Maintworld 1/2018
The Use and Misuse of Vibration Analysis // The Industrial Iot Maturity Model // Condition Monitoring in Maritime Applications // Effective Backlog Management
The Use and Misuse of Vibration Analysis // The Industrial Iot Maturity Model // Condition Monitoring in Maritime Applications // Effective Backlog Management
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1/<strong>2018</strong> www.maintworld.com<br />
maintenance & asset management<br />
The Use and<br />
Misuse of<br />
Vibration<br />
Analysis p 16<br />
THE INDUSTRIAL IOT MATURITY MODEL P 12 CONDITION MONITORING IN MARITIME APPLICATIONS P 24 EFFECTIVE BACKLOG MANAGEMENT P 34
A New Dimension<br />
in HMI/SCADA<br />
Introducing the world’s first 3D Holographic<br />
Machine Interface. ICONICS has redefined “HMI”<br />
in this era of the Industrial Internet of Things by<br />
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Experience it for yourself at Hannover Messe!<br />
Visit ICONICS in Hall 7, Stand C40<br />
Celebrating over 30 Years of Automation Software<br />
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EDITORIAL<br />
The True Challenge<br />
IT CAN BE ARGUED that maintenance within asset management is not a very<br />
complex domain when considering various tasks one at a time. But at asset-intensive<br />
companies, such as power plants and heavy industries, the complexity<br />
arises from the number of tasks carried out on numerous systems involving<br />
many employees (hopefully) striving for continuous improvement. Moreover,<br />
the wellbeing and the very existent of such companies depend on a proper asset<br />
and maintenance management.<br />
This is a challenge. The domain has been relatively stable for decades. Still,<br />
we have in recent years seen trends towards more outsourcing and condition-based<br />
actions, where possible. With smart sensors and more data processing<br />
capabilities we can assume that these trends will continue at a quicker<br />
pace. While this offers opportunities, the asset and maintenance management<br />
challenge will not become any less, it will even become more of a challenge with<br />
new technology to be mastered and<br />
new types of specialist to be trained.<br />
Our domain is not only asset-intensive,<br />
it is also people-intensive as<br />
we want all managers to appreciate<br />
the importance of maintenance and<br />
contribute to it; we want operators to<br />
participate in maintenance and our<br />
maintenance people need support,<br />
such as from safety specialists, ICT<br />
people and finance.<br />
When dealing with people-intensive domains, culture plays a big role. As<br />
we know, culture is a complex phenomenon. Still, it can be nurtured and directed<br />
towards improvements helping us as a group to advance our strengths<br />
while dealing with our weaknesses. In Iceland we do not have an army. Some<br />
claim that this explains a certain lack of discipline and sometimes more than a<br />
healthy appetite for doing whatever we personally find proper at the time, policies<br />
and rules being more “like a guideline”.<br />
There is some truth to this; our culture is somewhat low on discipline. On<br />
the plus side, living for centuries on a small island, our cultural DNA contains<br />
a strong sense of survivalism and an ownership towards the assets we have; we<br />
must “keep our vessels floating”, there is no one else doing that for us.<br />
New technology will help, as will more discipline, but our main challenge<br />
will be to maintain this sense of ownership and to empower people to seek continuous<br />
improvement, improving flow of actions and eliminating waste. This is<br />
a lean goal. Let us remember that lean is not about cutting costs, lean is about<br />
growing people making use of the tools we have. That is our true challenge.<br />
Guðmundur Jón Bjarnason,<br />
Managing Director at DMM Iceland and EFNMS delegate on behalf of<br />
the Icelandic National Maintenance Society<br />
4 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong><br />
OUR DOMAIN IS NOT<br />
ONLY ASSET-INTENSIVE,<br />
IT IS ALSO PEOPLE-<br />
INTENSIVE.<br />
26<br />
Detecting<br />
malfunctions<br />
before they bring a<br />
chemical plant to a halt not<br />
only makes sense for fire<br />
protection and security<br />
reasons, but also with<br />
regard to economic aspects.
IN THIS ISSUE 1/<strong>2018</strong><br />
20<br />
Buying<br />
high-quality oil and<br />
grease and investing in<br />
training is expensive, sure –<br />
but not nearly as expensive<br />
as not funding them.<br />
48<br />
THE SIZE of the Dutch<br />
maintenance market stands<br />
between 31 and 36 billion<br />
Euros, which is approximately<br />
4-5 percent of GDP.<br />
6<br />
10<br />
12<br />
14<br />
16<br />
ENSURING A SMOOTH<br />
TRANSITION from OPC CLASSIC<br />
to OPC UA<br />
Is Your HMI/SCADA Network as<br />
Secure as You Think It Is?<br />
The Industrial IoT Maturity<br />
Model<br />
Integrating Legacy Data into IoT<br />
Initiatives: Three Methodologies<br />
The Use and Misuse of Vibration<br />
Analysis<br />
20<br />
24<br />
26<br />
30<br />
32<br />
How Proper Lubrication Can<br />
Enhance a Plant’s Reliability<br />
“Move the Data, not the People”<br />
– Industry 4.0 and Condition<br />
Monitoring in Maritime<br />
Applications<br />
"The Infrared Solution is Simply<br />
Tremendous"<br />
ULTRASOUND AND INFRARED<br />
COOPERATE to Find Transformer<br />
Failures<br />
Are you Spending More Time on<br />
Technology than on Processes<br />
and People?<br />
34<br />
38<br />
40<br />
44<br />
48<br />
Effective Backlog Management –<br />
Backlog Size Control<br />
Implementing Online Dissolved<br />
Gas Analysis<br />
Managing Hazardous Energy<br />
Safely<br />
PROPER OIL SAMPLING: The<br />
First Step in Oil Analysis<br />
Attract the Right Knowledge and<br />
Skills<br />
Issued by Promaint (Finnish Maintenance Society), Messuaukio 1, 00520 Helsinki, Finland tel. +358 29 007 4570 Publisher<br />
Omnipress Oy, Mäkelänkatu 56, 00510 Helsinki, tel. +358 20 6100, toimitus@omnipress.fi, www.omnipress.fi Editor-in-chief<br />
Nina Garlo-Melkas tel. +358 50 36 46 491, nina.garlo@omnipress.fi, Advertisements Kai Portman, Sales Director, tel. +358 358<br />
44 763 2573, ads@maintworld.com Subscriptions and Change of Address members toimisto@kunnossapito.fi, non-members<br />
tilaajapalvelu@media.fi Printed by Painotalo Plus Digital Oy, www.ppd.fi Frequency 4 issues per year, ISSN L 1798-7024, ISSN<br />
1798-7024 (print), ISSN 1799-8670 (online).<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 5
CMMS<br />
ENSURING A SMOOTH<br />
TRANSITION from OPC<br />
CLASSIC to OPC UA<br />
Now, more than ever, industrial firms need to make<br />
sense of vast quantities of data having a critical impact<br />
on their performance. To support the variety<br />
of applications necessary<br />
today, information must be<br />
delivered with context so<br />
it can be understood and<br />
used in various ways by a<br />
variety of people. Growing<br />
adoption of the Industrial<br />
Internet of Things (IIoT) and<br />
Industrie 4.0 is also driving<br />
requirements for open and<br />
secure connectivity between<br />
devices and edge-to-cloud<br />
solutions.<br />
DAREK KOMINEK,<br />
Sr. Consulting Manager<br />
at Matrikon<br />
ORGANIZATIONS that deploy the OPC<br />
Unified Architecture (UA) will be able to<br />
better leverage plant floor-to-enterprise<br />
communications as a vehicle to participate<br />
in IIoT applications. OPC UA is a<br />
standard for moving information vertically<br />
through the enterprise of multi-vendor<br />
systems, as well as providing interoperability<br />
between devices on different industrial<br />
networks from different vendors.<br />
This article provides a brief overview<br />
of the key features of OPC UA and a<br />
comparison with the legacy OPC Classic<br />
standard, and outlines the motivation for<br />
upgrading to OPC UA based on a managed,<br />
secure and seamless migration path.<br />
6 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
Why<br />
are the<br />
BEST analysts<br />
MOBIUS<br />
trained?<br />
Simply,<br />
Mobius Institute students have a<br />
DEEPER UNDERSTANDING of the skill of<br />
vibration analysis, allowing them to confidently identify a wider vartiety of machine fault conditions at their earliest stage.<br />
Mobius Institute‘s students learn from our advanced training methodology that uses hundreds of 3D animations and<br />
interactive software simulations making complex concepts more easy to understand.<br />
Mobius Institute analyst’s CERTIFICATION IS ACCREDITED according to ISO 18436-1 and<br />
ISO 18436-2, meaning that your certificate is traceable to the ISO standards for Category<br />
I-IV Vibration Analysts and is recognized worldwide.<br />
Mobius Institute analysts OFFER A GREATER VALUE to their employers because of their<br />
ability to identify the most difficult machine fault conditions and offer clear corrective<br />
action. Having a Mobius trained analyst on a plant’s CBM/reliability team ensures<br />
competence, insight and confidence that the program can rely and build upon.<br />
Learn more about MOBIUS INSTITUTE by visiting our website or by reaching us by email<br />
at learn@mobiusinstitute.com or by phone at (+1) 615-216-4811.<br />
MOBIUS INSTITUTE TRAINING & CERTIFICATION<br />
www.mobiusinstitute.com
CMMS<br />
Introduction<br />
The OPC standard, first issued by the<br />
OPC Foundation in 1996, allows for secure<br />
and reliable exchange of data across<br />
manufacturing and other enterprises.<br />
OPC Classic is the world’s leading technology<br />
