Processing, December 2020

The tooth pro le on this sprocket was failing frequently due to a lack of protection from the elements poor lubrication and chain stretch A shaft mount reducer option was commissioned and put in its place improving ef ciency and component availability Dont Settle for Obsolete Dust Solutions Prevent overhead dust accumulation with SonicAire proven industrial dust control fan systems Improve safety Reduce manual cleaning risks while keeping employees safe from the dangers of combustible dust Maximize productivity Cut housekeeping expenses and scheduled downtime for overhead cleanings Comply with regulations Maintain a clean environment in compliance with OSHA and NFPA regulations DECEMBER 2020 www processingmagazine com 27 To ensure proper lubrication of these critical components lubrication devices could also be installed which can drastically improve the life of the machine set All these monitoring systems can usually be uploaded into a cloud based system or an application on a smartphone The optimum way to build effective inspection rounds is to perform a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis is will allow you to assess all the possible ways the machine set can fail assigning related tasks to your predictive maintenance technicians will help mitigate these failures It is also important to have a good maintenance management system or database for this information to reside for analysis and trending ere are many systems commercially available for monitoring equipment Equipment risk assessment So how do you know what equipment in your facility needs to be monitored What equipment would you consider business critical Let us start with a common de nition of this term Business critical a system failure which causes a direct and immediate nancial impact on facility output ere is a methodology to this called risk assessment where you simply take the consequences severity of the failure and give it a ranking from 1 to 10 en determine the relative probability of the occurrence and give that a ranking from 1 to 10 and multiply those two numbers for the total risk number Of course the higher the total number the higher the risk of losing the machine set e set should be monitored with instrumentation to show the dynamic health of the equipment ere are many risk assessment applications commercially available for making this process simple and e ective Documentation Throughout this process of gathering information it is extremely important to document every verbal conversation and email during the initial correspondence to ensure both the end user and supplier are held accountable for all decisions made or any changes to the process that could a ect reliability Having a survey spreadsheet template to document current components or new applications allows the supplier to adjust inventory to meet the end users specific needs while at the same time giving the end user and supplier accurate and detailed component information Also make sure to create an operating context for the new applications and update the original document in the event of a design change or upgrade This is the guide to show what the machine set is designed to do The term designed to fail has been commonly used throughout the industry as an insinuation that manufacturers design their products to fail prematurely in order to solidify future replacement business In reality however these manufacturers design their products based on the reliability of the information and the preventive and predictive maintenance provided by the end user No manufacturer wants to be known for producing inadequate components A strong and e ective commissioning system in place ensures that the conveying system is designed to be as e cient and productive as possible In summary facilities spend billions of dollars per year in capital projects for new equipment upgrades and redesign To make sure this equipment has a good return of the investment dollars and has a good life cycle it is critical to follow a proven process for the documentation design installation maintenance operation and monitoring of the machine health Paul Craven served as aftermarket sales manager for Sumitomo Machinery Corporation of America and was in the reliability and power transmission industry for 35 years He passed away in October 2020 prior to publication of this article Jeremiah Newton is an aggregate specialist conveyor belt specialist at Motion Industries and has more than 15 years in the industrial and power transmission industr y Sumitomo Machinery Corp us sumitomodrive com Motion Industries www motionindustries com 336 712 2437 www sonicaire com 2012PRO_ SonicAire 1 12 9 20 2 11 PM