their technology is being employed
and many have an enormous amount of ex-
perience in successfully managing large pro-
grams over extended periods of time. They
know what is required to make a program
succeed and can educate you and your staff
on these points. A service provider should
maintain a consistent approach over time and
be able to maintain the appropriate expertise
within their company, in part because their
people completely believe in the technology
they are employing. They will be experts at
utilizing the tools and technology at their
disposal, but this should take a backseat to
their track record on managing long-term
programs. Lastly, a service provider should
be able to work with you to benchmark the
program and demonstrate its return on in-
vestment over time.
In future articles, we will explore these topics
in greater depth to provide you with enough
practical information to run a better in-house
program or find an appropriate partner or
service provider to help take it off your
hands. In either case, understanding why
things fail is the key to understanding how
to get them to work!
Alan Friedman is a senior technical advisor
for Azima DLI (www.AzimaDLI.com). With
more than 18 years of engineering experi-
ence, Friedman has worked with hundreds
of industrial facilities worldwide and devel-
oped proven best practices for sustainable
condition monitoring and predictive main-
tenance programs. Friedman contributed
to the development of Azima DLIs auto-
mated diagnostic system and has produced
and taught global CAT II and CAT III equiva-
lent vibration analysis courses. Friedman is
a senior instructor at the Mobius Institute,
an independent provider of vibration train-
ing and certification, and an instructor for
the Instituto Mexicano de Mantenimiento
Predictivo (Predictive Maintenance Insti-
tute of Mexico). He is also the founder of
ZenCo, a positive vibrations company. You
can contact Alan at 206-327-3332 or
at friedmanalan1@gmail.com
305-591-8935 www.ludeca.com
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ngineering can be a boring career with everyone working with known measurements and abso-
lutes. There is never any doubt that the information contained in a standard or textbook is fact
because everything is static, mathematical, and measurable. At least, that is what most people
tend to think.
While it is true that most engineers tend to be
a conservative lot, most of your standards and
information in textbooks is based upon a combi-
nation of experience, mathematical and observed
experimentation, theory, fact, compromise and
consensus. Standards development meetings, and
developing consensus between domestic and glob-
al standards, can get quite exciting with debate,
disagreement and even the occasional subterfuge.
There is nothing more exciting than watching
competing machine and component manufacturers
along with scientists, laboratory representatives,
and the users of the machines and components, all
with their own agenda, trying hard to agree, while
not sharing competitive information. However, it
is also important to understand (with only a few
exceptions), that virtually all of the engineers in-
volved in the standards that we use are dedicated
and interested in the good of the industry, with
the few maverick self-interested engineers tend-
ing not to last long. In other cases information is
shared on new development that helps the indus-
try move forward.
The reality is that standards development can be
quite exciting and informative. One such case
is the most referenced Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) standards in the
maintenance industry: IEEE Std 43-2000: IEEE
Recommended Practice for Testing Insulation
Resistance of Rotating Machinery (IEEE 43). The
original IEEE 43 standard was issued in 1974 and
remained virtually unchanged up through 2000.
It primarily represented about a Centurys worth
of experience with data identical to publications
published in 1913, and earlier.
A lot of changes occurred in the 1970s and later,
in relation to the electrical insulation industry,
including the use of polymers and advances in both
epoxy and polymer sciences for electrical insula-
tion systems. In the meantime, much of the data
in use for the 1974 standard could be traced back
to the experiences from oil and/or tar and paper
insulation systems.
Every so often, IEEE standards must be reaffirmed.
The reaffirmation process involves the review
of an existing standard to determine if it is still
useful, valid, or requires updating. It involves the
creation of a standards committee working group
who is tasked to review, advise and either modify
or reject the standard. If the standard is accepted
or modified by the group, it is put out through the
IEEE standards authority for general announce-
ment and voting by interested engineers, with a
minimum number of votes being required before it
is released.
IEEE Std 43-1974 was revised by the 2000 working
group over the course of several years and re-re-
leased with some of the original core document
attached, but with far more explanation and detail.
The standard has since been re-affirmed with the
stipulation that specific issues are reviewed, a
process which is ongoing at the time of the draft-
ing of this article. IEEE 43 is the responsibility
of the IEEE Materials Subcommittee of the IEEE
Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS),
the IEEE society that oversees a majority of the
electrical testing standards for electrical insulation
systems and machines that we use consistently in
our industry.
What is IEEE Std 43?
The scope of IEEE 43 is described as follows:
This document describes a recommended proce-
dure for measuring insulation resistance of arma-
ture and field windings in rotating machines rated
1 hp, 750 W or greater. It applies to synchronous
machines, induction machines, dc machines, and
synchronous condensers. It does not apply to
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Adventures in Engineering Standards
Behind the Scenes of Creating IEEE Std 43-2000
by Howard W. Penrose, PhD, CMRP
38
april/may 2009
fractional-horsepower machines...The
document also describes typical insula-
tion resistance characteristics of rotating
machine windings and how these charac-
teristics indicate winding condition. It
recommends minimum acceptable values
of insulation resistance for ac and dc
rotating machine windings.
1
IEEE 43 provides us with some very useful
information within a scope of all machines
over one horsepower in size, including the
definitions of insulation resistance and po-
larization index. The purpose is outlined
as follows
1
:
a) Define insulation resistance and polar-
ization index of the winding of a rot-
ating machine;
b) Review the factors that affect or
change insulation resistance
characteristics;
c) Recommend uniform test conditions;
d) Recommend uniform methods for
measuring insulation resistance with
precautions to avoid erroneous
results;
e) Provide a basis for interpreting insu-
lation resistance tests to estimate
winding suitability for service or for
an overvoltage test. In particular,
this standard describes typical insula-
tion problems detected by the insula-
tion resistance tests;
f) Present recommended minimum
acceptable insulation resistance values
and polarization indices for various
types of rotating machines.
Starting in the 2000 edition, changes were
made to the minimum acceptable value
from the traditional 1 MegOhm plus 1 Meg-
www.uptimemagazine.com
39
Ohm per kilo-Volt rating of the machine,
or 1.5 MegOhms for a 460 Volt machine
and 5 MegOhms for a 4,160 Volt machine.
The new values were presented as shown
in Table 1 (note: Table 1 wording repre-
sents the present recommended change to
IEEE 43 and not the existing standard).
3
The standard describes the specific condi-
tions that will affect insulation resistance,
including temperature, test voltage, and
moisture. While the moisture require-
ments suggest that the machine should
be tested above the dew point; that is the
limit to the guidance other than noting
that humidity can cause dramatic changes
to test results. Recommended test voltage
values are presented based upon machine
voltage, and temperature adjustments are
recommended to 40C to a standard chart
and formula.
Prior to IEEE 43-2000, there were few lim-
its related to Polarization Index (PI). The
change was made such that insulation re-
sistance values over 5,000 MegOhms, ad-
justed to 40C, should not be tested for PI.
Very little explanation was forthcoming
until the present draft changes to the IEEE
43, or IEEE Std P43-2000 (Revision of IEEE
Std 43-2000), Section 12.2.2 Applicability
of polarization index when IR is greater
than 5000 MegOhms, When the insula-
tion resistance reading obtained after the
voltage has been applied for 1 min (IR1)
is higher than 5,000 MegOhms, based on
the magnitude of applied direct voltage,
the total measured current (IT) can be in
the submicroampere range. At this level
of required test instrument sensitivity,
small changes in the supply voltage, am-
bient humidity, test conditions, and other
Minimum Insulation
Resistance (MegOhms)
Test Specimens
IR1 Min = kV + 1
For most windings made before 1970, all feld
windings, and others not described below
IR1 Min = 100
For most dc armature and ac windings built after
about 1970 (form wound coils)
IR1 Min = 5
For most machines with random-wound stator coils
and form wound coils rated below 1 kV
Table 1 - Minimum Acceptable Insulation Resistance Values at 40C (in MegOhms)
non-related components can greatly affect
the total current measured during the 1-
10 minute interval required for a PI. Be-
cause of these phenomena, when the IR1
is higher than 5,000 MegOhms, the PI may
or may not be an indication of the insula-
tion condition and is therefore not recom-
mended as an assessment tool.
3
Tests previously referenced, including di-
electric absorption and limits are not men-
tioned in the present or upcoming edition
of the IEEE 43. However, such types of
tests are now referenced in Annex A, in-
cluding a more in-depth discussion of the
meaning and interpretation of PI and new-
er insulation systems.
Present Conditions Surrounding IEEE 43
The designation of P in front of a standard
number, such as IEEE Std P43-2000, indi-
cates that the standard is presently under
development. In these conditions, IEEE
provides a statement on the cover of all P
documents that the standard is presently
under development and may have changes
made such that use of the standard is at
the risk of the user.
IEEE is also a professional organization
in which a significant amount of informa-
tion is publicly available. For the IEEE
Power Engineering Society (PES) Materi-
als Subcommittee, which falls under the
responsibility of DEIS, information on
the present ongoing work related to IEEE
P43 (and other insulation standards) can
be found at http://ewh.ieee.org/cmte/pes/
materials/workinggroups/p43/p43.htm.
2

Anyone may go and view ongoing work,
comment, and/or volunteer, although only
IEEE members are able to vote on the IEEE
standards.
The primary issue that was raised with the
Affirmed IEEE 43 was that it related to all
machines above 1 horsepower for new, re-
paired, and existing machines up to and
including large generators. Motor manu-
facturers identified that the change to the
minimum insulation values might affect
specific National Electrical Manufacturers
Association (NEMA) portions of the NEMA
MG-1 standard (Motors and Generators),
and in particular, how it related to sealed
insulation systems. The discussions are
ongoing, with most of the discussion
hinging around the fact that none of the
NEMA members had raised the issue that
the original 1 MegOhm plus 1 MegOhm
per kilo-Volt was an issue, especially in
the wet-winding test: (Reference Section
12.3.1 of the IEEE P43) Sealed Winding
Conformance Test Final test specifica-
tions for new machines often require the
exposed areas of the stator winding to be
completely soaked with an aqueous solu-
tion of known surface tension. A measure-
ment of insulation resistance is used to es-
tablish that the insulation system is sealed
against ingress by moisture. The detailed
test procedure and an acceptance criteria
are provided in IEEE 4, NEMA MG-1. This
is post-scripted with the following note:
NEMA MG1 gives a minimum insulation
resistance for a wetted winding of kV+1
MegOhm (awaiting feedback from NEMA
MG1 Technical Committee Chair on ratio-
nale for this minimum value).