for integrating different automation<br />
products. Countless OPC–based<br />
systems are in use around the globe,<br />
ensuring the safe and reliable exchange<br />
of data between industrial software components.<br />
The most widespread specifications<br />
of the classical OPC standard include:<br />
OPC DA for the transmission of realtime<br />
data, OPC HDA for the communication<br />
of run data (or historical data), and<br />
OPC A&E, with which alarms and events<br />
can be communicated. These OPC<br />
variations are based on communication<br />
protocols from Microsoft: Component<br />
Object Model (COM) and Distributed<br />
Component<br />
Object Model (DCOM). All control<br />
systems, machine interfaces, and automation<br />
applications that are based on<br />
the Windows platform can exchange data<br />
smoothly with OPC Classic. Programmers<br />
are able to quickly realize interface<br />
implementations thanks to these close<br />
SWITCHING TO OPC UA IS WORTHWHILE, AND FOR THOSE<br />
DEVELOPING TOMORROW’S INTELLIGENT DEVICES,<br />
IT’S A NECESSITY.<br />
connections with Microsoft’s objectoriented<br />
COM and DCOM technologies,<br />
but this comes at the expense of the flexibility<br />
and expandability of interfaces.<br />
In order to guarantee interoperability<br />
using OPC Classic, a separate OPC Server<br />
is needed for each device in a plant<br />
application. The use of multiple OPC<br />
Servers to connect all devices and applications<br />
may, however, lead to the internal<br />
communication structures becoming<br />
unclear and difficult to manage.<br />
With OPC UA, the next generation<br />
OPC technology, the vision of “global”<br />
interoperability will become a reality.<br />
OPC UA supports cloud integration to<br />
scale operations when necessary, protects<br />
against IT hardware obsolescence,<br />
and delivers global access to connected<br />
systems. When integrated with the IIoT,<br />
it helps automation users to visualize,<br />
analyze and mobilize critical data without<br />
the need for added IT infrastructure.<br />
The OPC UA standard was developed<br />
to break down communication barriers<br />
that have been limited by dependence on<br />
Microsoft’s underlying DCOM technology.<br />
Furthermore, the design of the new<br />
architecture works with any operating<br />
system (OS) without compromising the<br />
performance of the data exchange mechanism,<br />
making it the perfect solution for<br />
embedding OPC technology into devices.<br />
OPC UA is a platform-independent,<br />
scalable, service-oriented architecture<br />
(SOA) that integrates all the functionality<br />
of the original OPC specifications<br />
into a single, flexible framework. It extends<br />
the capabilities of the original OPC<br />
model by improving upon security and<br />
employing standard web technologies.<br />
OPC UA represents a major step<br />
forward for original equipment manufacturer<br />
(OEM) device manufacturers<br />
developing the latest breed of automation<br />
solutions. Developers can exchange<br />
rich data with even greater levels of interoperability,<br />
while enhancing security<br />
and providing new levels of value and<br />
performance.<br />
Those who deploy OPC UA will be<br />
able to better leverage plant floor-toenterprise<br />
communications as a vehicle<br />
to participate in IIoT and Industrie 4.0<br />
applications. This technology supports<br />
multi-vendor, multiplatform interoperability<br />
for moving data and information<br />
from the embedded world to the enterprise.<br />
The standard is built on an information<br />
model that provides structure<br />
and context to information at its source,<br />
which is critical to have responsive systems.<br />
By adopting OPC UA, automation<br />
vendors get the best in open data connectivity<br />
today and in the future.<br />
Key Drivers for Technology<br />
Upgrade<br />
Growing worldwide recognition of OPC<br />
UA’s benefits is pushing it into mainstream<br />
adoption. The technology is the<br />
industry’s most multi-faceted and promising<br />
specification for data exchange.<br />
OPC UA offers and expands the standard<br />
functionality of OPC Classic and, in doing<br />
so, resolves the difficulties associated<br />
with security, platform dependence, and<br />
DCOM problems.<br />
There are several important drivers for<br />
migration from OPC Classic to OPC UA:<br />
• By natively enabling OPC UA in<br />
devices and applications, users no<br />
longer have to rely on clumsy tools<br />
for protocol translation and information<br />
modeling. This solution<br />
reduces both operating expenses<br />
(OPEX) and capital expenses<br />
(CAPEX) by eliminating middleware<br />
on the shop floor as well as<br />
the need for hardware to install<br />
servers and clients.<br />
• The number of attempted cyberattacks<br />
on industrial facilities and<br />
critical infrastructure is on the<br />
rise. Unlike OPC Classic, OPC UA<br />
is inherently secure, and thus does<br />
away with the need to layer multiple<br />
security gateways or software.<br />
• OPC UA offers a rich set of functionality,<br />
including the ability to<br />
provide contextualized data that is<br />
valuable for advanced analytics to<br />
enable improved insights and better<br />
decision-making.<br />
With the ongoing shift to OPC UA,<br />
engineers, IT, and system Integrators<br />
alike need to properly integrate new<br />
UA-based data sources (i.e., devices and<br />
applications) into their existing OPC<br />
Classic-based architectures.<br />
It is clear that switching to OPC UA is<br />
worthwhile, and for those developing tomorrow’s<br />
intelligent devices, it’s a neces-<br />
8 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CMMS<br />
sity. OPC Classic simply cannot address<br />
the requirements of Industrie 4.0 or the<br />
latest IIoT initiatives.<br />
Strategy to Ensure Seamless<br />
Migration<br />
A growing number of OPC Classic users<br />
are starting to ask themselves how and<br />
when they should begin the implementation<br />
OPC UA. In many cases, however,<br />
the migration path to the new standard<br />
is not clear.<br />
It is safe to assume that OPC UA will<br />
one day replace OPC Classic. An immediate<br />
switch to OPC UA, however, is not<br />
necessarily required for every business.<br />
With the right tools and careful planning,<br />
the migration process becomes clear.<br />
Step 1: Be sure that all your<br />
legacy proprietary protocols<br />
are future ready.<br />
Complete migration refers to replacing<br />
OPC Classic via a comprehensive switch<br />
to OPC UA. To that end, users need to<br />
keep third-party data always accessible<br />
using an open standard that enables reliable<br />
communication between industrial<br />
human-machine interfaces (HMIs), applications<br />
and devices.<br />
Step 2: Start with partial<br />
migration.<br />
OPC UA has been designed to remain<br />
adaptable for the future and to support<br />
legacy implementations. In the intermediate<br />
phase, it will be possible to use<br />
DCOM-based OPC products together<br />
with UA products.<br />
Users can still run a variety of<br />
products from their current favorite<br />
manufacturers. This allows for a soft<br />
migration where they retain OPC Classic<br />
data sources and integrate OPC UA in<br />
future devices according to their needs<br />
and capabilities. Devices using OPC<br />
Classic cannot communicate with OPC<br />
UA on their own. For these instances,<br />
it is wise to use a wrapper to provide a<br />
partial solution for handling communication<br />
between existing OPC Classic<br />
Servers and OPC UA Clients. These UA<br />
Tunneller will establish a connection<br />
from OPC Classic to OPC UA and vice<br />
versa. The introduction of wrappers is<br />
only recommended in a few complex environments,<br />
as each OPC Server must be<br />
individually evaluated.<br />
Users are finding that a new breed of<br />
software tool provides a secure method<br />
of migrating OPC Classic data sources<br />
to OPC UA. The tool allows OPC UA-enabled<br />
client applications to communicate<br />
with OPC Classic Servers and<br />
Clients, as well as OPC UA Servers. The<br />
reverse is also true. It is designed to enable<br />
seamless OPC data transfer through<br />
multiple mediums across geographical<br />
locations, address problems with using<br />
OPC Classic components based on<br />
DCOM, and eliminate permission issues<br />
encountered across domains and work<br />
groups.<br />
Step 3: Enable OPC UA<br />
connectivity across products<br />
and platforms.<br />
The continued demand for open and<br />
secure connectivity between devices<br />
(machine-to-machine) and edge-tocloud<br />
solutions, along with growing<br />
adoption of the IIoT and Industrie 4.0,<br />
make it necessary to have a single, fully<br />
scalable toolkit to allow users to quickly<br />
and easily interconnect industrial software<br />
systems, regardless of platform,<br />
operating system, or size Today, automation<br />
OEMs can utilize an advanced<br />
software development kit (SDK), which<br />
provides high-performance capabilities<br />
(e.g., multi-threaded, load balancing,<br />
small memory footprint, etc.) and makes<br />
it easy to embed an OPC UA Server into<br />
a chip, device, and/or application. With<br />
this solution, developers can natively enable<br />
OPC UA Servers and Clients in controllers<br />
(e.g., PLCs, RTUs, DCSs, etc.), as<br />
well as devices, sensors and applications<br />
(e.g., historians, alarm management,<br />
