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Condition Monitoring Systems In Industry
CONDITION
MONITORING SYSTEMS
IN INDUSTRY
Philip A. Higgs, Rob Parkin, Amin Al-Habaibeh, Farbod Zorriassatine, Jo Coy
Loughborough University, Wolfson School of
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, (UK)
Email: phil.higgs@lboro.ac.uk
1. INTRODUCTION
The following paper represents a draft (snippet) of the final paper
expected to be released at 7th Biennial ASME Conference Engineering
Systems Design and Analysis, July 19-22, 2004 Manchester, UK.
Results of a Condition Based Monitoring (CBM) Survey designed to
d e t e rmine present applications of CBM systems within industry are
p resented. Understanding how industry applies practices such as
CBM in the work place offers valuable re s e a rch results for CBM
system providers, consultants and business users alike. Good
motivational reasons for conducting a CBM surv e y. Questions to be
addressed fall into six categories: 1) Industrial sector; 2) CBM & NDT
techniques; 3) Implementation Incentives; 4) Technology and
Integration; 5) Method of implementation; 6) System reliability.
The acronym CBM is also associated with Condition Based
Maintenance, a predictive maintenance technique. CBM is the method
adopted to monitor and diagnose the condition/s of the pro c e s s ,
machinery, or component/s under investigation. CBM therefore links
d i rectly with Condition Based Maintenance, a technique of diagnosing
failure mechanisms and making a prognosis of the remaining useful
life before failure. Enabling corrective maintenance action to be
u n d e rtaken on the identified failing component/s at a convenient time
before anticipated time of failure.
A similar CBM questionnaire with fewer questions and fewer
replies was conducted in 2002. [1]. Where similar questions were
used, a results comparison is made.
2. SURVEY RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
2.1. Company Information
A broad industrial re p resentation is exhibited in the surv e y.
Demonstrating a wide take up of CBM techniques within industry as
a whole. Table 1 identifies Manufacturing-Petroleum re f i n i n g ,
chemicals and associated products as being the most popular
industrial sector for using CBM systems. The same result was true in
a CBM questionnaire undertaken in 2002 [1]. The second most popular
industrial group was classified as “other”. An indication that a future
s u rvey of this nature could include a larger listed selection of industrial
and business groups.
Responses were received from over 15 different countries. These
include the Americas, Europe, Japan, Australasia, Southeastern Asia,
Middle East and Africa. Indicative of the worldwide application of
CBM as a maintenance practice, and the effectiveness of
questionnaire distribution over the Internet.
2.2. Condition Monitoring and Non Destructive Testing Te c h n i q u e s
S u rvey findings re p resented in Table 2 indicate the four most
widely used CBM and non destructive testing (NDT) techniques to be:
Vibration Analysis, Oil Analysis, Infra-red Thermography, and Human
Senses. A similar result to the 2002 CBM survey [1].
All the listed CBM and NDT techniques have been selected.
2.3. Incentives
Table 3 shows a combined 85% of respondents either agree or
strongly agree they introduced CBM in order to adopt the practice of
p redictive maintenance into their company. Less than 3% of
respondents showed disagreement.
An underlying message suggests respondents’ associate
p redictive maintenance with CBM. An interesting connotation
considering recent discussions questioning the definition of CBM on
maintenance forums, as to whether it is a predictive or preventative
maintenance practice.
Table 4 shows a combined 95% of respondents either agree or
s t rongly agree they introduced CBM to reduce the number of
unscheduled machine breakdowns. Providing a positive indication
that in most cases CBM is associated with reducing unscheduled
machine breakdowns.
Table 5 shows a combined 83% of respondents either agree or
s t rongly agree their business adopted CBM to save money. Pro v i d i n g
a positive indication that in most cases CBM is associated with saving
money. Only 2.5% of respondents indicated disagreement.
Table 6 shows a combined 79% of respondents either agree or
s t rongly agree their organisation introduced CBM for competitive
reasons. Determining organisations competitiveness is a high level
( D i re c t o r / C h a i rman) business decision. Because the questionnaire
has been randomly distributed, it is quite acceptable to expect a
notable 15% of neutral responses.
2.4. Technology & Integration
S u rvey results shown in Table 7 indicate charts to be the most
common method of presenting CBM information to users. All other
options (discrete values, alarms, and graphics and animation) re c e i v e d
a similar % of replies. Implying CBM graphic user interfaces (GUI)
should offer a variety of diff e rent mediums in which to present data
and information to users.