3
Once this issue was identified, additional
potential problems were identified within
the standard such as some of the diagrams
not fully, or properly, describing the true
conditions of an insulation system. The
argument was made that while the original
purpose of the diagrams was to generically
demonstrate conditions, they were never
meant to be used for actual calculations of
insulation condition. However, numerous
cases were identified where technical ar-
guments were made using these diagrams,
resulting in erroneous conclusions. One
such issue includes the equivalent circuit
diagram identified in the document as Fig-
ure 1. The decision must be made wheth-
er to leave it as is, remove it, or qualify it
further in the description. The argument
and decision has been in process for close
to 18 months at the time of drafting of this
article with lively discussion at each meet-
ing.
Conclusion
IEEE standards development can be an ex-
citing process, especially once it is under-
stood that most standards are created only
april/may 2009
40
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41
through the participation of professionals
that bring many differing viewpoints, ex-
periences and agendas to the table. The
meetings can certainly become quite lively
as everyone contributes their input to the
ongoing debate. It is not easy to develop
consensus among the cast of characters,
and everyone who participates in the pro-
cess should be commended for spending
their time in an effort to move our indus-
try forward.
The result is demonstrated in the IEEE
43 standard, which is heavily used in the
reliability and maintenance community
for the testing and evaluation of rotating
machines. Following major changes in
the 2000 version of the standard after 26
years, and over a century of experience, it
has been discovered that additional modi-
fications are required in order to meet
modern requirements and changes to the
chemistry of modern insulation systems.
This includes developing a consensus be-
tween standards bodies and within the
IEEE P43 committee, itself.
Bibliography
1. IEEE Recommended Practice for
Testing Insulation Resistance of
Rotating Machinery, IEEE Standard
43-2000.
2. IEEE Materials Subcommittee IEEE P43
Working Group, Available:
http://ewh.ieee.org/cmte/pes/materials/
workingroups/p43/p43.htm
3. Draft IEEE Recommended Practice for
Testing Insulation Resistance of Ro-
tating Machinery, IEEE Standard
P43-2000
Howard W Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP is the
President of SUCCESS by DESIGN a
reliability services and publishing firm,
Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE DEIS Web
(http://www.ieee.org/go/deis/), Found-
ing Executive Director of the Institute
of Electrical Motor Diagnostics, and
President of AllAmericanHybrid.com. Dr.
Penrose specializes in commercial/indus-
trial rotating machinery, hybrid/electric
vehicle system, and electrical system
reliability, maintenance, manufacturing,
design, diagnostics, training, and forensic
analysis. He is the 2009 Bronze Medal
Axiom Business Book Award Winner
(Operations Management Category) for
his book Physical Asset Management for
the Executive and the author of Electri-
cal Motor Diagnostics: 2nd Edition. He
may be contacted via email at howard@
motordoc.com for commercial discussion
and hpenrose@ieee.org for IEEE related
questions. SUCCESS by DESIGN may be
found at http://www.motordoc.com.

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A New Activity Matrix
Why Being Proactive is No Longer Enough
by Phillip Slater
t was about ten minutes before anyone noticed the smoke. The wiring had been heating up since the
most recent planned maintenance activity. Apparently, the electrician didnt quite tighten up the joint
and hadnt properly cleaned away the built up dust. The result was a hot joint and this heat quickly
spread into the cable. The casing began to smoke and by the time the smoke was noticed the cabinet
was actually on fire.
42
I
The machine operator who saw the smoke imme-
diately raised the alarm, shut down the power, and
grabbed a fire extinguisher. She knew better than
to open the cabinet and let in more oxygen so she
concentrated on stopping the fire from spreading.
The alarm had alerted the local fire brigade and by
the time they arrived the factory had been evacuated
and their trained emergency response team had con-
tained the fire using CO
2
extinguishers. Everyone
was safe and the fire was out.
Any reasonable evaluation of this situation would
conclude that almost all actions taken here were
proactive, but is that really enough?
What is Proactive?
In 1990, Stephen Covey released a book that was to
become a modern classic. The book, The 7 Habits
of Highly Effective People, proposes seven principles
that Covey, through his leadership training, had seen
enable people to achieve a principle centered, char-
acter based approach to personal and interpersonal
effectiveness. Some people have interpreted these
habits as being the principles for success.
The first of Coveys habits is Be Proactive and the
phenomenal success of Coveys book resulted in the
word proactive becoming a major buzz word of
management in the 1990s and since. We have all
heard someone say something like, We are taking a
proactive approach, meaning that they are prepared
(or are preparing) for an expected event.
Being proactive is seen to be the approach of people
that are taking charge, who are not just responding
to a situation, but are planning and anticipating. In
many respects it has become a virtue that cannot be
argued against.
Or can it?
The online resource Dictionary.com defines pro-
active as: serving to prepare for, intervene in, or
control an expected occurrence or situation. If you
examine this statement, it really says that being
proactive means doing something but this is too
general from any practical perspective and doesnt
really help in determining which actions really are
proactive and should be prioritized. Since the mid
1990s, it seems that being proactive represents tak-
ing action, any action, even after the event, even if
it may not be the best or most appropriate course of
action.
Under the doing something definition, being proac-
tive is just no longer enough.
A New Framework for Action
What is needed is a new framework for action that
enables us to categorize the actions we take and
determine if they are the most appropriate.
In order to develop this framework, lets first
look at problem solving. After all, the reason that
someone may want to be proactive is that they are
trying to prevent or solve a problem. Pretty much
all approaches to problem solving (think fishbone
diagrams or the 5 Whys) focus on identifying and
separating cause from effect. That is the conse-
quence of some event (the effect) and the action that
actually produces the event (the cause).
To make better choices in the actions taken, it is im-
portant to understand if an action is working on the
cause or the effect. For example, in the fire story
above, the cause was the buildup of dust and loose
joint, the effect was the fire and flames.
The next thing to consider is whether the action
works on the past or the future. Working on the
past occurs when the action taken actually corrects
an event that has already taken place. For example,
43
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was used to put it out).
3. Corrective Action: it is fair to consider
the execution of the Planned Mainte-
nance activity by the electrician as be-
ing proactive. However, it is really a
Corrective Action because it was de-
signed to work on the cause (the dust
build up and the loose joint) but also
works on the past because the dust
has already built up. That the action
was poorly executed might never actu-
ally be understood because the cabinet
was destroyed in the fire, but the fact
that it is Corrective rather than Preven-
tive can be understood in advance.
4. Preventive Action: requires working on
the cause of a future event (again, tak-
ing the action without knowing if there
would ever even be a fire) and this
would require, for example, a dust
proof cabinet and improved design of
electrical joints.
It is easy to see that each of these actions
could, if we used the dictionary definition
of proactive, be described as proactive.
That is, something was done. Yet they
are all very different in the timing of their
execution and their impact on the incident.
Perhaps by using the Activity Matrix we
can better predetermine the options and
recognize the real choices that we face.
Lets look at another example.
Materials management is a major prob-
lem for many companies, and is of major
concern to anyone trying to manage the
reliability of plant and equipment. The two
key issues faced with materials manage-
ment are stock outs of materials held in in-
ventory (resulting in delays to repairs) and
an over expenditure in inventory (resulting
in the wasting of cash that could have been
vibration monitoring requires that some-
thing is already out of balance or wearing
in order for the effect to be measured. The
goal is to identify the problem before it
causes operational disruption.
Working on the future occurs when the
action taken prevents or manages an event
that has not happened. Extending the
vibration example above, this might mean
an equipment redesign that eliminates the
issue altogether.
So we have four elements: cause, effect,
past and future. Lets put them together
in a matrix (Figure 1). The matrix in Figure
1 gives us a new framework for assessing
activities that may be undertaken.
For each pairing of the elements we can
assign a label that describes the impact of
the pairing, these are:
1. Future-Effect: Contingent Action
2. Past-Effect: Adaptive Action
3. Past-Cause: Corrective Action
4. Future-Cause: Preventive Action
To explain these, lets go back to the fire
emergency detailed above.
1. Contingent Action: the planning that
put the fire extinguisher in place and
trained the operator in its use is a
Contingent Action. This action was
taken to deal with the effect (the fire)
of a future event (at the time the action
was taken it was not known if there
would ever even be a fire).
2. Adaptive Action: once the fire started
the action of actually using the ex-
tinguisher was an Adaptive Action. This
action was taken to manage the effect
of a past event (that is, the fire had
already started and the extinguisher
Figure 1 Activity Matrix
Past Future
Cause 3. Corrective Action 4. Preventive Action
Efect 2. Adaptive Action 1. Contingent Action
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better used elsewhere). It is important
to realize that both of these issues are ef-
fects, not causes. The causes of these two
effects are the management systems and
decisions that lead to the stock out or over
expenditure.
Using the new Activity Matrix we can now
examine various options.
The initial reaction of many people at-
tempting to take action relating to materi-
als management is to utilize software to re-
calculate the required holding levels based
on the usage and supply data. This is often
incorrectly referred to as optimization. Far
from being truly proactive, the software
review works on the effect of the problem
(incorrect reorder settings) and works on
the past (using historical data) and is actu-
ally an Adaptive Action fitting very neatly
into position 2 on the matrix in Figure 1.
This approach makes no attempt to change
the issues that resulted in the incorrect
reorder setting. Plus, in most cases the
data is actually of little or no value because
it reflects the past not the future. This is a
classic example of an action that could be
considered proactive (as in we did some-
thing) but really isnt.