SCADA, MES, ERP, etc.).<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 9
PARTNER ARTICLE<br />
Is Your HMI/<br />
SCADA Network<br />
as Secure as<br />
You Think It Is?<br />
Network security frequently makes the news, often when some<br />
new viral attack is discovered or, worse yet, is successful. HMI/<br />
SCADA networks can be as susceptible to these unlawful breakins<br />
as any others, unless the proper precautions are taken. Many<br />
software and hardware vendors have made their own attempts to<br />
stay ahead of online criminals, while others have combined forces<br />
to thwart such attacks.<br />
MELISSA TOPP,<br />
Senior Director of<br />
Global Marketing,<br />
ICONICS,<br />
melissa@iconics.com<br />
ICONICS (www.iconics.com), a Foxborough,<br />
Massachusetts headquartered<br />
global automation software provider and<br />
five-time winner of the Microsoft Partner<br />
of the Year award, has announced<br />
an authentication method of its GEN-<br />
ESIS64 HMI/SCADA and building<br />
automation software suite via a control<br />
system root of trust provided through<br />
Bedrock Automation, based in San Jose,<br />
California.<br />
With this new working relationship,<br />
ICONICS customers will be able to<br />
generate Certificate Signing Requests<br />
(CSRs) to be signed by the Bedrock Certificate<br />
Authority (CA). These electronic<br />
certificates provide users with signed<br />
and encrypted communication between<br />
their Bedrock control system and their<br />
HMI and SCADA applications.<br />
- Security is a top priority for most<br />
automation customers today, said Russ<br />
Agrusa, President and CEO of ICONICS.<br />
- ICONICS has partnered with Bedrock<br />
Automation to provide an end-toend<br />
connected solution for IoT and<br />
Industry 4.0 that ensures safe, secure<br />
information exchange between PLCs<br />
and a variety of enterprise information<br />
systems.<br />
ICONICS GENESIS64 is an application<br />
development platform for real-time<br />
enterprise information management. It<br />
provides a complete set of modules via a<br />
unified engineering user interface built<br />
on Microsoft .NET and sharable with<br />
other open applications via OPC UA.<br />
GENESIS64 users building control logic<br />
for critical infrastructure industries, such<br />
as water treatment, power & utilities, oil<br />
& gas, and more, can now incorporate<br />
the Bedrock encryption keys directly into<br />
their SCADA applications and enjoy<br />
end-to-end cyber secure protection.<br />
In a typical protected architecture, an<br />
end user might deploy a Bedrock Open<br />
Secure Automation (OSA®) control system,<br />
security firmware that delivers the<br />
benefits of open technology to control<br />
field devices such as pumps, valves and<br />
sensors. An ICONICS end user requiring<br />
secure data exchange with the controller<br />
would request a certificate from the<br />
Bedrock CA. After verifying identity, the<br />
Bedrock CA provides a certificate that allows<br />
the ICONICS application to access<br />
data from the Bedrock PLC. This also<br />
provides a root of trust against which the<br />
developer can secure communications<br />
between ICONICS servers, as well as<br />
with web and mobile communications.<br />
- Once this open, yet secure, relationship<br />
is established, said CEO and Founder<br />
of Bedrock Automation.<br />
- Developers can enable exchange of<br />
production data with the SCADA system<br />
for supervisory and management<br />
improvements, and can impact control<br />
functions based on management information.<br />
Penetrating it would require<br />
decrypting multiple codes across multiple<br />
layers, which could take many years.<br />
ICONICS can now offer this level of<br />
protection to their end users, at no cost<br />
above that of the control system itself.<br />
Bedrock enables cyber security by<br />
10 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
PARTNER ARTICLE<br />
starting with a secure supply chain, using<br />
verified electronic circuits it builds itself.<br />
It then draws on the power and flexibility<br />
of public key infrastructure (PKI) and<br />
Transport Layer Security (TLS) technologies<br />
that are similar to those that are<br />
used to secure online financial transactions<br />
and critical military and aerospace<br />
controls.<br />
Get Informed: Keep Your<br />
Automation Network Safe!<br />
Find out more about the possible cyber<br />
threats to your automation network and<br />
how to combat them in ICONICS’ Cyber<br />
Security Threats eBook.<br />
Visit www.iconics.com/cyberthreatbook.<br />
Visit ICONICS at<br />
Hannover/Messe <strong>2018</strong><br />
ICONICS will be an exhibiting partner at<br />
Microsoft’s booth (Hall 7, Stand C40) at<br />
Hannover Messe <strong>2018</strong> from April 23 – 27<br />
in Hannover, Germany. The company<br />
will be showing off multiple cuttingedge<br />
automation solutions including its<br />
holographic machine interface with Microsoft’s<br />
HoloLens holographic computing<br />
device, as well as its IoTWorX IoT<br />
gateway software suite. We look forward<br />
to seeing you there!<br />
About Bedrock Automation<br />
Bedrock Automation, based in San Jose,<br />
California, is the maker of Bedrock, the<br />
world’s most powerful and cyber secure<br />
automation platform. This Silicon Valley<br />
company has assembled the latest<br />
technologies and talents from both the<br />
automation and semiconductor industries<br />
to build an unprecedented automation<br />
solution for industrial control based<br />
on three prime directives: simplicity,<br />
scalability and security. The result<br />
is a system with a revolutionary<br />
electromagnetic backplane architecture<br />
and deeply embedded ICS<br />
cyber security, which delivers the<br />
highest levels of system performance,<br />
industrial cyber security<br />
and reliability at the lowest cost<br />
of ownership.<br />
About ICONICS<br />
ICONICS is headquartered in<br />
Foxborough, Massachusetts and<br />
is a global software developer of<br />
visualization, HMI, SCADA and energy<br />
solutions. With over 350,000<br />
installations in over 80 countries<br />
worldwide and running in over 70<br />
percent of Global 500 companies,<br />
ICONICS software is recommended<br />
for automating, monitoring and<br />
optimizing a customer’s most critical<br />
assets. ICONICS has recently<br />
been named the 2017 Microsoft<br />
Application Development Partner<br />
of the Year and is a five-time winner<br />
of the Microsoft Partner of the Year<br />
award.<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 11
INDUSTRIAL INTERNET<br />
The Industrial IoT<br />
Maturity Model<br />
A new model<br />
is helping to<br />
guide decision<br />
makers along a<br />
successful path<br />
in the manufacturing<br />
space.<br />
Text: STEFAN HOPPE,<br />
Global Vice President of OPC Foundation<br />
MANY MANUFACTURING and industrial<br />
companies have realised that digital<br />
transformation will require changes in<br />
the way they do business. Experts will<br />
tell you that digital transformation is not<br />
about making energy discrete, and process<br />
manufacturing more efficient, but is<br />
about establishing new business models<br />
while continuing to make money from<br />
their old business models.<br />
These changes are so substantial that<br />
many talk about a revolution, namely the<br />
4th industrial revolution. The Industrial<br />
Internet of Things – abbreviated to IIoT<br />
and known in Germany as Industrie 4.0<br />
– is a technology trend that is the enabler<br />
of this revolution, and is bringing about<br />
a transformation in the way we do business.<br />
12 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong><br />
So, how do you know you are on the<br />
right path? It’s a question that many<br />
company executives are asking themselves<br />
these days. Experts have therefore<br />
established a ‘maturity model’ that aims<br />
to guide decision makers along a path<br />
that leads to success. We call it the Industrial<br />
IoT Maturity Model. Acatech<br />
in Germany has released a study on the<br />
subject, named the Industrie 4.0 Maturity<br />
Index.<br />
This is one of the most important<br />
insights. Many companies think that<br />
all they have to do is connect their<br />
machines to the internet and they are<br />
‘done’. But as always, this is just the beginning.<br />
In their study, Acatech built a<br />
great model, which is pictured alongside<br />
this article.<br />
When it comes to the Industrial IoT<br />
Maturity Model, the age of computerisation<br />
has helped make production processes<br />
more efficient. Many call this the<br />
‘mechatronic’ age or ‘Industrie 3.0’. This<br />
is the first stage of the Maturity Model.<br />
Connecting machines to one another<br />
and to the internet is then the second<br />
stage. For this connectivity to be efficient,<br />
a single data model for information<br />
exchange is required to format the<br />
data consistently. The protocol used for<br />
transporting the data on the other hand,<br />
is irrelevant, although many people tend<br />
to focus on this in error. This is where<br />
the power of open-source industrial interoperability<br />
standards like Open Platform<br />
Communication Unified Architecture<br />
(OPC UA) becomes critical. OPC UA<br />
has an extensible information model, allowing<br />
the easy mapping of many of the<br />
standards used in the industrial sector<br />
today, and allowing for the creation of a<br />
single data model.<br />
These two stages are the “table
