What do our corporate leaders want? Their major KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is ROI (Return on Investment). What do we deliver? RAM (Reliability, Availability and Maintainability). This reflects a serious disconnect that minimizes our voice at the executive table. ]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 18:42:34 +0100 http://www.mt-online.com//index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=909:the-green-edge&catid=44:may2009&directory=90 Timken Debuts Report On Its Global Citizenship

Timken has released its first-ever Global Citizenship Report, which highlights the company’s strategies and goals, as well as its achievements during 2008. According to the report, a sampling of Timken’s environmental achievements over the past year include:

• A recycling process has eliminated 21,000 tons of electric arc furnace dust from being sent to landfills.
• A new wind bearing facility in Xiangtan, China is well on its way toward certification as a green building, following the standards of the LEED rating system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
• A program to eliminate PCBs from all Timken facilities was completed in March 2009, six years ahead of schedule.

“We know that global citizenship touches every aspect of our business and underscores the policies and practices for which we hold ourselves accountable,” said Chairman Ward J. “Tim” Timken, Jr. “By continuing to grow our enterprise in ways that build sustainable value, we help to fulfill our responsibility to our associates, customers and all business interests, including our communities and the environment.”

The full report is available for download on the Timken Website.

For more info, enter 30 at www.MT-freeinfo.com

Maintain Wind Turbine Efficiency

LUDECA’s latest brochure, “Maintain Wind Turbine Efficiency,” describes how predictive and preventive maintenance solutions, such as shaft alignment, geometric measurement, vibration analysis, balancing and online condition monitoring equipment, can help improve wind turbine reliability while reducing downtime and maintenance costs.

Included in the brochure is the LEVALIGN® laser that can be used to  measure the profile of flanged surfaces found in major wind turbine components, including tower segments and the nacelle-hub assembly. Likewise, the high-precision electronic inclinometer INCLINEO® is suited for the precision measurement of horizontal surfaces.

The brochure also highlight’s LUDECA’s shaft alignment systems, that are capable of performing measurement under space constraints with high accuracy, and autonomous online systems, which detect both mechanical and electrical faults at an early stage.

LUDECA, INC.
Doral, FL

For more info, enter 31 at www.MT-freeinfo.com

Wind-Tower Welding Arc Flux

Lincoln Electric has introduced Lincolnweld® WTX™, a submerged arc flux designed to meet the requirements of wind-tower welding applications. Created for submerged arc welding on wind-tower bases and door frames, Lincolnweld WTX offers twin and multi-arc AC and DC operations. Additional features include low temperature impact properties, advanced performance when welding circumferential and longitudinal butt and fillet welds and a smooth bead profile. When used with the Lincolnweld L-61 electrode on longitudinal and circumferential seam weld, the Lincolnweld WTX meets the F7A8-EM12K-H8 AWS classification and allows welds to exceed the mechanical property requirements specified for cold-weather wind-tower applications.

Lincoln Electric
Cleveland, OH

For more info, enter 32 at www.MT-freeinfo.com

Take, for instance, one of the most commonly quoted IEEE Standards used within R&M for electrical testing: IEEE Std 43-2000, “Recommended Practice for Testing Insulation Resistance of Rotating Machinery.” This standard is quoted by instrument companies, service organizations, even our own maintenance departments. Still, I could go into any facility, find someone performing an insulation ground test and get a negative answer to the following questions:

1Are you applying the correct voltage for one minute?

2Are you adjusting the resulting reading for temperature and noting the relative humidity?

3Are you discharging the winding for four times the applied time through a bleeder resistor limiting the discharge current?

and

4Are you following the other steps involved in 43-2000?

The point is that we think we are following specific industry standards—which are best practices—when we are not. Yet we go blazing forward, developing best practices that will not be followed, based upon our experience with industry best practices. We also can’t use the results to trend potential equipment faults, as present conditions result in non-uniform testing.

To set up a successful environment for pursuing new best practices and trendable results around your operations, you must first nurture the organizational culture by following existing relevant standards—and understanding them to ensure that sales and marketing organizations do not mislead you. MT

Coming Next Time: Misuse of standards by sales and marketing organizations

Among other things, Howard Penrose (AKA “Motor Doc”) is the president of SUCCESS by DESIGN®, a reliability services and publishing company, and the editor-in-chief of the IEEE DEIS Web. A recognized expert, award-winning author and popular speaker, he is involved in standards development for IEEE and other organizations, and he successfully applies reliability and maintenance best practices. For more information, visit www.motordoc.com