The next action often taken is to target dif-
ferent inventory types, such as obsolete or
slow moving stock, with a view to selling
or removing the stock. Again, this is an
Adaptive Action as it works on the effect
(overstocks) and works on the past (no
action is taken to change the recurrence of
the effect). Also, the causes of the problem
are not being addressed, only the effect.
While both of the above approaches might
show short term benefit, they do not pre-
vent future problems and can be equated
to using the fire extinguisher in our earlier
example.
An alternative option is to train everyone
involved in materials management on the
issues they face, their influence on the
outcomes and the decisions they can make
to influence results. This is analogous with
training the machine operator in using the
fire extinguisher a Contingent Action
(position 1 in Figure 1). For this option,
when something happens (say, stock turns
going down or systematic material delays),
the people know what to do to correct the
problems. They may not individually have
the authority to make the changes required
to prevent the problem reoccurring, but an
april/may 2009
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appropriate review process can take care
of that.
A better option is to work on the cause of
the problem and to work on the future.
This requires putting systems in place that
manage materials to deliver the required
availability without over spending, even
when it is not known if there would ever
be a problem. This is genuine prevention
and, so, sits squarely in the Preventive Ac-
tion box (position 4 in Figure 1). Examples
of the actions to take include reviewing
the materials management procedures
and policies and reviewing and aligning
responsibilities. These both form part of
what is known as Inventory Process Opti-
mization. Think of this in terms of the
dust proof cabinet and redesigned joints
(eliminating the cause) in our fire example.
As you can see, using the Activity Matrix
has forced us to think in terms of the four
elements: cause, effect, past, and future.
Thus we can now evaluate each of the
options to determine which really are
proactive and which are merely dealing
with the effects with no preventive impact.
This analysis enables us to make better and
clearer decisions on the actions that we
implement.
A New Way to Be Pro-Active
Being genuinely proactive is very difficult.
This is because Adaptive and Corrective Ac-
tions provide an instant gratification, as in
I achieved this, I fixed the problem. This
comes from working on something that has
already happened and being able to deal
with it. Whereas being proactive elimi-
nates the feel good factor because you are
working to prevent something from occur-
ring, there is no instant gratification.
Perhaps because of this, over the past
20 years, it seems that the definition of
proactive has changed from prevention to
doing something. This has meant that al-
most any action can be claimed to be pro-
active, and the term is, therefore, almost
meaningless. What is now needed is a new
approach that enables objective evaluation
of the available options to determine those
that are genuinely preventive and those
that are merely corrective or adaptive.
This is the Activity Matrix in Figure 1.
Using the Activity Matrix has enabled us
to review two different types of situations
and to evaluate the options under each.
From this we can see that not all options
are equal. Some work on the cause, some
on the effect. Some work on the past,
some work on the future. A truly proactive
and preventive option works on both the
cause and the future.
As the old saying goes, an ounce of preven-
tion is worth more than a pound of cure,
and it is always better to prevent future
causes of problems than to work on the
effects once the problem has arisen. Next
time you are faced with a decision regard-
ing what action to take, try fitting your
choice to the Activity Matrix and see which
category the option fits into. This will en-
able you to explore the causes, effects, and
options to determine better and longer
lasting solutions.
Foot note: Stephen Covey actually had a
very different definition of proactive to
the one that is recorded in the dictionary.
Coveys definition of proactive related to
an individuals freedom to choose how
they respond to what happens to them,
rather than relating to preparation for an
expected occurrence or situation.
References:
1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
Stephen Covey
2. Dictionary.com
3. The Concise Oxford Dictionary
4. Value Based Success, Alan Weiss
Phillip Slater is a Materials Management
Specialist and the developer of Inventory
Process Optimization. He is the author of
a number of management books, including
Smart Inventory Solutions and The Optimi-
zation Trap. Phillip utilizes the expertise
and experiences built up through nearly
25 years involvement in maintenance and
operations management to assist select
clients achieve significant improvement
in operations management and inventory
optimization. Contact Phillip directly at
pslater@InitiateAction.com or visit the
website www.InitiateAction.com.
www.uptimemagazine.com 45
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e live in difficult times. Plant closures, mass layoffs, downsizing and reorganizations appear in the
news on a daily basis. These efforts are focused on cost cutting which, in many cases, is designed
simply to keep the company in business. Along with these efforts also come budget cuts and restric-
tions on spending in order to further save money. We have all seen these cuts manifest themselves
in areas such as the reduction of in-plant discretionary spending, restricted travel, the elimination of spending on
training, and reduction or outright elimination of external consulting costs. In the area of consulting, not only have
we been unable to initiate new efforts, but many that were already underway have been stopped literally in their
tracks. As I said, we are in difficult times.
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Uncover The Hidden Value
Internal Consulting in Your Organization
by Stephen Thomas
However, just because we are in difficult economic
times doesnt mean that the plants needing reliability
or maintenance process improvements before their
funds were cut need those same improvements any
less than before. In fact, they probably need these im-
provements even more than they did when cash flow
wasnt such a pressing problem. The reason is that the
improvements would serve to increase reliability and
productivity, both major enablers of additional cost
savings for the business.
The problem we face is that one of the major avenues
available to obtain help with these improvements - con-
sulting - often is no longer available because of cost
restrictions imposed on the business. This sets a vi-
cious cycle in motion that ultimately can have serious
long term consequences, and result in millions of lost
dollars. We need consulting to help us improve the
business, but we cant spend the money to obtain the
very services we need. As a result, we dont improve
and sink even further into the quicksand of our own
creation.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it
isnt an on-coming train. It is consulting from an area
that is typically overlooked when we try to determine
how to improve. Consulting expertise in areas such
as improved maintenance and reliability management
is usually the result of experience and having a proven
process available to move a company from its current
level of productivity to one which is far superior. This
expertise not only exists externally to our business,
but, believe it or not, it exists right in your firm, of-
ten right under your very nose. Every plant has people
who have the experience and have often internalized
their feelings of inadequacy to make change simply be-
cause management believes that this value can only be
obtained from outside. They are waiting, if properly
mobilized, to deliver value that can drastically help the
business, and the best part is that their services do not
add any additional cost.
We all know what an external consultant is and the role
that they typically fill when we hire them. The term
internal consultant is relatively new. An internal con-
sultant is an employee who has the ability to apply
broad-based knowledge and experience about a specif-
ic area of the business to help develop and implement
strategic improvement plans, identify performance
gaps, develop and support the implementation of a rec-
ommended plan of action to close the gaps and provide
for long term sustainability of the initiative.
If you contrast this definition with the role of the exter-
nal consultant you will see little difference. But there
is a difference and it is significant! The internal con-
sultant, while delivering all of the above, has two addi-
tional things they bring to the table. First, their experi-
ence is directly related to your business. They know
the problems and often the reasons why these prob-
lems exist. Quite often, they also know exactly what
to do to correct them. Many would say that this isnt a
benefit because they dont have the broad-based multi-
industry experience available from external consulting
firms. While there may be some truth in this statement,
the need to change quickly without an extended learn-
ing curve usually needed by the consultant is far more
important. The second benefit is that, unlike external
consultants, internal consultants dont leave when the
project on which they are working is completed. They
stay around and are available to help support the initia-
tive and make adjustments as it evolves. This quality
provides them experiences that external consultants
seldom, if ever, acquire.
So how do you determine who within your organiza-
tion can step up and fill the internal consultants role?
It isnt as hard as you may think. A successful internal
46
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consultant needs three things to enable suc-
cess; two of which they need to have from
the outset and one which you need to pro-
vide. The former two are skills and personal
traits, and the latter is organizational posi-
tion.
Skills
The skill set you are looking for in a poten-
tial internal consultant isnt their ability to
respond to the emergency of the day. Quite
the contrary! What you want is someone
not only with business related experience,
but with experience in the strategic aspects
of the work. This will enable them to think
long-term while at the same time being re-
alistic about what can actually be accom-
plished. An additional required skill is their
ability to take these strategic concepts and
(working with others) convert them into ac-
tion and achievable results. Additional skills
that are needed for effective internal consult-
ing include:
Facilitation skills
Exceptional listening and communic-
ation abilities
The ability to accomplish things through
others; the majority of which have no
direct reporting relationship to the
consultant.
These individuals are not as difficult to iden-
tify as you may think. Just look to those who
handle the current set of reliability and main-
tenance improvement initiatives within your
firm. They are typically disconnected from
involvement in the day-to-day work and of-
ten have the very strategic focus you seek.
Personal Traits
The personal traits you seek in your inter-
nal consultant are not often things that can
be taught, but they are critical if someone
wants to be successful in this rather difficult
profession. These individuals have a passion
for the work. They are open to new ideas
and can see how things fit together in the
big picture. They are also the ones who can
see how an idea that has merit in one area of
the business can deliver equal or even better
benefits in other areas that were never even
considered by those who are only focused in
their own area.
This strategic view is not often acquired by
those close to the day-to-day work. It is usu-
ally found in those with experience working
on maintenance related strategic initiatives
often across many plant sites. An example
would be someone who led a major reliabil-
ity initiative or managed the implementation
of a computerized maintenance management
system. These efforts develop the strategic
focus required for internal consulting. Other
traits required are more specific to the indi-
vidual such as: honesty, credibility, facilita-
tion skills and most importantly, the ability
to allow those involved in the change pro-
cess to be the ones to take the credit. This
last skill is not easily acquired because we all
want recognition for our work. However, it is
necessary because sustainability of a change
initiative will never occur if it is not owned
by those who need to sustain it. Recognition
for the internal consultant comes from the
success of others.
Position
The last of the three elements required for
internal consulting is position. For internal
consultants to be successful they need what
is referred to as referential power. Since
they have no power of their own, being in the
proper position with a senior level report-
ing relationship provides them the power
associated with the manager to whom they
report. This enables them to apply power
and accomplish change even though they
have no direct control over those leading the
change. Consider external consultants. The
projects that they handle are almost always
sponsored by a senior executive within the
company. Their association at this level of
the organization gives them referential pow-
er (the power associated with the executive)
and directly supports their effort. It provides
them with power that they would normally
not have in their possession. The same is
true with the internal consultant. They need
to be placed in a position where their ac-
quired referential power will enable them to
drive, as well as support, the change process.