INDUSTRIAL INTERNET<br />
stakes” – no more. Where the digital<br />
transformation journey really begins<br />
is in the next stage, namely the visibility<br />
stage. This stage requires the use<br />
of visualisations, either on-premise or<br />
on a website that can be accessed from<br />
anywhere in the world. This allows<br />
stakeholders to see what is happening at<br />
any given time by looking at the stream<br />
of telemetry data from the machines –<br />
usually referred to as time-series data.<br />
If a database is additionally connected,<br />
historic time-series data may also be<br />
viewed.<br />
The next stage in the maturity model<br />
is the transparency stage and analytics<br />
software can be used to understand what<br />
is happening or has happened. The analytics<br />
software usually comes with a set<br />
of rules created by experts – essentially<br />
people who understand the workings of<br />
the individual machines deeply. These<br />
can be applied to the time-series data,<br />
either as it is streamed through the analytics<br />
software (hot path analytics) or applied<br />
later to the time-series data in the<br />
database (cold path analytics). Once the<br />
data has been evaluated using the rules<br />
provided, conclusions about why something<br />
has happened can be deducted.<br />
It gets really interesting when predictive<br />
models are applied to the data stored<br />
in the database. This is the fifth stage.<br />
Machine learning algorithms are used in<br />
this stage to predict the future, given the<br />
historic data collected. Sometimes it is<br />
JUST CONNECTING YOUR<br />
MACHINE TO THE INTERNET<br />
IS NOT ENOUGH!<br />
useful just to be able to predict a few seconds<br />
into the future to prevent damage<br />
or accidents. Other times, it is useful to<br />
predict days or weeks into the future to<br />
allow for the maintenance of a machine<br />
before it breaks down.<br />
The final stage is where the largest<br />
change within an organisation is<br />
required. Once the previous stages are<br />
implemented, a company can start making<br />
guarantees regarding the reliability<br />
of the machines it sells. This leads to new<br />
business models, where the cost of the<br />
machine can be offset with a guaranteed<br />
service instead. If done right, the cost<br />
of the machine may even be able to be<br />
waived and a ‘pay per use’ model introduced.<br />
For example, a barcode scanner<br />
manufacturer can slowly migrate from<br />
selling scanners to selling scans. In addition,<br />
maintenance of the machine can be<br />
fully automated, creating ‘self-healing’<br />
machines and processes.<br />
The tools used in stages three to six<br />
are readily available from internet of<br />
things (IoT) platform providers. To make<br />
these tools available worldwide and keep<br />
them scalable requires multi-billion dollar<br />
investments. Machine builders and<br />
factory owners should therefore not try<br />
to build these tools themselves, but focus<br />
on their machine and manufacturing<br />
process expertise and add value where<br />
they can differentiate.<br />
Author of this text Stefan Hoppe is Global<br />
Vice President of OPC Foundation<br />
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CONTROLLING MAINTENANCE, CREATING VALUE.
INDUSTRIAL INTERNET<br />
Integrating Legacy Data<br />
into IoT Initiatives:<br />
Three Methodologies<br />
Today’s factory floor is a melting pot of equipment, with the newest machines relying<br />
on technology that didn’t even exist when the oldest machines were built. Integrating<br />
data from different machine generations can be a huge challenge, but is vital when optimizing<br />
the plant floor and creating an effective Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.<br />
14 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
INDUSTRIAL INTERNET<br />
JEFF BATES,<br />
Product Manager,<br />
PTC<br />
LEGACY EQUIPMENT contains valuable<br />
data, but most legacy tools were not built<br />
for seamless data access. In fact, some<br />
legacy equipment was specifically structured<br />
to prevent direct integration for<br />
security reasons.<br />
In 2016, an IDG Research Survey<br />
found that 64 percent of senior IT manufacturing<br />
executives said that integrating<br />
data from disparate sources in order to<br />
extract business value from that data is<br />
the single biggest challenge of the IoT.<br />
Data integration has been a challenge for<br />
IT and Operations teams for years, but<br />
IoT makes the need for integration more<br />
urgent—and more challenging.<br />
For more than 20 years, Kepware has<br />
been helping customers access their industrial<br />
data in order to extract meaning<br />
and value from that data. In that time,<br />
we have seen the benefits and drawbacks<br />
of different approaches to incorporating<br />
legacy equipment into IoT initiatives.<br />
These are the three main approaches—<br />
and their key benefits and potential<br />
trade-offs—that manufacturers have<br />
traditionally taken (and will continue to<br />
take) when integrating legacy tools with<br />
their IoT initiatives.<br />
Approach 1: Rip-and-Replace<br />
A “rip-and-replace” approach involves<br />
fully scrapping legacy equipment and<br />
replacing it with modern, IoT-enabled<br />
machinery. It is often attractive in theory<br />
(who wouldn’t want the best and most<br />
efficient equipment across the plant<br />
floor?), but in practice can be hampered<br />
by time sinks and budget restrictions.<br />
Sourcing activities (such as developing<br />
RFPs and vendor negotiations), uninstalling<br />
current equipment, installing<br />
new equipment, ensuring appropriate<br />
vendor support during the installation<br />
phase and re-training employees are just<br />
a few of the challenges inherent in this<br />
approach. Combined with the cost of<br />
new equipment, rip-and-replace is often<br />
unrealistic for most organizations. However,<br />
replacing outdated assets ensures<br />
an organization can reap the benefits of<br />
the most up-to-date technology, including<br />
improved performance, lower power<br />
consumption and readiness for next-gen<br />
features, such as augmented reality (AR).<br />
A large-scale rip-and-replace also has<br />
ramifications beyond the plant floor.<br />
Investing in this option may require an<br />
organization to forgo other lucrative<br />
investments. On the other hand, the benefits<br />
of enterprise-wide visibility into operational<br />
KPIs may be enough to make<br />
it worthwhile. So if the immediate cost<br />
and time concerns can be overcome, this<br />
approach can be lucrative over the longterm<br />
as it creates an efficient, futurefocused<br />
factory.<br />
Approach 2: Best-of-Breed<br />
Third-Party Solution<br />
Also referred to as a “retrofit” or “wrapand-extend”<br />
solution, this method<br />
involves using third-party, IoT-ready<br />
connectivity solutions—such as OPC<br />
servers, IoT platforms, IoT Gateways<br />
and sensors—that extend the capabilities<br />
of legacy equipment. A Best-of-Breed<br />
approach enables communication to the<br />
legacy protocols used by the equipment<br />
(or by the equipment’s components),<br />
such as PLCs, control applications and<br />
embedded sensors. It can also involve<br />
adding sensors that directly measure<br />
KPIs and make this data accessible to<br />
the IoT. Best-of-Breed solutions are IoTready<br />
and reach beyond the plant floor<br />
to provide visibility into operational data<br />
for the entire enterprise.<br />
The impact of a best-of-breed thirdparty<br />
solution on the enterprise as a<br />
whole depends on how the data is used. By<br />
gathering integrated data from both legacy<br />
and modern machines, this approach<br />
has the potential to enhance decisionmaking<br />
at all levels of an organization, and<br />
includes the added benefit of being extremely<br />
customizable to different needs.<br />
One drawback to this approach is that<br />
it often requires factories to upgrade<br />
their networks. Best-of-breed thirdparty<br />
solutions are capable of collecting<br />
huge amounts of data, and the bandwidth<br />
necessary to transmit that data<br />
can result in extra costs. Edge-based processing—which<br />
enables down-sampling<br />
or summary analytics before the information<br />
is sent to an IoT solution—can<br />
help mitigate this issue. A best-of-breed<br />
approach can be beneficial for organizations<br />
that need to integrate legacy equipment<br />
quickly and efficiently.<br />
Approach 3:<br />
In-House Solutions<br />
In-house solutions are typically created<br />
by internal personnel using internal<br />
technical resources, and are fully supported<br />
in-house. An in-house approach<br />
ensures that an organization’s specific,<br />
unique goals are met. And because the<br />
organization has direct control over its<br />
resources, technicians are more likely<br />
to be readily available to make changes.<br />
However, there may be more demands<br />
on the in-house IoT-support team than<br />
they can meet in a timely manner. They<br />
will be responsible for bug fixes, troubleshooting,<br />
training, product improvements<br />
and maintenance. This might not<br />
seem like much at first, but can add up<br />
over the lifespan of an IoT solution.<br />
INTEGRATING DATA FROM DIFFERENT MACHINE<br />
GENERATIONS CAN BE A HUGE CHALLENGE.<br />
In addition, after a legacy asset is connected,<br />
that data needs somewhere to<br />
go. Collecting data is one challenge, but<br />
