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Maintenance Online : Maintenance & Asset Management Journal : ABSTRACTS : VOLUME 11, NUMBER 5, DECEMBER 1996
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Vol 11, No 5, FieldBus: The Basis for an Open Architecture Condition Monitoring Revolution. - Philip Jacob, Sarah Ingram and Andrew Ball, Manchester School of Engineering, University of Manchester.
Over the last twelve months, a predominant subject of conversation in control systems circles has been the potential offered by open architecture automation systems based upon the Fieldbus concept. Surprisingly few in the field of condition monitoring are aware of Fieldbus, and fewer have tapped its potential. Yet, open architectures are certain to have a major impact upon the performance and capability of on-line condition monitoring and maintenance management systems. In this article the authors outline the Fieldbus concept, explain its associated technology, review existing protocols, identify the need for a universal Fieldbus standard, and investigate its potential to improve CBM by breaking down the traditional boundaries between CM, control and process management
Price: £5.00
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Vol 11, No 5, Diagnosis of Centrifugal Pumps: Erkki Jantunen, Technical Research Centre Finland and Antera Ollila, Vice-President, Quality and Environment, ABB Industry Helsinki.
The maintenance and downtime costs of pumps, in Finland, have been studied and seal leakage was found to be the fault that causes the highest such costs. In addition, a small laboratory rig was built and used for testing the effectiveness of various condition-monitoring methods. The information thus gained has been used in the development of an expert system, CEPDIA, which can be used for diagnosing the condition of a pump and its components. The diagnosis is based on data derived from pump instrumentation and on information about the maintenance actions carried out on the pump and its components. CEPDIA contains a number of databases for handling and storing the measured data, the technical information on the pumps and information on the maintenance actions that have been carried. The diagnosis can also be based on vibration signature analysis, which is effective in identifying the fault which is the actual cause of any malfunction. CEPDIA can also be used for evaluating the efficiency of the electrical motor and the pump. CEPDIA was tested in the diagnosis of sixty three pumps. The average pumping efficiency was less than 40%, and more than 10% of the pumps were operating at less than 10%.
Price: £5.00
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Vol 11, No 5, The Application of Neural Networks for Product Quality and Machine Condition Monitoring Manufacturing Processes. - Sandy Petrie, Institute of Asset Management and Simon McEntree, Applications Consultant, Diagnostic Instruments Ltd.
A collaborative venture is described, involving suppliers of vibration monitoring equipment and of neural network software, a major high volume manufacturer of DIY goods and a university. The primary objective was to demonstrate that, by combining commercially available hardware and intelligent software, a system can be developed which can link machine condition - and the associated quality standards at component level - to the final product quality. Two applications are described; the monitoring of tool wear, by means of vibration measurements, during the manufacture of gears; and end-of-line product quality monitoring and diagnostics, by measurement of noise spectra.
The primary benefits have been to remove the subjectivity from the current assessment methods and to provide a quantifiable measure of quality - for each gear manufactured and for each product assembled. Also outlined are procedures for developing a diagnostic system which can help to identify the stages, of component or sub-assembly manufacture, at which additional quality control would be required. It is well-established that a significant part of real maintenance cost can result from poor products quality. There is a need to develop systems which can be used to link final product quality to the deterioration in the condition of the machine which manufactures that products components
Price: £5.00
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Vol 11, No 5, Improving the Maintenance of Power Plants, a Key Factor for Developing Countries. - Gerard Neyret, Vice-President,AFIM (French Maintenance Association).
A very fast growth is being reported in the demand for electrical power in the developing countries. However, due the their financial difficulties, these countries cannot match this demand with a corresponding increase in generation capacity, a situation which leads to sever shortages of power and is a major hindrance to the economic development. In any particular case this situation will usually be aggravated by specific local difficulties - such as aggressive climate, insufficient training of staff, difficulty of importing spare parts, etc - which reduce the availability of the already existing power plants. It is therefore vital that these countries improve the maintenance of their power plants. A vivid illustration of this was provided at the INPEC 88 Congress at Bangalor where it was stated that an increase of only one percent in the average load factor of Indian power plants, would be equivalent to adding a new power unit of 500 MW to the Indian grids (which would cost 500 million US dollars) and would enable the GDP of India to increase by one percent. Because maintenance engineering in the more remote countries are unavoidably unaware of the recent development in maintenance methods and tools, an appropriate programme of information transfer - accomplished via a large development of local maintenance associations - would have a great impact on the development of those countries at minimal cost.
Price: £5.00
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Maintenance Online : Maintenance & Asset Management Journal : ABSTRACTS : VOLUME 11, NUMBER 5, DECEMBER 1996
| The maintenance and asset management web site |
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