This means being assigned to a senior man-
ager, usually the one sponsoring the change.
This assignment will also position them at a
peer level or higher related to the manag-
ers that they are working with in the change
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change and the internal consultant support-
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This 12 part workshop series based on a Society for Tribologists and Lubrication
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www.uptimemagazine.com
49
Next Steps
Having identified the person who you will
utilize as your internal consultant, your
change facilitator, you are far from finished.
While these individuals have been essentially
working as internal consultants, they dont
recognize this as a fact of life. True, they
have managed change initiatives, facilitated
groups and added strategic value to the busi-
ness, but I will venture to guess that the
term internal consultant is not in their per-
sonal vocabulary. Your job is to change that
mind set. Since you know what you want
to change you need to clearly articulate this
to your consultant so that they can develop
the details. This process follows the same
model as that used by those consultants who
are hired from outside the company. These
include:
Defining the Problem As manager you
have an idea of what the problem is, but
it certainly requires more development so
that it is stated in specific terms and
supported by facts. Making sure the
consultant understands the problem to
be addressed is critical for success.
Gathering Information This is a con-
sultants role and is usually handled
through interviews and gathering of
supporting documentation. The advan-
tage for the internal consultant is that,
based on their experience, they know
what to ask and who to ask to truly get
a clear picture of the issues.
Identifying Solutions Once the infor-
mation has been gathered, the consultant
and a business improvement team can
identify what they believe the solutions
are to the problem. These are then pre-
sented to senior management for ap-
proval to implement the changes. This
area is one where referential power has
value as the consultant works to develop
a common solution across functional
boundaries.
With the solutions identified and the path
forward approved the real work begins
the implementation phase. Implementation
is not an overnight event. It is not some-
thing where you wave a magic wand and
things immediately change. Implementation
requires hard work and often takes years to
accomplish, so that the new processes are
locked into the organizations culture. This
area is where the true value of the internal
consultant appears. For most of us, once the
implementation plan has been developed the
external consultant leaves. After all, they are
very expensive and most companies want to
avoid spending any more than they need for
this level of support. This is even truer in
todays world, where funding for external
consulting is difficult to acquire.
The value that is delivered by the internal
consultant is that they dont leave. They
stay, and based on their position can add sig-
nificant support and direction to the change
effort, even if it takes years to put firmly into
place. In a sense, they become the oversight
for the change effort, helping to guide it and
addressing corrective action if it gets off
course.
Again, management is not off the hook. For
change to be truly successful and sustain-
able over the long term, active leadership is
required. The senior management team, as
the real sponsors of the change, must stay
continually focused on the work and sup-
portive of the consultant. Lack of either will
undermine the effort and set in motion the
downward spiral towards ultimate failure of
the effort.
A Word for the Internal Consultants
As people are identified to fill this new role
and re-assigned to a senior manager, it is
important that they recognize that there are
special behaviors and actions required for
success. These include:
Take the big picture view. This will help
all those involved because the vast major-
ity of people are locked into their func-
tional silos and dont see the forest for
the trees.
Establish a change team with members
who will be the long-term owners of the
change effort.
Identify broad areas for improvement,
but start with quick wins; small changes
that deliver immediate value. This will
provide benefit to the organization and
will help develop the skills needed for
the major efforts to follow.
Stay out of the tactical day-to-day work.
People can work strategically or they can
work tactically, but they cant work strat-
egically and tactically at the same time.
Focus on long-term improvement.
Always serve the change team. This
statement means doing whatever is re-
quired to help the group move forward.
Of course, facilitating the effort is an
important aspect, but so are the trivial
tasks such as publishing meeting notes
and making sure action items are com-
pleted on time.
Recognize others before yourself. The
owners of the effort are those on the
change team. Internal consultants serve
as the catalyst to make change happen.
Recognition of the team is valuable
reinforcement that what they are doing
has value.
Build strong interrelationships because
as an internal consultant everything you
do will be done working through others.
Listen and communicate well and make
sure everyone else does the same. While
this is a well worn clich, it is critical to
the success of any change effort. Effec-
tive listening and communication are
critical.
Dont assume anything; get the facts.
Last but not least always deliver more
than what was expected and always
deliver it on time.
As I said at the outset, we are in difficult
times. There is enormous pressure to cut
costs, often with the very survival of the busi-
ness at stake. However, you cant save your
way to reliability and maintenance improve-
ment. Change initiatives are still required
and consulting support for these efforts is
critical for success. However, the consulting
skills you require to support these initiatives
arent just available from outside the compa-
ny. They are available from individuals with-
in your company; all you need to do is search
them out and empower those who have these
skills to deliver the value you seek.
Steve Thomas has been involved in the
reliability and maintenance arena in the
petro-chemical industry for almost 40 years.
During this time he has worked in many
capacities (including internal consulting),
adding value to the initiatives in which he
has been engaged. His book Improving Reli-
ability and Maintenance from Within: How
to be an Effective Internal Consultant is a
guide for all managers who wish to utilize
their own internal consultants. It also is
a valuable tool for all those who wish to
fill this role and add value to their compa-
nies. If you wish to purchase this book,
add promo code IMPROVE-09 to your web
order from IndustrialPress.com for a 10%
discount. Other change management books
by Steve Thomas can also be purchased at
Industrialpress.com You can contact Steve
at changemgt999@yahoo.com.
april/may 2009
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or many years and for many companies, Airborne Ultrasound was the beginning, or the Alpha, of their
Predictive Maintenance (PdM) program. They used Airborne Ultrasound to find air leaks, diagnose
steam traps, and listen to bearings. Unfortunately, some of these companies have since either reduced,
or even dropped, their ultrasound program in favor of vibration, infrared and oil analysis only. These
ultrasound programs of old have taken on a new role - simply a troubleshooting tool - used for air leaks, steam
traps and occasionally used to listen for arcing tracking and corona activity in switchgear.
A New Approach
Elevate the Expectations for an Ultrasound Program

by James Hall
I would like Airborne Ultrasound to become both the
Alpha and the Omega of your PdM program. I would
like you to implement more airborne ultrasound pro-
grams, and, as a result, elevate the profile of ultrasound
within your PdM program.
Why Airborne Ultrasound
There are a number of reasons Airborne Ultrasound
should be a major contributor to PdM programs, and
an excellent candidate to be the first technology em-
ployed in a new program.
Ultrasound is inexpensive and easy to operate. Lets
face it, all motors make noise and all leaks make noise,
but they are tough for us to hear because facilities are
also very noisy. Since ultrasonic receivers weed out all
of the sound in our hearing range, they are very useful
in high noise environments. Ultrasound can pinpoint
potential problems because subtle changes are heard
in ultrasonic range first (before vibration & heat) and
it is very directional. When you add all of these fac-
tors together, it means that Airborne Ultrasound can
provide one of the biggest returns on investment (ROI)
in the shortest amount of time.
Many of you think of real Predictive Maintenance
as vibration analysis, infrared and oil analysis. While
those technologies should be included in any high
quality PdM program, there is one important technol-
ogy missing. If you dont have enough air to cut the
paper or control the valves, production is effected. If
your electrical switchgear panel fails due to corona ac-
tivity, production may stop. So, why, do so many peo-
ple place the ultrasound program at the bottom of the
Predictive Maintenance Program, if in fact, they have
an ultrasound PdM program at all?
There are many Ultrasound Programs you may want to
implement, including: Trending of Bearings, Gearbox-
es, etc, Air Leak Audit Program, Electrical Inspection
and Steam Trap Troubleshooting. These programs will
not only increase your reliability, but will also add to
the bottom line through energy savings. It takes a lot
of energy to produce compressed air and a lot of ener-
gy to run large motors or drives. All of these programs
will save you money, some more than others, depend-
ing on your particular situation.
I would like you to think of Airborne Ultrasound with
a new approach to predictive maintenance and how it
fits into your overall maintenance program. Also, take
time to consider how it can integrate with other pre-
dictive maintenance technologies such as vibration and
infrared. Airborne ultrasound is a proven technology
worthy of an expanded role in predicting and prevent-
ing failures.
Dont Just Listen, Trend Your Bearings
For years you have been told to listen and compare
bearing sounds between one bearing and another. The
problem Ive always had with this is that you and I hear
differently! I may not hear low or high frequencies as
well you do. So, the newer, and better, approach is to
trend your bearings. Do not just rely on listening to
them
1
. Learn how to take & set pre-determined bear-
ing decibel ranges. You will need to learn how to set:
A Baseline = An Average or Starting Reference
Warning Levels (Early Failure) = Lubricate & Retake
Alarm Levels (First Failure) = Schedule Removal &
Replacement
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Figure 1- Know how to use your airborne
ultrasound instrument. Photo courtesy
of Jim Hall, Ultra-Sound Technologies,
Woodstock, GA.
www.uptimemagazine.com
51
decibels tend to rise or cause concern, the
ultrasound technician can ask for a vibration
consult.
Imagine trending for several months or years
and your readings are normally 65-75 deci-
bels. This range may be your preset range
that indicates moving from a failure to a
catastrophic failure. Of course, this would
mean your bearing needs to be removed and
replaced. But, you would like to hold-off
shutting down production until you have had
a chance to consult with a vibration techni-
cian. Vibration analysis on this bearing or
motor, combined with oil analysis, and pos-
sibly infrared, may allow for another week or
two of operation before removal.
Later another company, SDT North America,
added the word monitoring. SDT North
America uses the term Acoustic Vibration
Monitoring (AVM) within product line (Figure
3) and written material. In order to take ad-
vantage of this technique, you should be fa-
miliar with waveform analysis. Until you are
familiar with waveform analysis, and how to
diagnose problems using waveform, do not
implement it into your program.