displaying it, analyzing it, or otherwise<br />
turning the data into actionable intelligence<br />
in a timely and useful manner is<br />
a whole other issue. Technicians that are<br />
experts in both connectivity and IoT application<br />
development are hard to come<br />
by. And if your lead technician were to<br />
leave the company, could you find a suitable<br />
replacement?<br />
What Approach Works<br />
Best for You?<br />
Each of these approaches can serve to<br />
optimize data access for an organization.<br />
But, the best approach will almost<br />
certainly involve working with a myriad<br />
of IoT solutions and vendors, bringing<br />
some internal resources to bear and replacing<br />
some equipment. For example,<br />
instead of full rip-and-replace, you might<br />
replace just some outdated equipment<br />
while keeping other legacy equipment<br />
and incorporating plug-and-play sensors—taking<br />
the best of different approaches<br />
to fit your business needs.<br />
Striking the right balance will involve<br />
considering the specific goals of your<br />
organization and making strategic tradeoffs,<br />
with a focus on staying competitive<br />
and efficient into the future.<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 15
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
The Use and Misuse<br />
of Vibration<br />
Analysis<br />
If you have any experience with vibration analysis, you will know that experienced,<br />
well-trained and certified vibration analysts have superhuman skills. With x-ray<br />
vision, they can look into a bearing and detect the tiniest spall on the inner race. They<br />
can see cracks in gear teeth, and broken rotor bars in induction motors. In medieval<br />
times, they would have been accused of practicing witchcraft. In modern times, they<br />
are recognized as essential members of the reliability improvement team.<br />
JASON TRANTER,<br />
CMRP, Mobius Institute,<br />
jason@mobiusinstitute.com<br />
THE TROUBLE IS, there are vibration<br />
analysts and there are vibration analysts.<br />
Vibration analysts are not all created<br />
equal. I have personally been involved<br />
with vibration analysis since 1984. My<br />
company has trained and certified vibration<br />
analysts (and other reliability<br />
practitioners) since 1999. In fact, since<br />
2005, we have trained over 25,000 vibration<br />
analysts in a classroom environment<br />
alone. Unfortunately, in addition to a lot<br />
of very positive feedback, I also receive<br />
negative feedback.<br />
I would love to share the positive<br />
feedback, but as an industry, we need to<br />
discuss the negative feedback.<br />
You see, while it is possible for vibration<br />
analysts to detect the onset of failure<br />
many months before a component will<br />
functionally fail, too frequently the fault<br />
is detected late. Or not at all…<br />
And while it is possible to detect a<br />
wide range of fault conditions and recognize<br />
the root causes that will lead to<br />
failure, too frequently the focus is on<br />
detecting rolling element bearing faults.<br />
And not much else.<br />
And while it is possible to generate a<br />
report that provides clear information<br />
about the required maintenance action,<br />
too often the reports are confusing,<br />
vague, noncommittal, and unavailable to<br />
the people who need them.<br />
Now, before anyone gets too upset with<br />
me, clearly there are a lot of vibration analysts<br />
providing tremendous value to their<br />
organizations or clients. But that doesn’t<br />
mean that they can’t improve, and it certainly<br />
doesn’t mean that everyone is delivering<br />
the service they should provide.<br />
16 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
Where is it going wrong?<br />
Many, many years ago, the focus of vibration<br />
analysis was to collect “overall readings”<br />
which provided a single number<br />
related to the vibration amplitude. This<br />
value could be compared against alarms,<br />
including ISO standards, and could be<br />
trended.<br />
Since that time, all kinds of new technologies<br />
have been developed, made<br />
affordable, and made relatively easy to<br />
use. Those technologies include the use<br />
of spectrum analysis, time waveform<br />
analysis, phase analysis, high-frequency<br />
bearing detection, the ability to detect<br />
faults in very low-speed machinery,<br />
new graphical techniques that make the<br />
analysis easier, and more. However, in<br />
some of the feedback I have received in<br />
recent times, so-called “vibration analysis<br />
programs” (even those offered by<br />
consultants) are relying on overall level<br />
vibration readings. Or even if vibration<br />
spectra are collected, the high-frequency<br />
detection techniques are not being used.<br />
Or analysts are using default settings<br />
rather than selecting appropriate settings<br />
for “resolution” and “frequency<br />
range,” to name just two. Or zero focus is<br />
given to root causes of failure.<br />
In addition, the logic used to decide<br />
which machines are tested, how they<br />
are tested, and how frequently they<br />
are tested is very basic, to say the least.<br />
Criticality analysis should be performed<br />
to determine which machines should be<br />
tested. An understanding of the failure<br />
modes is required to determine how they<br />
should be tested. An understanding of<br />
the “PF interval” is required to understand<br />
how frequently machines should<br />
be tested. And an understanding of vibration<br />
analysis, signal processing (how<br />
the readings are transformed into useful<br />
data), the mechanical transmission path,<br />
and other factors are required to decide<br />
where the sensor should be mounted<br />
on the machine. But often, this form of<br />
analysis is not performed.<br />
And one more thing. A great deal of<br />
data can be collected, but the big question<br />
is: how is it transformed into “actionable<br />
information?” The most common<br />
approach is for the analyst to scroll<br />
through screen after screen after screen<br />
of data, hoping to notice when the vibration<br />
reading has changed. Establishing<br />
alarm limits is difficult, but it is incredibly<br />
valuable. Utilizing statistics to establish<br />
alarms is incredibly powerful, but<br />
rarely used.<br />
Oh, and one more thing. Sometimes<br />
they get the diagnosis wrong, or miss a<br />
fault altogether, and don’t acknowledge<br />
the error and investigate how it happened…<br />
Why is it going wrong?<br />
Hmm…that is the million dollar question.<br />
Literally so, because getting vibration<br />
analysis wrong presents a huge risk<br />
to the organization.<br />
I think there are a number of factors.<br />
Training and certification<br />
This is the place I need to start. It is<br />
essential that vibration analysts are<br />
properly trained. The training has to be<br />
seen as part of their professional development,<br />
not just as a means to become<br />
certified so that they can “tick that box.”<br />
It is essential that vibration analysts<br />
understand the machine, its failure<br />
modes, the measurement process, the<br />
reasons why vibration patterns change<br />
the way they do, and so very much more.<br />
They need to understand it, not just remember<br />
it so it can be regurgitated on an<br />
exam.<br />
It wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss<br />
all of the techniques we use in our training<br />
to help vibration analysts understand<br />
all these topics, but I will comment on<br />
one aspect of our training.<br />
Recognizing that there is a lot to<br />
learn, we provide video recordings of<br />
each part of the course, which can be<br />
viewed before and after the course. A<br />
person will learn far more if they have<br />
been through these videos. But does<br />
everyone watch these videos? No, they<br />
don’t. And does everyone watch the<br />
videos after the course to reinforce what<br />
they learned? No, they don’t.<br />
Not everyone has access to fast Internet,<br />
and not everyone understands<br />
English, but everyone should take this<br />
opportunity to master their craft.<br />
Thorough training—don’t stop<br />
at Category II<br />
The ISO 18436 standard defines four<br />
levels of training and certification. A<br />
person should start with Category I to<br />
build a foundation. Category II teaches<br />
them about the basics of vibration fault<br />
detection. Category III adds an important<br />
layer of detail, prepares the person<br />
to deal with a wider variety of more challenging<br />
fault conditions, and helps them<br />
to design an effective program. And Category<br />
IV is designed for the specialists in<br />
our industry. They learn about the most<br />
advanced topics.<br />
The first challenge is that too many<br />
people skip Category I and dive straight<br />
into Category II. Understanding the<br />
fundamentals is essential. Jumping in at<br />
Category II can be formidable, and could<br />
compromise their future potential.<br />
The second challenge is that too many<br />
people stop at Category II. The Category<br />
III vibration analyst is properly trained<br />
to deal with the variety of problems<br />
that they are likely to experience, with<br />
the depth of knowledge to be confident<br />
in their diagnosis. Category II is insufficient,<br />
unless they will be closely supervised<br />
by a Category III analyst.<br />
The third challenge is that anyone with<br />
any level of responsibility over critical<br />
flexible-rotor machines (turbines, for example)<br />
