As companies around the globe look to improve equipment reliability, I can’t help but think of the Technicians and Craftspeople I meet after conference presentations. As they step up to introduce themselves to comment on the presentation, these attendees will often say, “I really liked your presentation, but I don’t think our management would ever support a program like this. What you are doing makes a lot of sense, but we just don’t have the people and our Operations Managers don’t understand maintenance and reliability.” [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 6 Comments

Metal Fatigue Failure

Metal Fatigue Failure Theory and Design Considerations

This article is a basic introduction to the mechanism of metal fatigue failure where parts break after a period of time in service. Explanations of accepted theories are provided and relevant design practices to reduce metal fatigue are presented and explained. [Read more…]

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Does the Company You Work For Care About You?

If Not, Does it Matter?

One of the best things about my job is from time to time I get to work with some younger people who have a passion for the Maintenance and Reliability business and have made the decision to pursue a career in this business. I really enjoy being a mentor, guiding the ambitious and offering advice on where to find information, articles and real, workable solutions. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic 1 Comment

What Can You Do to Improve Reliability?

A Question & Answer Period with Fred Schenkelberg

on the what can be done to improve the reliability of your operation.

So far in this series, we have had the opportunity to discuss the role of reliability engineering in today’s maintenance environments. In this final post of the series, I had the opportunity to ask Fred Schenkelberg some questions related to this very topic. Fred, with his years of experience, was able to provide some great insights to the role of reliability engineering, and what those in the maintenance department can do to improve reliability.

Even if you don’t have a reliability engineer in your organization, you can implement a few basic reliability engineering techniques to make a sustainable difference in your operation. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 1 Comment

Vertical Bulk Liquid Storage Tank Construction and Maintenance

This article reviews the requirements for building and maintaining vertical, bulk liquid storage tanks. Issues, which affect the care of large storage tanks as well as common problems, are reviewed.

What is a Bulk Liquid Storage Tank?

Bulk liquid tanks can be round, horizontal cylinders, vertical, cylindrical tanks and occasionally spherical vessels. We are concerned here with vertical tanks and vessels whose internal volumes are measured in tens of cubic meters through to hundreds of cubic meters. Examples are oil refinery storage tanks and process chemical storage tanks.

[Read more…]

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You’re Not Doing RCM If…

It used to happen once every few years and now it seems to happen twice a year or more. The customer who would like you to come in and perform an RCM analysis on a piece of equipment they are struggling with and when you begin to discuss the upfront work required to do a thorough RCM analysis they attempt to change the rules. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Life Cycle Costs

How Building Reliability Into The Equipment Design Will Dramatically Improve Your Profitability.

Feel free to use this image, just link to www.SeniorLiving.Org This microstock required lots of post processing to get the blue tint. I also needed a bounce card to get more detail in the glasses. — Feel free to use this image, just link to www.SeniorLiving.Org

Does your team procure, setup and put into operation equipment with a single focus on reducing the initial capital expenditure?

Do you work with your equipment suppliers to fully specify the equipment’s functions, performance, and reliability? Maybe not the reliability? [Read more…]

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Proximity Switches

A proximity switch is the common name for a range of detectors that generate an electrical signal when a physical mass cuts through their sensor field. Upon detection of an object, the electrical signal is sent to a controlling device and is used to monitor and control the operation of the equipment.

[Read more…]

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I’m Not an Engineer!

I’m not an Engineer

Engineers want order. Everything should happen in a programmed sequence making an expected result predictable. It’s one of the traits that gives Engineers a reputation for being boring. When things happen out of order or sequence the engineers of this world become quiet while their brains churn out what they know the expected order should be and what might have occurred to upset the process. [Read more…]

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Where Does Maintenance Fit Into Reliability?

Maintenance Provides the Key Function of Preserving

With the design FMEA complete, the equipment should have high inherent reliability. The equipment can then be installed in the plant, and provide a high level of performance to the business, at least initially. This is where Maintenance comes in. Maintenance can enable a low Life Cycle Cost, by preserving the reliability of the equipment. [Read more…]

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Predictive Maintenance — What is it?

The practice of maintenance has been developing for the past 300 years. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution machinery and their control systems have played a critical part in our ability to produce consumer and industrial goods. Over that time different maintenance philosophies have developed in response to changing technology and increasing costs.

The progression in philosophies started with breakdown maintenance (BM), then to time-based maintenance such as preventative maintenance (PM) and shutdown maintenance. More recently condition-based maintenance (CM) has become significant. The next step is predictive maintenance. [Read more…]

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Wait… I thought this was a team meeting?

The face you make when you know it’s supposed to be a team meeting yet the word you keep hearing most is “I”! Unless your working with a group of Optometrists it’s usually not a good sign!

by James Kovacevic Leave a Comment

Using a Design FMEA

How Building Reliability Into The Equipment Design Will Dramatically Improve Your Profitability

Products and equipment start with a design. The functions and performance occur or do not occur according to the capabilities designed into the system.

I learned early in my career, as a manufacturing engineer, that some products were much easier to manufacture (less yield loss) ten others, and it was often the design of the product that made the difference.

I also learned that once we purchased and installed factory equipment it was very difficult to improve the reliability performance. [Read more…]

by Mike Sondalini 1 Comment

Vee-Belt Drives Basics and Considerations

This article discusses the use of vee-belt drives. It covers some basic theory of friction drives and lists 11 factors to be considered when using vee-belt drives. [Read more…]

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The Importance of Laughter in the Workplace!

I’m laughing at work! At the same time, I’m shaking my head and smiling because I’m sitting alone at my computer working on developing some maintenance plans for one of our customers. Strange as it might seem the laughter was brought on by a social media notification that today is the birthday of an old friend. Someone I used to work with, and thinking about this person I remembered all the laughs our group shared at work. [Read more…]