Catastrophic Level* = Remove &
Replace Now
* - Call for a vibration consult,
review oil analysis and IR reports,
if applicable
When you have a catastrophic reading
but you do not have a vibration ex-
pert, or you do not practice infrared
or oil analysis, you should then take
the catastrophic level readings and
schedule the removal of the bearing
now, rather than scheduling at a later
date.
After learning the correct steps to
take to establish a trending program,
you should write it all down. Creating
a process with written procedures is
critical to the programs success. The
program will also be more success-
ful if you teach everyone involved in
maintenance and reliability the abili-
ties of ultrasound and even how the
ultrasound instrument actually works.
Trending your bearings over time
(Figure 2) will lead to more reliable
machinery, and will establish an ultra-
sound program that is trustworthy be-
cause it has documented data, which
will also make it easier to justify the
call for bearing replacement when
necessary.
Acoustic Vibration
Years ago while working as a salesman, sell-
ing (of all things) airborne ultrasound equip-
ment, I found it difficult to keep and hold an
audience when I was talking to a mixture of
vibration technicians, infrared technicians
and mechanics. You see, unless the talk was
about vibration, the vibration techs would
leave the room. They were not interested in
ultrasonic inspection of bearings.
So, I started using the term Acoustic Vibra-
tion during my presentations. It became
much easier to keep the audience and also
further the discussion of hooking-up a vibra-
tion box to an ultrasound receiver to diag-
nose bearing problems. I had become famil-
iar with this technique in 1990 while working
with the Performance Monitoring Team (PMT)
at Naval Sub Base Pearl Harbor.
Acoustic Vibration (AV) is basically trending
your bearings over a period of time, whether
you are using low or high frequencies. At
anytime during the trending process, when
Even without waveform analysis,
trending bearings over time aids you
in predicting failures. However, keep
these important facts in mind when
gathering your data:
If you have more than one ultra-
sonic instrument to use for bear-
ings, choose only one of them.
Do not use readings (dBs) from
one manufacturers instrument
to compare against another
manufacturers instruments
reading!
Do not compare readings from
the same manufacturer that are
different models!
There are only a couple of instru-
ments in the marketplace today
that are Repeatable among
instruments of the same model!
Leak Detection
Almost all of you have a need for leak
detection. Compressed air leaks can
cost a fortune over the years. Wheth-
er your production line is using pneu-
matic controls or vacuum, cryogenic
gases, or whatever else, you most
likely need an air leak detection pro-
gram, or an Air Leak Audit Program.
The new approach to an Air Leak Au-
dit Program is a three part approach:
Acceptance Accept the technology, it
works and is proven.
Dedication Everyone must be onboard,
and convinced of the need and value of
the program, or it will not succeed.
Enthusiasm Find an enthusiastic
person to spearhead the program.
Someone that accepts the technology,
wants the program to succeed and is
dedicated to the program.
Air leak audits are popular because they are
easily understood as an effective way to save
money on utilities. However, it may surprise
you to know that even when the leaks are
identified, the majority are not repaired. It
sounds bizarre, but facility after facility that I
visit will have leaks identified, but not fixed.
This happens because its easy for programs
to lose momentum somewhere along the
way, or to get pushed further down on the
list of priorities.
Here are some tips for conducting a success-
ful Air Leak Audit Program and for sustaining
the program over the long haul:
Figure 3- Acoustic Vibration Monitoring using SDT North
Americas AVM UltraAnalysis Software.
Courtesy of SDT North America.
Figure 2 - Trending bearings over a period of time.
Graph courtesy of Ralph Kopp, PCS Phosphates, Sussex, NB
april/may 2009
24 52
Use Safety as a First Priority
Tag all of your leaks using a two or
three part tag (Figure 4)
~ 2-Piece Locate & Repair Tag
~ 3-Piece Locate, Repair, Inspect/
Remove Tag
Itemize your air leaks by taking Digital
Pictures
Datalog/Catalog your findings
Determine true Cost of leaks
~ Cost can be loss of production
~ Cost of actual leak
Estimate the cost of leaks and share
the amount of waste with other
departments
Air leaks need to be prioritized
Highest cost is not always the highest
priority (look for quick, easy fixes)
Note: A small $125.00 leak on a natural gas
line can easily receive a higher priority over a
$2,100.00 compressed air leak.
Use data sheets from a previous leak
audit if available
Lay out a plan for tracking leaks
~ Track leaks by Department
~ Later track leaks by Divisions
~ Track leak cost against repair costs
~ Track gas leaks by type of gas
What Type of Leaks?
One customer found the leaks listed in Figure
5, but only about 25% of these leaks were ac-
tually repaired. Again, vigilance is required
to keep the momentum of the program go-
ing by relentlessly vocalizing and document-
ing the value the program provides.
Electrical Inspections
Do you want to save a life? Sure you do I
ask that question to alarm you, and to alert
you to the fact that in your plant, you may
have a tool that could be used to save a life..
Ultrasound receivers can detect corona, track-
ing and arcing within closed switchgear. In
the past, I have had electricians ask me, You
mean I can actually hear the corona, arcing or
tracking before I open the doors? Yes, just by
scanning the door seam it is not just possible,
but likely, that you will hear the anomaly.
One of your New Approaches for the electri-
cal program is to think Safety First. By using
an ultrasound instrument to scan your panels
or doors before opening them, you could pos-
sibly save a life or save someone from serious
injuries.
Arc Flash Survivor
On ReliabilityWeb.coms website you can find
an interview Bill Giffen, an Arc Flash Survivor.
You can learn how he came in contact with
a 13.8 kV cabinet and survived to tell others
about this incident. Now, I am not suggest-
ing that ultrasound would have prevented this
particular tragedy, but I do want you to un-
derstand that ultrasound may, can and does
save lives.
Ultrasound can detect corona starting at 1kv,
whereas infrared cant detect corona under
240kv. So why not use ultrasound to scan
your cabinets before opening them?
The by-products of corona are nitric acid,
ozone, ultraviolet light, and carbon. So, can
you imagine a 4160v switchgear cabinet that
has a fault inside? The technician can hear
corona along the door seams of the cabinet.
While listening, perhaps he will remember
a picture from a corona camera that he had
seen in a recent Uptime Magazine article,
which asked him to really try to visualize what
is going on inside the cabinet.
So, this is that article. Your new approach
is to really visualize what is going on within
the cabinet. Visualize a shower of sparks, the
ionization occurring, the nitric acid and the
ozone attacking the insulation of two cables.
Figure 5 - Leaks identied in one facility
Type of Leak # of Leaks Estimated Cost
Argon 39 $26,000
Oxygen 178 $39,000
Natural Gas 234 $50,000
Nitrogen 238 $110,000
Steam 417 $525,000
Compressed Air 1,444 $678,000
Figure 4 - Tag your leaks and photograph
for referencing location and
identication.
53
www.uptimemagazine.com
Eventually, a situation like this could ruin
someones day, like it did Mr. Giffens. An
ultrasound instrument could have heard this
fault from outside the cabinet. But only if you
have an ultrasound program in place.
Can you recognize the difference between
nuisance corona and destructive corona?
Typically nuisance corona is a steady frying
sound that you might hear when driving your
car down the road and listening to AM radio.
Or, it may be the early morning dew sitting
on the power lines that is creating the noise.
Destructive corona is the sound of the steady
frying sound accompanied by intermittent
popping sounds.
Did you know that ozone generators are used
to break down the rubber on tires when the
manufacturer wants to simulate wear and tear
on the tires? Ozone actually breaks down the
rubber. So that white powdery residue you
sometimes see between two cables (Figure 6)
is visual evidence of corona activity.
So, the New Approach to Electrical Inspec-
tions contains four parts:
(1) Safety First... the ability hear corona,
arcing or tracking before opening panel.
(2) Use ultrasound in conjunction with infra-
red to inspect. I think that using ultra-
sound and Infrared together is impera-
tive. It can make the difference between
a good, responsible thermographer and a
fly-by night amateur.
(3) Visualize what you are hearing (arcing,
tracking & corona).
(4) Ultrasound training is crucial to the
success of this program.
Figure 7 is a photo of real time video over an
ultraviolet light lens. Unless there is interfer-
ence from background light or complete dark-
ness, corona is not visible to the human eye.
This shows you why it is so important to Vi-
sualize what you are hearing.
Steam Traps
The New Approach to your steam trap pro-
gram is simply to implement a program to
learn how to audit your traps and learn to
troubleshoot your traps. It can be accom-
plished in two parts
1) Build a route to inspect your traps
2) Educate technicians on how to trouble-
shoot your traps.
You need to audit your traps to find
which traps are working or not working.
A pencil and a pad a paper works well.
Its very hard to use a datalogger to
log the results.
Ultrasound is still one of the best
methods to diagnose steam traps
You may only need to implement one of these
ultrasound programs as it applies to your fa-
cility. Or perhaps, you may decide that none
of the ultrasound programs listed are for you.
However, I do want you to think about just
how big of a role airborne ultrasound does
play for some companies. Especially, for in-
stance, those companies that win the Uptime
PdM Program of the Year Awards. The 2008
Best Overall Airborne Ultrasound Program
winner, US Steel Gary Works of Gary, IN, has
a very advanced program, and their airborne
ultrasound plays a significant role in their
overall maintenance effort. Your ultrasound
program could do that too.
Think of the many different applications and
how airborne ultrasound integrates with oth-
er technologies.
The New Approach
Think NEW, a New Approach to how airborne
ultrasound fits into your overall PdM pro-
gram.
In this article, I have identified five specific
ways that you can increase the contributions
of ultrasound to your overall predictive main-
tenance program, and, ultimately, to increase
the reliability of your machinery.
Starting to trend your bearings, acoustic vi-
bration, an air leak audit program, and using
airborne ultrasound both in electrical inspec-
tions and to troubleshoot steam traps are all
very effective ways to increase reliability and
to make your facility more efficient.