For more info, enter 4 at www.MT-freeinfo.com

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States generated 1006 billion kWh of electricity in 2007.[1] ]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 15:47:25 +0100 http://www.mt-online.com//index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=905:the-oem-partnership&catid=44:may2009&directory=90

When maintenance is allowed to interact with the plant and production Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), a prosperous relationship for both parties will often ensue. This special relationship results in first-hand information for maintenance to set up its maintenance approach, and valuable operational and design feedback for the OEM. ]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 15:37:48 +0100 http://www.mt-online.com//index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=791:how-to-begin-measuring-maintenance-effectiveness-part-i&catid=44:may2009&directory=90

Going somewhere with your maintenance efforts? The journey can be much easier for you and more value-added for your operations with the right KPIs to help guide you. ]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 15:03:53 +0100 http://www.mt-online.com//index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=904:fill-out-work-orders-whos-got-time-for-paperwork&catid=44:may2009&directory=90

"Listen: I’m a mechanic, not a clerk. Do you want me to do the work OR fill out these work orders? If I wasted all that time filling in those silly blanks on your paperwork I’d never get caught up! Besides, I don’t know why we need ‘em anyway. Let’s just do the work like we’ve always done.”

]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 15:02:44 +0100 http://www.mt-online.com//index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=744:revisiting-the-complex-world-of-power-generation&catid=44:may2009&directory=90 According to this author, the picture he painted of the state of power last year hasn’t grown much brighter. We still have a long way to go and an even shorter time to get there. ]]> Fri, 01 May 2009 14:55:51 +0100 http://www.mt-online.com//index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=903:mt-news&catid=44:may2009&directory=90 News of people and events important to the maintenance and reliability community

EMERSON acquires Norway’s ROXAR

Emerson has announced the acquisition of Roxar ASA. The deal creates the world’s first integrated automation solutions company whose products span from subsea oil and gas reservoirs, to platform and floating production, to transmission and ultimately through refining and production of goods.

Based in Stavanger, Norway, Roxar, which has annual revenues of US$200 million, maintains 28 offices in 19 countries, with a network of wholly owned offices in Europe, the Americas, Africa, CIS, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Its international customer base includes all of the multinationals, major independents and the majority of national oil companies. Roxar will now become part of Emerson Process Management.

FLOWSERVE BUYS SWISS DESALINATION FIRM

To expand the products and advanced technologies it offers to the growing global desalination markets, Flowserve has acquired the privately owned Swiss company, CALDER AG. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. CALDER specializes in the design, engineering and supply of energy-recovery equipment and related proprietary technologies for the reverse osmosis process used in desalination plants around the world. Energy-recovery equipment is a critical technology within reverse osmosis in that it captures and reuses waste energy, thus lowering net energy consumption, which is generally the biggest cost driver in the desalination process. Based in Egliswil, Switzerland, the CALDER product line includes Pelton Turbines and Dweer Recovery Devices. CALDER AG generated about $23 million in revenue in 2008.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Market research reports from analysts covering the water industry project that worldwide desalination capacity will more than double within the next decade, with the reverse osmosis methodology expected to be utilized for a majority of these new plant developments.)

PDMA OPENS ADVANCED TRAINING CENTER

PdMA has announced the opening of a new state-of-the-art, 1000-sq. ft. training center in Tampa, FL. The facility has four EMAX testing stations, allowing students to perform online testing of both healthy and faulted AC induction motors. One EMAX station supports testing of AC and DC drives. According to a company spokesperson, these online workstations incorporate PdMA’s Motor Test Access Panels (MTAP) ensuring the safest working environment possible for students. Several specialty motors also are available for MCE testing to support the offline portion of PdMA training courses.

SKF CONSOLIDATES 3 PENNSYLVANIA FACILITIES

SKF USA will be consolidating three Pennsylvania facilities (Norristown, Kulpsville and Bethlehem) into a new environmentally friendly corporate headquarters in Kulpsville, PA in May. The transition will put the company’s Industrial, Service, Logistics and Corporate teams all under one roof. SKF 800 phone and fax numbers will remain the same, as will remittance and lockbox addresses. The company’s new mailing address is: SKF USA Inc., PO Box 332, Kulpsville, PA 19443-0332. The new visitors’ address is: SKF USA Inc., 890 Forty Foot Road, Lansdale, PA 19446 MT

What a relief. Some of us at the recent MARTS 2009 Conference had been under the impression that we were facing an energy crisis of monolithic proportions. Based, however, on attendance at an open discussion on energy issues the last afternoon of MARTS, we began to wonder if the crisis were already over.

World-class organizations would not—could not—succeed without implementing an efficient and effective planning and scheduling process.