should be trained to Category IV.<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 17
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
Ongoing education<br />
Regardless of how good the vibration<br />
training course may have been, not<br />
everyone can retain the knowledge<br />
necessary to function effectively on a<br />
long-term basis. Vibration analysis may<br />
not be rocket science, but it is complex.<br />
Most people would run the other way<br />
if they looked at a spectrum and time<br />
waveform.<br />
Whether a vibration analyst attends<br />
one, two, or even three courses, it is not<br />
enough. Vibration analysts need to reinforce<br />
their knowledge. They need to<br />
examine case studies to observe the vibration<br />
techniques being applied to situations<br />
they have previously experienced,<br />
or may experience in the future. They<br />
need to learn about new techniques and<br />
new products that can save them time or<br />
enable them to detect fault conditions<br />
they couldn’t detect previously.<br />
Conferences are a good way to continue<br />
the education, and so are knowledgebased<br />
websites. There are also courses<br />
in specialized areas; balancing, modal/<br />
ODS, etc. Every analyst should reinforce<br />
and expand their knowledge.<br />
Certification<br />
I see certification as an important part<br />
of this process, but then as a member<br />
of the ISO committee that develops the<br />
standards, and as the managing director<br />
of an organization that offers accredited<br />
certification, I am biased.<br />
Certification is more than just a test<br />
and a piece of paper.<br />
Accredited certification means much<br />
more. It is an internationally recognized<br />
statement of a person’s knowledge and,<br />
to a lesser extent, their experience. It is a<br />
way for organizations to have confidence<br />
in their condition monitoring team.<br />
And it is certainly a major source of<br />
pride for the majority of vibration analysts.<br />
And they should be proud. They<br />
have studied subjects that are beyond<br />
most people. They have met experience<br />
requirements and subjected themselves<br />
to a tough exam. Did you know that a<br />
Category IV exam is five hours long? I<br />
am pretty sure that the exam for rocket<br />
scientists is shorter. ;-)<br />
What does it mean to be<br />
accredited?<br />
And as a side note, I should briefly explain<br />
accreditation.<br />
There is a standard called ISO/IEC<br />
17024 that dictates how a personnel<br />
certification body should operate. Every<br />
country has an organization appointed<br />
by their government to audit organizations<br />
like ours against that standard.<br />
Boy, there is so much I could say, but let’s<br />
just say that the frequent audit process<br />
is twenty times more rigorous than our<br />
ISO 9000 audits. They ensure the certification<br />
process is independent and fair,<br />
with detailed psychometric analysis to<br />
prove it.<br />
The wrong people are<br />
becoming vibration analysts<br />
Now, I do not want to offend anyone here,<br />
but this is a real issue that needs to be addressed<br />
in industry. Good vibration analysts<br />
are not normal people. They have<br />
to be a cross between Sherlock Holmes<br />
and Einstein, with a Spock-like ability<br />
to mind-meld with the machine. Good<br />
vibration analysts investigate, challenge,<br />
and explore. They also need to be good<br />
communicators, with strong diplomatic<br />
skills do deal with non-believers (in the<br />
art and philosophy of vibration analysis).<br />
The question is: how are people selected<br />
to become vibration analysts?<br />
Some see it as a calling. Some learn<br />
about vibration analysis, one way or the<br />
other, and see it as a fantastic career<br />
path. It is challenging, it is important, you<br />
get to use your brain, and it can be tremendously<br />
rewarding.<br />
But others, for a variety of reasons, are<br />
assigned to the vibration group, either<br />
to collect the data or to also analyze the<br />
data, for the wrong reasons. Maybe it<br />
is so they can “get off the tools.” Maybe<br />
it is a matter of seniority. But they can<br />
simply go through the motions, without<br />
a true understanding of their analyzer<br />
or machine, with one eye on their “diagnostic”<br />
wall chart, and the other eye on<br />
the spectrum, hoping to find a match.<br />
We call them wall-chart analysts, and it is<br />
not flattering…<br />
It doesn’t matter whether you collect<br />
the data or analyze the data; you need to<br />
be doing it for the right reasons, otherwise<br />
there is every chance that the full<br />
spectrum of vibration analysis capabilities<br />
will not be utilized.<br />
18 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
Fear of failure<br />
No one likes to be wrong. When we<br />
perform criticality analysis, we ask the<br />
question: what are the consequences of<br />
failure? I think vibration analysts ask<br />
themselves that question most days.<br />
What if I get the diagnosis wrong?<br />
This story is the same for practically<br />
all vibration analysts. They get diagnosis<br />
after diagnosis correct, and they get very<br />
little recognition. They get one diagnosis<br />
wrong, and they are dragged out into a<br />
public square and the townsfolk throw<br />
stones at them. If they recommend to<br />
pull a bearing too early, the skeptics will<br />
tell them they got it wrong and wasted<br />
everyone’s time and money. If they are<br />
too specific in their diagnosis and it<br />
turns out to be inaccurate, they will be<br />
chastised. So what incentive is there to<br />
stick their neck out and provide an early<br />
warning of failure?<br />
Therefore, it is important for management<br />
to establish the right environment:<br />
a kinship and a culture of reliability. (And<br />
it is important for analysts to recognize<br />
their error and learn from it.) If everyone<br />
understood the importance of conditionbased<br />
maintenance and reliability, the<br />
basics of vibration analysis, and the challenges<br />
associated with vibration analysis,<br />
then everyone would be in a better position<br />
to enjoy a more successful vibration<br />
program.<br />
Culture of reliability<br />
Let’s explore this question a little further.<br />
Which of the following two scenarios<br />
best describes your workplace?<br />
Workplace A: Breakdowns are common,<br />
maintenance and operating practices<br />
haven’t changed in years, and the<br />
vibration team is seen as the last line<br />
of defense. They are there to provide a<br />
warning about the next failure, because<br />
you know there will soon be another failure.<br />
Workplace B: The organization,<br />
from top to bottom, understands the<br />
importance of reliability. There is a clear<br />
understanding of criticality and a welldesigned<br />
asset strategy exists. The work<br />
management process functions smoothly,<br />
and they seek the recommendations<br />
from the condition monitoring group.<br />
If your workplace is something like<br />
“Workplace A,” then how do you expect<br />
WHETHER A VIBRATION<br />
ANALYST ATTENDS ONE,<br />
TWO, OR EVEN THREE<br />
COURSES, IT IS NOT ENOUGH.<br />
VIBRATION ANALYSTS<br />
NEED TO REINFORCE THEIR<br />
KNOWLEDGE.<br />
the vibration analysts to function correctly?<br />
Will the vibration analyst feel<br />
well supported? How likely is it that they<br />
will stick their neck out with suggestions<br />
for improvement, early warnings of fault<br />
conditions, and so on? What is the likelihood,<br />
therefore, that they are able to<br />
provide the best possible service?<br />
Financial pressure on<br />
vibration consultants<br />
If you use vibration consultants to perform<br />
your vibration analysis, how did<br />
you choose those consultants? Did you<br />
check that they were trained and certified<br />
according to ISO standards? Did you<br />
check their past experience? Have you<br />
established clear lines of communications,<br />
and encourage them to perform<br />
additional tests as necessary to accurately<br />
diagnose faults.<br />
Or did you ruthlessly squeeze them<br />
on price so that you could afford to “tick<br />
the condition monitoring box”. Unfortunately,<br />
the saying “you get what you<br />
pay for” is true when selecting vibration<br />
consultants.<br />
If you put constant pressure on the<br />
consultant to reduce the cost per machine,<br />
they are possibly forced to use staff<br />
who are less trained/certified/skilled,<br />
and you are possibly sending a message<br />
to the analysts that there is no time to<br />
perform follow-up tests (which would<br />
either verify the diagnosis or establish<br />
the exact nature and severity of the fault<br />
condition). That’s not ideal.<br />
Now, I need to make something very<br />
clear. I am not making negative comments<br />
about all consultants, or people<br />
who ensure they are being fairly charged<br />
for the service. Consultants simply need<br />
to be seen as valued members of your<br />
reliability team, and you have to insist on<br />
the highest quality of service and be willing<br />
to pay for it.<br />
Fear of job-hopping<br />
One last quick comment I will make is<br />
that often people are not trained or certified<br />
for fear that they will leave the company<br />
and get a better-paid job elsewhere.<br />
I’ve never understood the logic of this.<br />
First, if they are worth more money to<br />
another company, why aren’t they worth<br />
more money to your company?<br />