All of the programs we talked about can pro-
duce a positive return on investment. You
will need to decide, based on your particular
industry, and particular facility, which one
of these programs will benefit your company
most. Implement the programs that will be
most beneficial first. Once you have expe-
rienced success with one of the programs,
trust in the capabilities of airborne ultrasound
should start to increase in your organization,
which will help justify starting additional air-
borne ultrasound programs into you predic-
tive maintenance program.
Notes
1. The only exception to this rule of not lis-
tening is when a bearing is so catastrophic
that it literally sounds as if it is coming apart.
Jim Hall is the president of Ultra-Sound Tech-
nologies, a vendor-neutral company provid-
ing on-site predictive maintenance consulta-
tion and training. UST provides an Associate
Level, Level I & II Airborne Ultrasound
Certification. Jim has provided airborne
ultrasound training for several Fortune 500
Companies in electrical generation, pulp &
paper, petro-chemical and transportation. A
17-year civil service veteran, Jim served as an
aerospace engineering technician for Naval
Aviation Engineering Service Unit (NAESU)
and with the Naval Aviation Depot Jackson-
ville Florida (NADEP). Jim is also president
of All Leak Detection, LLC a leak detection
company providing air leak audits above and
below ground leaks. You can contact Jim
at jim.hall@ultra-soundtech.com or (770)
517-8747.
All photos courtesy of Jim Hall, Ultra-Sound Tech-
nologies, Woodstock, GA, unless otherwise stated.
Figure 7 - A terminal end taken with a
Corona Camera.
Figure 6 - White powdery residue is
evidence of corona activity. This was
detected using the airborne ultrasound
receiver. Photo courtesy of Jim Brady,
Brady Infrared Inspections, Stuart, FL.
april/may 2009
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his article shows an interesting example of how Acoustic Analysis methods were used to solve a stubborn
vibration problem where Experimental Modal Analysis and Operating Deflection Shape Analysis fell short.
The Rumford, Maine area is, for all practical purposes, the home of paper making in the United States.
The New Page Corporation mill at Rumford has been
in operation since 1901 and continues today as a
significant contributor to US paper production. The
mill currently has one kraft and one ground-wood
pulp mill, four coated paper machines plus supporting
equipment and one pulp dryer. Each year, the facility
produces an average of 640,000 tons of paper and ap-
proximately 500,000 tons per year of hardwood, soft-
wood and ground-wood pulp.
Full Spectrum Diagnostics was contacted by Mr. Mark
Brown, Reliability Engineer, to investigate recent
elevated noise levels near the Super Calendar 22 (SC-
22) stack assembly (Figure 1). The noise levels were
noted to be approaching the OSHA specified limits
for this area. Normal Accelerometer route measure-
ments have failed to identify the frequency source. In
addition, the hard-wall surfaces behind SC-22 create
significant reverberation, adding to the elusive nature
of the problem. The only in-plant sound measure-
ments were collected with an overall Sound Pressure
Level (SPL) microphone. Also note that Sound Power
Levels tend to double when reflected off a close hard
surface, making amplitude and source detection even
more difficult.
Machine Designation: SC-22 Calendar System (see
schematic in Figure 2)
Queen Roll (1)
Diameter: 28.188 inch
RPM @ 2800 FPM: 379 RPM
Steel Roll (3)
Diameter: 16 20.50 inches
RPM @ 2800 FPM: 534 RPM
Cotton Denim Roll (4)
MRF Blue Denim
Hardness: Shore D 88-90
Diameter: 21.00
RPM @ 2800 FPM: 509 RPM
King Roll (1)
Diameter: 32.023 inches
RPM @ 2800 FPM: 334 RPM
Bearings: TOR A2670 / TOR A2665
Nip Loading:
Bottom Nip: 1800 PLI
Listen Carefully to Learn
Visual Acoustic Analysis Ends Super Calendar Mystery
by Daniel T. Ambre, P.E.
T
54
Figure 1 - The Super Calendar 22
(SC-22) stack assembly.

Figure 2 Super Calendar - 22 Layout

Top Nip: 700 PLI (new rolls) /
1000 PLI (old rolls)
Discussion
New Page Corporation Rumford
Paper Mill contacted Full Spec-
trum Diagnostics to investigate
recent elevated noise levels in
their Super Calendar (SC-22)
stack. This excessive noise level
was close to exceeding OSHA
standards requiring double ear
protection. To reduce noise lev-
els to acceptable levels the SC-22
line speeds were reduced, limit-
ing production.
An initial visit to the site involved
natural frequency testing and Op-
erating Deflection Shape analy-
sis of SC-22. This test series fo-
cused on the barring phenomena
in the Cotton (Denim) rolls that
required frequent replacement.
The barring fault was thought to
be an underlying contributor to
the audible acoustic tone. Some
structural problems were found
in the calendar rolls that were
likely contributors to the noise
problem, but no single silver bul-
let solution was found.
A second site visit was planned as
an acoustic investigation. The test
plan involved the use of sets of acoustic mi-
crophones. A single microphone is sufficient
for measuring Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) and
determining sound frequency response. How-
ever, a single microphone will pick up sound
energy from all directions. Locating a source
in an open area (free-field) is straight-for-
ward, but detecting a directional source in a
near or reverberant field is problematic. The
addition of a second microphone allows the
measurement of Acoustic Intensity. The In-
tensity comes from the cross-power spectrum
measurement between the two closely spaced
microphones. This method allows the detec-
tion of directional sound pressure vs. oblique
sound pressure waves. The intensity mea-
surement is ideal for reverberant sound fields
such as the SC-22 calendar system.
Structural measurements with accelerom-
eters are usually limited to rotating compo-
nents. Measurements with microphones can
be collected anywhere around the system or
source.
www.uptimemagazine.com
55
It was suspected that the audible tone was
emanating from one of the roll bearings or
from the roll nip interfaces. The SC-22 calen-
dar system included eight (8) nip interfaces.
Both SPL and Intensity microphone measure-
ments were collected along each nip line in
seven locations from bearing to bearing. For-
ty-nine measurements were collected on each
of the front and back sides of the calendar.
A 1/12 Octave SPL spectral (overlay plot) is
presented in Figure 3. The dominant tone
was defined at 550 Hz. The secondary peak
is present at 625 Hz. Additional clusters of
peaks at integer multiples (2x and 3x) of the
550 Hz tone were also present. The time-
based responses showed a Beat Frequency
pulsation between the 550 Hz and 625 Hz
tones. Looseness and/or alignment problems
were possibly indicated by the 550 Hz har-
monics.
A 1/12 Octave frequency plot in Figure 4 shows
an overlay of the Acoustic Intensity spectra
calculated for the pair of micro-
phones. The signatures are simi-
lar to the SPL plots with dominant
550 Hz and 625 Hz peaks.
The measurement data collected
near the nip lines throughout the
calendar stack were helpful in de-
fining the dominant tones emanat-
ing from the system. The initial
analysis focusing on mechanical
faults was obviously not the main
source of the noise problem(s).
In themselves, the plots of Figures
3 and 4 only define the spectral
content of the sound response.
When this same data is present-
ed visually using animation soft-
ware, a color contour plot of the
microphone energy provides an
indication of the problem source.
MEscope software was used to
construct an acoustic surface
around the calendar structures.
The SC-22 computer model is
provided in Figures 5 - 7.
The Sound Pressure Level (SPL)
response from a single micro-
phone includes the direct and
reflected sound fields. Figure 8
shows acoustic surface profiles
measured approximately 2 feet
from the nip lines. The dominant
amplitude response was located
on the back side of the calendar and noted
by the yellow-white colors in the center of
the roll stack. The front side profile in Figure
9 indicated lower amplitudes with no single
dominant apparent source.
Figure 3 Overlay SPL Plot [0-4,000 Hz Range]

Figure 4 - Overlay Acoustic Intensity Plot [0-4,000 Hz]

Figure 5 ODS / Modal Analysis Model
When calculating the Acoustic Intensity, the
cross-phase response from the microphone
pair is considered. The measurement indi-
cates the average rate of flow of sound energy
through a unit area normal to the propagation
direction. Reflection energy is attenuated,
thus a more distinct and local source profile
is represented.
april/may 2009
56
The acoustic intensity response on
the back side of the calendar shown
in Figure 10 indicates that the S2
Steel Roll appears to be at the cen-
ter of the sound problems. The in-
tensity plots at 550 Hz are present-
ed in Figures 10 and 11 for the back
side and front side of the calendar,
respectively.
During the analysis, some acceler-
ometer responses were collected
on the King Roll bearings. The 550
response was detected at low lev-
els; however the peak did not match
known bearing defect frequencies
for this roll. The SPL and Intensity
plots indicated that a bearing fault
was not a likely source of the au-
dible tones.

At this point, the source of the tone appeared
to be the nip lines adjacent to the S2 Steel
Roll and mating D2 and D3 Denim Rolls. A
mechanism for creating this tone was yet to
be determined. To gain further insight, a
series of Synchronous Time Averaging (STA)
measurements were collected based on trig-
gered microphone measurements from the
Figure 6 Acoustic Surface Model
(End View)
Figure 7 - Acoustic Surface Model (Front View)
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Figure 10 - Intensity 550 Hz Back (Wall) Side
Figure 11 - Intensity 550 Hz Front (Winder) Side
www.uptimemagazine.com
57
ments for 5, 40, and 100 averages showed
that this was not the case, and the dominant
peaks were attenuated (removed) for each set
of measurements.
A final set of Natural Frequency measurements
were collected on the spare Steel Rolls that
were slated as replacements for this calendar.
King Roll, the D3 Roll and the S2 Roll. The
measurements will slowly average-out non-
synchronously related peaks in the frequency
spectrum. If the 550 Hz tone was related to
the rotational speed of the trigger; as would
likely be the case for looseness, misalignment,
or barring type faults, the peaks and their har-
monics should be retained. The STA measure-
The rolls were mounted on their bearings and
rested on wood timbers near the calendar.
