Mechanical Maintenance

Most bearing manufacturers (or their representatives) offer quite a bit of information about the installation, servicing, and life expectancy of the units they sell, and much of this is available at no cost from their online services. As far as gears are concerned, the A.G.M.A. (American Association of Gear Manufacturers) is probably the best source, but they do I think require an annual membership fee. For specialty gears, such as the assemblies in manufactured transmissions the builder is the best source. For compressors, it is best to consult with the manufacturer, as there are so many different types of machines for various applications. Ing. Robert Forbus

I think the question you should ask your self is "Why conduct maintenance at all?"

It cost money and peoples time!

The answers are concerned with life and reliability. Some materials wear, degrade or are consumed during operation/use and/or exposure to their operating environments.

Therefore to maintain operation they have to be replenished or replaced, but only if the value of the action results in a much greater saving over the life time of the system. i.e. changing the oil in you car engine, replacing the break pads etc.

With most mechanical elements its all about the lubrication and wear, and the level of stress (mechanical and thermal) in the system. These are materials that don't have the operating life capability of the system, and in most cases the materials technology is not available to make the lubricants etc. that will reliably last the life time required. If they do then they tend to be very expensive and that will also influence the decission regarding maintenance actions and intervals.

Review the subject around wear and lubrication - tribology

Hope this helps

Dear Manish Ramavat,

Please,take a look at this website www.marshallinstitute.com.

You will find a lot of discussions and training about several areas in maintenance...

Try this website <lubemythbusters.com.au>. Blows holes in all the myths about lubrication and filtration with regards to mechanical maintenance.....

A good place to start as far as preventative maintenance on rotating equipment is to have a program to monitor vibration levels. This can be done in a number of different ways.

1:You can buy a hand held device with some decent software and then set up a route throughout your plant to take vibration readings. This data can be analyzed to death by experts but in most cases all you are looking for is a noticable change. This is the cheapest way to go.

2: You can set up a contract with a vibration service to do step one but using their expertise to inform you when there is a potential problem. This costs more but you do not have to become a vibration expert.

3: You can contact Bently Nevada or Rockwell Automation either one can supply and install a wide variety of sensors that can gather data and protect your equipment in real time. They even offer a package where they can access your site equipment remotely to analyze vibration problems or machine failures. This is of course very expensive.

A second part of rotating equipment preventative maintenance is to collect oil samples once or twice a year and have them analyzed by a competent lab. It is amazing what then can tell you about the condition of you equipment. They will check for metals (bearing wear), water content (cooler leaks) and if the oil or filters are in need of changing.

All of the above has to be weighed against cost of PM versus cost of equipment failure.

A lesson I learned the hard way, "Do not over lubricate." Use only the smallest amount neccesary. Over greasing causes exesive heat build up and attracts dirt, the very things you are trying to eliminate.

Try www.plant-maintenance.com, so much there to know of maintenance practice…