Second, even though that risk may<br />
exist, what about the more important<br />
risk that the untrained vibration analyst<br />
may make an incorrect diagnosis or miss<br />
a critical fault condition altogether?<br />
I think you need to worry about your<br />
critical machinery failing more than the<br />
possibility that the trained analyst will<br />
leave.<br />
What’s the solution?<br />
Quality training, respected certification,<br />
ongoing education, and a culture of reliability<br />
will solve these problems. The<br />
first three are easy to solve. Developing a<br />
culture of reliability can also be achieved<br />
through training, certification, and ongoing<br />
education, but it takes a strategy,<br />
an investment, a commitment, and time.<br />
But that is for a separate article!<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 19
LUBRICATION<br />
How Proper Lubrication Can<br />
Enhance a Plant’s Reliability<br />
Everybody wants<br />
a reliable plant<br />
with a predictable<br />
maintenance<br />
schedule – and<br />
a key part of<br />
achieving that goal<br />
is to ensure that<br />
your lubrication<br />
programme<br />
is organized,<br />
well-funded and<br />
employs the best<br />
practices across the<br />
board. So, what are<br />
they, and how will they<br />
affect your plant's reliability?<br />
ADRIAN MESSER,<br />
CMRP<br />
adrianm@uesystems.com<br />
Proper lubrication<br />
is fundamental for a<br />
successful maintenance<br />
program<br />
HERE ARE a couple of things to keep in mind when striving for a<br />
reliable plant with a predictable maintenance schedule.<br />
1.<br />
Lubrication can’t be the last priority<br />
It is sadly common for lubrication technicians or oilers to<br />
land on the low end of the seniority scale or come last in managerial<br />
assessments of what is important. Make no mistake – they are<br />
actually incredibly important. Without well-educated, motivated<br />
and trained lubrication technicians, your operation will literally<br />
grind to a halt. It is important to invest in education and certification<br />
for your people, so that they can excel in areas such as:<br />
• Storing and handling oil and lubricants<br />
• Learning the proper types and amounts of lubricant to<br />
use for various applications<br />
• Avoiding the pitfalls of over-lubrication<br />
• Regularly inspecting machines to ensure that proper<br />
protocols are being followed<br />
When your technicians feel valued and their work is considered<br />
a core component of overall operations, your uptime will increase<br />
and repairs will decrease.<br />
2.<br />
Improper lubrication gets expensive – fast<br />
Buying high-quality oil and grease and investing in training<br />
is expensive, sure – but not nearly as expensive as not funding<br />
them.<br />
Des-Case conducted a study on the True Cost of Poor Lubrication,<br />
and found figures from ExxonMobil which showed “less<br />
than 0.5 percent of the average plant’s maintenance budget is<br />
spent purchasing lubricants, but the downstream effects of poor<br />
lubrication can impact as much as 30 percent of a plant’s total<br />
maintenance cost each year.”<br />
The multiplier effect here is huge – just a small improvement<br />
in your lubrication programme can have a massive positive impact<br />
on your overall reliability.<br />
Overall, the study found that, given annual maintenance costs<br />
of $9 million, about $1.62 million of those can be attributed to<br />
issues arising from poor lubrication, and $567,000 of those could<br />
be addressed immediately.<br />
The study also found that simple time-based predictive maintenance<br />
strategies were bound to fail, because of wide variations<br />
in the life of different bearings. One subcomponent might be<br />
perfectly healthy while another is on the verge of failure. That<br />
is why testing for contamination, setting aggressive targets and<br />
taking action as issues arise will eventually prove more effective.<br />
3.<br />
Proper lubrication frees up technician time<br />
There are only so many hours in a day – and this feels especially<br />
true in the demanding environment of round-the-clock<br />
plant operations. Every minute spent dealing with inefficient<br />
lubrication protocols or the consequences of under- or overlubrication<br />
is time technicians are not spending on other issues.<br />
By ensuring that your programme is optimized to maintain<br />
oil health and to reduce downtime, you create space in your<br />
20 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
LUBRICATION<br />
maintenance staff’s schedules to deal with other issues proactively.<br />
This gets you ahead of the game across the plant, ultimately<br />
improving your overall reliability and in the long term,<br />
lowering your costs.<br />
4.<br />
The importance of oil analysis, proper<br />
storage & high-quality lubricants<br />
The most precise lubrication in the world will not help if the<br />
lubricants in question are poor quality, contaminated, or are<br />
breaking down under heat and pressure. Contracting with an<br />
oil analysis laboratory or investing in your own analytics kit<br />
will allow you to detect these kinds of issues before they result<br />
in machine failure.<br />
Many different factors can impact the quality of your lubricant.<br />
Improper storage or a blown seal on a component could<br />
allow dirt, water, or metal fragments to corrupt your supplies.<br />
Even new oil should be tested – while your lubrication programme<br />
might be top-notch, you have got little control over its<br />
handling before it is delivered to your facility.<br />
There are also many factors that can affect the storage of industrial<br />
lubricant, including using containers that already contain<br />
contaminants, storing them outside in harsh conditions,<br />
and not using colour-coded containers to prevent accidentally<br />
mixing two different oils. Any auxiliary equipment, lines, and<br />
vessels should also be thoroughly cleaned and certified before<br />
being used with fresh lubricants.<br />
Finally, all the maintenance, storage and analysis technology<br />
in the world will not serve you well if you are not using both<br />
high-quality and properly-selected lubricants. Most, if not all<br />
technicians are comfortable with selecting the right grade of<br />
oil for a given application, but there are more complex factors<br />
than that to weigh. Considerations such as additives, duration<br />
of use and ambient conditions can all make for a significantly<br />
more complicated decision process.<br />
5.<br />
Avoid over-lubrication by using Ultrasound<br />
Lubrication is far more complex than just buying oil or<br />
grease and throwing it into your equipment, of course. Selecting<br />
the right type or types of lubricant, storing and filtering<br />
them correctly, monitoring bearing noise, and ensuring that<br />
over-lubrication and under-lubrication do not occur all play an<br />
important role. Fortunately, there are more technologies than<br />
ever in the marketplace that allow you to manage your lubrication<br />
programme effectively.<br />
An ultrasonic instrument as the UE Systems Ultraprobe<br />
401 Digital Grease Caddy can bring your facilities management<br />
game to the next level. The Ultraprobe 401 uses ultrasound<br />
technology to provide critical data about baseline dB levels, dB<br />
levels before and after applying grease, cost analysis of lubricants<br />
and other vital information.<br />
Over-lubrication is often a problem as big as, or bigger than<br />
under-lubrication – in fact, 70 percent of lubrication professionals<br />
believe it is a problem at their plant. When excess<br />
grease gets into a bearing, it begins to churn and heat up. This<br />
churning causes the lubricant to solidify, blocking the entry of<br />
more fresh grease, and ultimately causing a bearing to fail.<br />
Another possible failure mode that can arise from over<br />
greasing is seal damage. Adding more than the necessary<br />
amount of lubricant to a bearing under the high psi of a grease<br />
gun can crack the seal, allowing outside pollutants to infiltrate.<br />
The Ultraprobe Grease Caddy uses ultrasonic technology,<br />
The Ultraprobe 401<br />
Grease Caddy from<br />
UE Systems will<br />
help reducing overlubrication<br />
issues.<br />
Sound spectrum of a bearing while lubricant is being applied.<br />
DMS software from UE Systems allows the creation of lubrication<br />
routes & alarms.<br />
so that lubrication technicians know when to stop adding<br />
grease, which can prolong the life of your equipment. Its digital<br />
display allows the user to gauge friction levels through the dB<br />
levels. Even in high-noise environments, the Ultraprobe 401<br />
is able to isolate the necessary ultrasonic waves and transmit<br />
them to the user.<br />
Conclusion<br />
In all, the field of precision lubrication and maintenance has<br />
grown more complex and diverse than ever before. It is easy to<br />
get lost in the finer points of these processes and products, and<br />
sometimes the measures you think are helping may actually<br />
lead to failures down the line.<br />
With the right techniques and technologies, however, it is<br />
possible to see real return on investment from your maintenance<br />
efforts.<br />
22 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
Text: CHRISTIAN SILBERNAGEL, Vibration Analyst, Key Account Manager - Maritime Industry, PRÜFTECHNIK Condition Monitoring GmbH<br />
“Move the Data, not the People” –<br />
Industry 4.0 and Condition<br />
Monitoring in Maritime Applications<br />