Impact Natural Frequency testing indicated a
485 Hz response on each roll which was de-
fined as the roll first bending mode. This fre-
quency is approximately 12% below the 550 Hz
tone, however when considering the stiffness
Figure 8 - SPL 550 Hz Back (Wall) Side
Figure 9 - SPL 550 Hz Front (Winder) Side
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www.uptimemagazine.com
induced by the nip line pressure during opera-
tion, it was possible that this mode could be
pushed very close to the 550 Hz response.
The concentration of the tone energy near
the center of the roll span suggested that
the acoustic measurements may be detect-
ing the first bending mode of the roll. It was
suspected that the deflected response during
calendar operation would likely produce a
repetitive opening and closing of the nip on
alternate sides of the roll. This gapping was
suspected to be inducing the tone and tone
harmonics noted in the sound field data. The
secondary peak at 625 Hz may be the out-of
plane bending mode of the roll due to non-
symmetric stiffness (nip pressure)..
Nice theory, but additional testing was re-
quired for proof. It was recommended that
additional acoustic measurements under vary-
ing nip pressures be performed. Slight varia-
tions in the nip line pressure may produce
enough of a stiffening (or softening) effect to
alter the steel rolls critical speed (first bend-
ing mode). The condition of the current rolls
did not permit additional testing during this
site visit; however this testing was performed
in the following days.
A series of High Speed Trials were performed
on Super Calendar 22. Included in these trials
were alterations to the nip pressure in the roll
stack. It was found that changes to the pres-
sure induced a significant audible tone change
in the machine. The trials also involved modi-
fications to the new roll break-in procedure
and to the time periods that the rolls were
idle and left in nip under pressure between
calendar operations. Addressing each of
these variables appeared to be beneficial to
both the calendar noise levels and the onset
of barring issues in the denim rolls.
Current operation of Super Calendar 22 in-
cludes slower line speeds that will meet cur-
rent demands. However when additional vol-
ume is needed, a path to smoother and qui-
eter high speed operation is now available.
Dan Ambre, P.E. is a Mechanical Engineer and
founder of Full Spectrum Diagnostics, PLLC, a
Full Service Predictive Maintenance Consult-
ing company. Dan specializes in Resonance
detection, Experimental Modal Analysis, and
Operating Deflection Shape machinery diag-
nostics. Full Spectrum Diagnostics provides
Vibration Analysis level I, II, and III training
and certification, as well as training in ad-
vanced diagnostic techniques. Dan is a certi-
fied software representative for Vibrant Tech-
nology, Inc., the creators of MEscope VES
software tools. He also provides MEscope
VES Software Training targeting the needs
of the In-Plant Vibration Analyst. Please visit
his web site at www.fullspec.net, or email
him at modalguy@aol.com.
Mark Brown from New Page Corporation,
Rumford Operations, is a Reliability pro-
fessional with over 13 years experience in
vibration analysis. He has developed predic-
tive maintenance programs in the Pulp and
Paper industry and Nuclear Power industry.
Mark holds a B.S. in Industrial Technology
from the University of Southern Maine. In
addition to holding an ASNT Level III Certi-
fication in Vibration Analysis, Mark is also a
Certified Oil and Lubrication Specialist.
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heat, and do a good job of containing splash-type lubrication, but they
cannot seal in flooded applications where the lubricant level is higher than
the bottom of the shaft.
The dual-face bearing protector seems inherently better. Are there any
disadvantages in using it or are there any conditions where dual face
protectors should not be used?
On the one hand, the dual-face bearing protector (see Figure 2) is usually
the best device for truly sealing a bearing housing or a gearbox. In fact, we
april/may 2009
60
upgrade
Spotlighting Editors picks of hot products & services in the industry.
AESSEALs Bearing Protectors
First, why dont you briefly explain in laymans terms why the use of
bearing protectors of some kind is so important?
The two primary causes for premature bearing failures are under-lubrica-
tion and lubricant contamination. A bearing protector will keep the oil (or
grease) in the bearing where it belongs, as well as keep water and solid
particles out of the bearing. The basic purpose of a bearing protector is to
keep the oil in, and to keep the contaminants out. Its that simple.
Now why dont you tell us the difference between Contacting vs. Non-
Contacting protectors? The pros and cons of lip seals, labyrinth seals,
single-face bearing protectors and double-face bearing protectors?
Contacting bearing protectors come in two types: lip-seals, which have a
rubber lip that contacts the rotating shaft via a thin film of oil, and face-
type bearing protectors, which have rotating and stationary contacting
face(s), much like a mechanical seal.
Non-contacting bearing protectors include various labyrinth-type protec-
tors, of both rotating and stationary designs. A labyrinth is basically a
tortuous path, which makes it difficult for water to enter, or for oil to
leave, the bearing housing. Modern labyrinth bearing protectors have oil
and water capture and expulsion mechanisms, as well as an elastomeric
member which helps to prevent atmospheric moisture from entering the
chamber when the equipment is not operating (day-night breathing, see
Figure 1). Non-contacting, rotating-labyrinth protectors do not generate
We have all heard that bearings can have an almost infinite life, or that, with
proper installation and lubrication, they can last longer than the machine in
which they are installed. Unfortunately, this almost never happens. Bearings fail.
A lot of bearings fail. Why? Of course, there are a multitude of reasons, includ-
ing improper installation, excessive loading, under lubrication, over lubrication,
excessive vibration, and, one of the leading causes contamination. Read on
to explore a relatively simple way to protect your seals from this highly effec-
tive bearing killer. AESSEAL, Inc. is a highly innovative company that produces
several different types of bearing protectors, including the original
double face bearing protector, MagTecta.
We tracked down Chris Rehmann, the Business
Development Manager for AESSEAL, Inc, to give
us a little more insight into bearing protection.
Chris holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and has
authored many technical papers and
presentations on bearing protection.
Here is what Chris had to say...
Across all industries, there are more bearing failures than there should be. Why so
many bearing failures? Contamination is one of the main reasons, so lets look at a
product that can have a drastic effect on extending bearing life.
Figure 1 - Day-Night Breathing, as shown on an older-style
labyrinth isolator. Warm air from operating equipment
expands and is expelled from the bearing chamber (left).
When the equipment cools down, it draws in cool, moist
night air (right).
Availability of low-cost repair kits mean that the
LabTecta can be field-refurbished at a fraction
of the original price, further extending the sav-
ings.
Give us a success story or two from companies
that are using AESSEAL protectors now.
1) A chemical plant in Germany has five, large
Hosokawa conical powder mixers. The
original seal at the top of the mixing
screw was a mechanical seal. The customer
was changing this seal every 2 months, and
maintaining a low vessel fill level, to
minimize damage from powder entry into
the overhead gearbox. MagTecta dual-face
bearing protectors were installed, and are
still running fine after 9 months. The
customer estimates actual benefits of
$125,000 over these 9 months due to (a)
savings from avoided repair costs, (b)
increased productivity due to more uptime,
and (c) increased productivity due to higher
filling levels of the vessel.
2) An Elliott turbine in a major refinery suffered
from steam leakage past the carbon rings
and the split stuffing box. This steam con-
taminated the bearing lube oil, which had
to be changed every 2-3 weeks. LabTecta
labyrinth protectors were installed on the
bearings in June, 2008. Steam continues to
leak past the carbon rings, but NO contami-
nation of the oil has been observed. This
has resulted in 13 avoided oil changes over
those 9 months, and a payback period of
only 3 months on the LabTecta investment.
How can interested people get more informa-
tion about AESSEAL bearing protectors?
The easiest way to learn more about our bear-
ing protectors is to go to our Bearing Protec-
tion website, www.bearingprotection.com. All
of our product brochures are available there for
downloading, in several languages. In addition,
in the lower right hand corner of our home page,
you will find links to a large library of best-prac-
tices technical papers.
To find the nearest AESSEAL Global Sales of-
fice or Distributor, go to the www.aesseal.com
home page and click on CONTACTS, then enter
your location information in the search criteria
boxes, and click on SUBMIT.
We can also be reached at our Knoxville, TN,
N. American headquarters at 865-531-0192, or
email us at labtectausa@aesseal.com. We have
a large, trained technical staff that can help you
with the toughest bearing protection applica-
tions.
www.uptimemagazine.com
61
upgrade
recommend that the bearing chamber breather
be removed and plugged when dual-face bear-
ing protectors are installed, so as to eliminate
ALL of the contamination points of entry.
On the other hand, the labyrinth isolator does
a good job of protection on most splashed-oil
applications, at a moderate price.
It is important to note that all contacting devic-
es generate frictional heat, and require lubrica-
tion. Face-type seals, therefore, have relatively
low speed limits when used in dry-running ap-
plications, and a labyrinth isolator is generally
preferred. Also, in flooded-oil applications, spe-
cially-designed bearing protectors are available
and must be used.
What kind of impact can the proper bearing
protector have on overall plant and machinery
reliability?
By reducing or eliminating contaminant entry,
lube oil changes can be reduced significantly.
And, since the oil is now both prevented from
escaping and protected from contamination, su-
perior (but more expensive) synthetic lubricants
may now be cost-justified. Synthetic lubricants
provide cooler bearing temperatures for longer
bearing life, and can achieve energy efficiency
gains of 1 to 2%.
In the case of oil mist lubrication, using a face-
type bearing protector that is specially designed
to contain oil mist will eliminate the historical
loss of oil mist in the vicinity of the pump. This
upgrade results in not only environmental and
housekeeping benefits, but real cost savings
from loss of expensive lubricating oil mist. In
addition, a face-type bearing protector is the
ONLY type of protector that should be used ac-
cording to the latest API 610, 10th Ed. oil mist
configuration.
What are the three top reasons a company
should consider using AESSEAL bearing protec-
tors?
AESSEAL is the only company which provides the
full range of bearing protectors, from labyrinth
protectors to dual-face protectors. As we dis-
cussed earlier, it is important to select the right
protector for your application; one type does
NOT fit all applications. With AESSEAL, you can
choose from the widest variety of bearing pro-
tectors for standard and special applications,
including split seals, axially-moving seals, air
purge for dusty applications, flooded-oil seals,
pillow-block design with angular movement,
stainless steel or bronze versions, top-entry de-
sign, oil-mist design, and others.
