Capital Equipment News November 2020

Barloworld Equipment’s Briggs. “This improves overall availability of the equipment and helps manage owning and operating costs. As part of an overall equipment strategy, condition-based maintenance is a competitive advantage which provides a significant opportunity to increase productivity while reducing costs and mitigating risks.” Controlling costs on assets can be difficult without insight onto asset health. “There are two main factors for un- controlled costs,” he says. “The first is the scale of the cost. For example, a minor component replacement versus an engine replacement. “The second is the frequency of failures or worse, repeating failures. Condition monitoring provides the business with control of these two factors.” SKF’s Zeelie agrees, adding that capital equipment is a “large and expensive” investment and that any owner would like to get the best value out of their equipment. “Condition monitoring allows the owner to know exactly what the condition of the equipment is. This allows them to do proper planning for maintenance and replacement activities. From the start of the equipment’s life, condition-based maintenance could result in increased life span.” He says operation becomes riskier towards the end of the equipment’s life, at which point condition monitoring will enable the owner to avoid failure and secondary damages. For a business to be profitable and efficient, says WearCheck’s Robinson, their investments must provide the best possible returns. In the case of capital equipment, this means that the machinery must run at optimum efficiency and availability. “Ongoing condition monitoring is the best way to ensure that capital equipment operates at peak performance and does not break down due to a surprise failure.” WearCheck has therefore developed planned maintenance tools such as the used-oil analysis and other solutions, which have been proven to yield good return on investment. “A good condition monitoring programme provides good returns. This translates into reduced maintenance costs and improved planning of scheduled maintenance tasks, leading to fewer unproductive ‘lost hours’ while the machinery is repaired.” New trends Barloworld Equipment, says Briggs, takes a “wide-angle view” of condition monitoring and leverages the appropriate technology to provide insight on what is happening and how to react. He says an update in inspection data

The SKF Enlight Collect IMx-1 system measures and processes vibration and temperature.

Condition monitoring is a pro-active process of evaluating equipment and application data

Condition monitoring allows continuous surveillance, providing the fleet owner with peace of mind

Condition monitoring plays a key role in boosting the bottom line for fleet equipment owners who seek to maximise the productivity

Continually monitoring performance ensures maximum time between unplanned and unscheduled repairs

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costs, enhance machinery availability and boost production in industrial operations. The company’s suite of preventive maintenance solutions features traditional analysis of used oil as well as a range of reliability solutions including thermography, vibration analysis, balancing, laser alignment and motor current analysis. The company offers specialist field services such as rope condition assessment, technical compliance and non-destructive testing, as well as a dedicated transformer

services division. “Each customer has different needs, so a bespoke programme is compiled from WearCheck’s range of techniques to ensure that the correct monitoring methods are employed.” Importance of condition monitoring Continually monitoring operating performance through condition monitoring will ensure maximum time between unplanned and unscheduled repairs, says

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