Saving Money Through Oil Condition Monitoring
Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) is a maintenance strategy which uses information on machine condition to direct maintenance activities. Its goal is to effectively and efficiently target maintenance activities where they are needed most and will have the greatest impact. If implemented correctly it results in increased reliability and reduced maintenance cost.
Information on machine condition can come from a number of condition monitoring techniques, such as Oil Analysis, Vibration Monitoring, Acoustic Emissions, Thermography, Visual Inspections, Operational Parameter Monitoring and other methods.
Various condition monitoring techniques can compliment one another, as each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some require significant capital investment, some require the use of external experts, some are easily scaled up, others aren’t. Staff requirements, response time and ongoing costs also vary.
One thing is certain, however. Intelligent use of Oil Condition Monitoring and CBM can produce significant improvements in reliability and sizeable savings.
Here’s how:
By monitoring oil samples many adverse effects relating to lubricant quality, performance and contamination can be minimised or avoided altogether. In itself this can eliminate a significant proportion of machine failures .
Those not caused by contamination or poor lubricant performance can be identified before they develop into serious faults and treated at an early stage minimising cost and disruption from unplanned downtime.
Further savings can be made through reducing unnecessary maintenance, optimising spares stocks and oil change intervals; reducing power/fuel consumption caused by machine inefficiency; reducing the need for operator and maintenance team overtime; avoiding penalties and reputational damage; ensuring sufficient product output to make the most of sales opportunities.
Depending on the circumstances, savings of 3x to 10x the cost of the oil analysis programme are achievable.