The LabTecta labyrinth protector is easily field
repairable, while other protectors are not.
The LabTecta shut-off valve (see Figure 3), which
opens during equipment operation to allow hot
air to escape, but closes when equipment is shut
down to prevent cool moist air from entering,
seals on a large, well-contoured area, resulting
in near-zero wear, even in slow-running or fre-
quent start-stops. Other protector designs seal
on a sharp metal surface, causing damage to
their elastomeric valve during start-stops.
What is the time frame a company can expect
for a return on their investment in AESSEAL
protectors?
Many companies have seen their investment in
AESSEAL bearing protectors completely paid
back in a few weeks or months, depending on
the cost to repair the equipment, and the fre-
quency of repair before installing the bearing
protectors. Most companies insist on a payback
of less than 6 months to justify the investment,
and our bearing protectors nearly always beat
this payback time. After the payback period,
the company begins enjoying real savings from
the bearing protector, with total savings often
reaching several times the original investment.

Housing
Shaft
(stoppe d)
Atmosphere
Bearing
Chamber


Static
Seal
Figure 3 - LabTecta labyrinth protector,
showing static seal on smoothly
contoured surface while equipment is
stopped. Also note dual-drive O-rings
on rotary element, which leads to much
greater stability during operations than a
single drive O-ring.
Figure 2- MagTecta dual-face
bearing protector.
Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain in sales and
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2008 reached $59 billion, from more than 6,500 stores
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The new SKF Machine Condition Advisor simplifes machine monitoring
and provides early warning of potential failures
The SKF Machine Condition Advisor (MCA) is a rugged, easy-to-use, hand-held
device that measures vibration signals and temperature simultaneously to indi-
cate machine health or bearing damage and provide early warning of machine
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ORBIGate is a new solution for turbomachinery vibration. It is specifcally
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Cooper Crouse-Hinds Announces EV LED Lighting Technology
New product provides superior energy ef ciency & product life
Cooper Crouse-Hinds introduces its EV LED luminaire, the industrys frst
bright white, Class I, Division 1 factory-sealed LED luminaire for general il-
lumination. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are solid-state semi-conductor
devices that convert nearly all the electrical energy directly into vis-
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fciency, which leads to greater energy ef ciency.
Additionally, LED lighting has an advantage over
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63
FluidScan Monitor Wins 2008 Great Ideas Compe-
tition Award at DoD Maintenance Sym-
posium
QinetiQ North America announced that
its FluidScan monitor has won the 2008
Great Ideas Competition Award presented
annually by the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE) at the Department of Defense (DoD) Mainte-
nance Symposium. The FluidScan monitor can be used
to quickly check the condition of lubricants such as hydraulic fuid, engine oil,
turbine engine oil for contamination. Current practices require maintenance
crews to extract fuid samples and send them to remote or centralized labora-
tories for testing to determine whether or not maintenance is required.
Spectro, Inc. 978-486-0123
info@spectroinc.com www.spectroinc.com
+0&7564+#.24'55+0%
989 Avenue of the Americas, 19th Floor New York, NY 10018
(212) 889-6330 Fax (212) 545-8327
www.industrialpress.com E-mail: info@industrialpress.com
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Committed to Your Maintenance Needs!
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This comprehensive and very user-friendly resource introduces the
fundamentals of maintenance and allows the outsider to understand
the jargon. This revision of a classic has been thoroughly updated
to include advances in technology and is sure to be found useful by
maintenance professionals everywhere.
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Written by a professional with numerous years of shop floor and
management experience in a variety of industries, this practical
resource will help seasoned professionals and novices understand
the basic principles of maintenance and reliability.
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The fifth volume in the series highlights the need for increased
skills proficiency in maintenance and reliability organizations. It
begins with a discussion of the skills shortage, then progresses into
how to develop cost-effective and efficient skills training programs.
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Cooper Bussmann SPD Technology Reference Guide
Now Available Online - Written to NEC 2008 & 2009
NFPA 70E Requirements
The Cooper Bussmann SPD (Selecting Protective De-
vices) has been newly expanded and updated to the cur-
rent codes and standards including the NEC 2008 and
NFPA 70E 2009 requirements. This educational tool, used
throughout the electrical industry, provides application in-
formation for overcurrent protection. The guide illustrates
a method to analyze proper industrial control panel SCCR
marking with a step-by-step comprehensive example. The
selective coordination section has been expanded to explain NEC requirements, sys-
tem considerations, tradeofs in using diferent overcurrent protective device (OCPD)
technologies, and an explanation on why selective coordination is mandatory.
Available for download in its entirety or by section at
www.cooperbussmann.com/spd.
EMERSON Unveils ROSEMOUNT 848T Wireless Transmitter, Enabling
More Temperature Measurements In Monitoring And Maintaining Assets

Emerson Process Management announces the expansion of its Smart Wire-
less solutions with the introduction of its Rosemount 848T wireless tem-
perature transmitter for high density temperature measurement. The 848Ts
four-channel ef ciency adds to installation cost-savings of Smart Wireless
technology to dramatically reduce per point costs and delivers more
measurement data for use in improving operations and maintenance.
The 848T includes a new EDD (Electronic Device
Display) user interface that provides simple,
graphical screens to deliver important con-
fguration and information.
www.emersonprocess.com
Relief Package for Budget Conscious
Thermographers
LumaSense Technologies, a leading provider of
infrared thermography and non-contact tem-
perature and gas sensing solutions, announces
the release of its new Mikron MikroSHOT ther-
mal imaging camera. This handy and fully ra-
diometric thermal imager allows for afordable
pocket-sized portability with capabilities normally found in larger, more
expensive thermal imagers. The MikroSHOTs innovative Thermal-on-Visible
mode allows for radiometric temperature data to be displayed directly on
the visible image. The pocket-sized MikroSHOT is lightweight and uses of-
the-shelf batteries (AC adapter also included).
Judi Seavers 408-235-3813 j.seavers@lumasenseinc.com
Compact, Powerful UV Lamp Is Perfect for Tight Areas
The C-100PA high-intensity ultraviolet lamp has a lamp head measuring only
7 x 9.5 inches (18 x 24 cm) roughly half the size of other 100-watt inspec-
tion lamps! This makes it easy for NDT inspectors to check for cracks, defects,
cont ami nat i on and surface faws in confned places that are
inaccessible to larger lamps. The C-100PA features a 100-watt,
mercury vapor spot bulb with a nominal steady-state longwave
UV-A (365 nm) intensity of 5,000 W/cm2 at 15
in (38 cm). The lamps visible light emission is
less than two foot-candles (0.2 lux), and it eas-
ily meets MIL and ASTM specs for FPI and MPI.
The bulb has an average rated life of 5,000 hours.
1-800-274-8888 www.spectroline.com
Outside US and Canada516-333-4840
All Test Pro pg 23
Allied Reliability Services pg 4
AMP pg --
ARMS pg 14
Azima/DLI pg 13
Commtest Inside Cover
CTC pg 2-3
Datastick pg 59
Des Case pg 65
Easy Laser pg 39
iLearn/Mobius pg 16
IRISS Back Cover
IVC pg 10
Kittiwake pg 10
Lubrication Engineers pg 33
Ludeca pg 35,37
april/may 2009
64
Company Page
MaintenanceConference.com pg 1
Maximum Impact Simulcast pg 46
MRO-Zone pg 36
Philadelphia Mixing Solutions pg 52
Reliabilityweb.com pg --
Reliability Leadership Council pg 7
Reliability Roadmap pg 48
Sacs, Salvatore & Assoc pg 32
SAP Center.com pg 58
SDT pg 40
SKF/Baker pg 29
SPM pg 56
Trico pg 43,45,47
Vectron pg 56
Vibration Institute pg 27,41
Wilcoxon pg 32
Company Page
Department of Corrections
New! Uptime

Magazine has teamed with MRO-Zone.com to make

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Its the newest and easiest way to nd what exactly you need. Try It Today!
Uptime + MRO-Zone.com = Reliability Solutions
In the February/March issue of Uptime, the
article Infrared & Ultrasound Unite was
written by Jim Brady of Brady Infrared Inspec-
tions. This article gave you plenty of insight
as to how the two technologies work togeth-
er. Unfortunately, we left out Jims contact
information. So if you would like to contact
Jim for more information, you can do so at:
Jim Brady - Brady Infrared Inspections Inc.
Stuart, FL
(772) 288-9884 bradyir@bellsouth.net
At Des-Case, weve led the way for
25 years with products and support
that protect your equipment, helping
it run longer and harder than ever
before. Our breathers, filters, and
fluid handling lines help your team
go on a full-court press against
destructive contaminants.
Our solutions are engineered for the
rugged environments you face while
providing maximum flexibility to
meet your exact needs.
To learn more, visit www.descase.
com, contact sales@descase.com or
call (615) 672-8800.
Keeping contamination under control.

Play to win.
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See What Youve Been Missing!
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2009 IRISS Inc. All rights reserved.
IRISS
Industrial Grade
Infrared Windows
I was asked to do more, with less
budget dollars. My solution is one
that will allow us to monitor more
equipment, even equipment we could
never inspect previously. The
inspections will be safer, make
NFPA70E compliance easier, and do
it all while driving efciencies into
programs and reducing costs to the
point where the IRISS Infrared
Inspection Windows pay for them-
selves almost instantly. I am actually
saving budget dollars while
monitoring more equipment, more
efciently, and more accurately
than ever before!
In short, doing more with less.
Call IRISS
+1 941-907-9128
US 877-404-7477
Decrease costs
Monitor more
Make inspections safer
Read 10 Things You
Need to Know About
Infrared Windows
Implement 70E
work practices
Increase uptime
Visit our website to get your copy of the 10 Things You Need to
Know About Infrared Windows www.iriss.com/10Things-IRwindows