Proactive and predictive maintenance have become common practices in many<br />
industry sectors. In maritime applications, maintenance strategies have also continuously<br />
advanced – evolved from a reactive to a predictive maintenance model<br />
mainly on the back of Condition Monitoring (CM) developments in the sector.<br />
CONDITION-BASED MONITORING techniques have gained traction<br />
in recent years as scheduled overhauls are significantly<br />
more cost-effective than unscheduled repairs. An increasing<br />
number of fleet managers, chief engineers and crews trust<br />
in Condition Monitoring, where the machine condition is<br />
determined based on vibration monitoring and analysis. In<br />
addition, vibration monitoring has become an integral part of<br />
recognized programmes by many classification societies, such<br />
as Lloyd’s Register and DNV-GL (Det Norske Veritas & Germanischer<br />
Lloyd).<br />
Condition Monitoring includes techniques such as vibration<br />
monitoring, oil analysis, thermography, and electrical<br />
measurements. Compared to other CM techniques, vibration<br />
monitoring offers additional advantages: Experts can diagnose<br />
wear and damage, and identify the exact root cause.<br />
Vibration-based CM is the most suitable technique to diagnose<br />
rotating machinery, as the measurement results can be<br />
used to precisely identify where the malfunction is occurring,<br />
down to the component level. Based on this data, fleet managers,<br />
inspection specialists and engineers can take precise maintenance<br />
actions to avoid unnecessary downtime, dangerous<br />
situations, and secondary damage.<br />
Two paths, one goal<br />
In general, there are two ways of taking vibration measurements:<br />
offline measurement and online monitoring.<br />
Offline monitoring, on the one side, is based on handheld data<br />
collectors. With the use of such instrumentation, a crew member<br />
can manually take measurements on the machines at regular<br />
intervals. To reduce the error rate during data acquisition, a first<br />
level of automation has been introduced. Data collectors using a<br />
graphical measurement route function together with automatic<br />
identification of measurement locations, guide the user through<br />
the entire measurement procedure. The error rate is reduced<br />
noticeably. Even though we are still talking about manual data<br />
acquisition, a first step towards Industry 4.0 has been made.<br />
However, the networking of the individual components – as it<br />
is expected in a full-blown Industry 4.0 environment – is not<br />
provided. At this stage, a data upload is necessary for the measurement<br />
data to be analytically processed and transferred to a<br />
Computerized Maintenance Management System.<br />
Online monitoring systems, on the other side, act as an<br />
autonomous “black box”. It features permanently installed<br />
sensors and is usually installed on critical, safety-relevant, or<br />
difficult-to-access machines. Such a monitoring system acquires<br />
data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It can generate large<br />
volumes of data – very much in the sense of Big Data. However,<br />
this data must be analyzed and sent to the onshore diagnostic<br />
specialists. In most cases, it is not possible to send several<br />
gigabytes of data via the ship’s VSAT system on a daily basis.<br />
Reasons for this include, for example, small bandwidths and<br />
high costs.This is where Industry 4.0 comes into play: Not only<br />
can an online system connect to the network of the ship, but it<br />
can also communicate with SCADA systems via different bus<br />
protocols. Data can be exchanged in both directions. Process<br />
parameters, such as output, speed, temperature, or start and<br />
stop variables can be transferred. In order to manage the large<br />
flow of data, the information can be used by an individual, or<br />
several networked online measurement systems. Based on the<br />
process parameters, online Condition Monitoring systems can<br />
independently relate the measured vibration signals to certain<br />
operating states and use variable alarm thresholds. After each<br />
measurement, online monitoring systems use the variables<br />
sent to decide whether there has been a significant change, and<br />
whether the data should be saved or discarded, or additional<br />
measurements initiated (Smart Data).<br />
As the vibration condition of a machine train strongly depends<br />
on the surrounding machines and the ship design, the<br />
analysis is particularly difficult on ships. Thanks to the networking<br />
of all the systems together with the SCADA system, it<br />
is possible to make reliable statements about the condition of<br />
the machines. Like a gold nugget, only “smart” data is saved. As<br />
a result, the much-praised big data lake can be filled with valuable<br />
content from the start.<br />
24 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
Online Visualization 4.0<br />
Fig. 1: Online dashboard visualization of a vessel<br />
Thanks to Industry 4.0, data volumes have been reduced to<br />
such an extent that they can now easily be sent to onshore diagnostic<br />
specialists– compact, but smart!<br />
Now, what about the onboard engineers? How can they<br />
benefit from Condition Monitoring in alleged Industry 4.0 environments?<br />
Measurement results can be visualized in online dashboards<br />
such as the Online View 4.0 by the personnel of the<br />
control room, where they can follow up on live data trends.<br />
Global warning levels are displayed as traffic lights indicative<br />
of a change in the operating condition as opposed to the actual<br />
machine condition. Following an in-depth diagnosis, the cause<br />
of an increased vibration level as well as the suitable maintenance<br />
actions are determined together with the onboard personnel<br />
to avoid unnecessary repairs and downtimes.<br />
Fig. 2: Drill down to a specific machine train with live data<br />
So far, we have explained both ways of taking machine<br />
measurement data using offline and online techniques. Only<br />
the online monitoring technique seems suitable for the world<br />
of Industry 4.0. Can we accept stereotype thinking and just follow<br />
one path? The answer is quite clear: No!<br />
A combined implementation of offline and online systems<br />
is often the most economical approach to reliable Condition<br />
Monitoring. In this context, the machines to be monitored<br />
must be differentiated according to the following criteria:<br />
• Criticality of the machine to the overall operation<br />
• Accessibility of measurement locations<br />
• Measurement duration (equipment cycle time,<br />
frequency range)<br />
• Workload involved<br />
• Health, safety, and environmental aspects<br />
Fig. 3: Online dashboard with traffic light warning system<br />
Using this combined approach, critical machines are monitored<br />
around the clock using online systems. Less critical<br />
machines are monitored monthly using offline measurements.<br />
The result is a reliable and cost-efficient condition monitoring<br />
programme and a general reduction of the workload for the<br />
onboard crew.<br />
The last missing piece of the puzzle is the integration of<br />
the offline systems into the Industry 4.0 environment. The<br />
good news is that some solutions already exist. Data can be<br />
compressed and sent onshore via e-mail, where it finds its way<br />
into a common database. Data will be prepared and analyzed.<br />
This way, the networking of information is now happening at<br />
a global level, connecting the information to the entire fleet of<br />
vessels. The results generated can be made available jointly in<br />
a web-based dashboard.<br />
Fleet managers, chief engineers, and analysts communicate<br />
through the dashboard and gain access to performance indicators,<br />
machine conditions and measurement results of the entire<br />
fleet down to the individual machine trains.<br />
There is no doubt that industry 4.0 makes life easier in<br />
maritime environments, both at the local and global levels. The<br />
costs associated with the presence of specialists onboard are<br />
significantly reduced as monitoring data is sent back and forth<br />
– for faster and more precise measurement results – according<br />
to the claim: “Move the Data, not the People”.<br />
Fig. 3<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 25
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
THOMAS JUNG,<br />
Flir Systems, Sales<br />
Director Central &<br />
East Central Europe –<br />
Instruments<br />
Experienced engineer<br />
Martin Adler has been<br />
providing highly qualified<br />
industrial thermal imaging<br />
services since 1996.<br />
"The Infrared<br />
Solution<br />
is Simply<br />
Tremendous"<br />
Engineering firm Adler run by experienced engineer<br />
Martin Adler has been providing highly qualified<br />
industrial thermal imaging services since 1996. The<br />
Germany-based company uses top-of-the-range<br />
FLIR T1020 handheld thermal imaging cameras for<br />
maintenance applications.<br />
IN ADDITION TO offering thermographic<br />
inspections of electrical switching<br />
and distribution systems in all voltage<br />
ranges, Martin Adler’s engineering<br />
services also include thermography of<br />
mechanical equipment and components<br />
as well as measurements in industrial<br />
settings for process analysis, diagnosis,<br />
process optimization, product development<br />
and research, and the inspection<br />
of machines, equipment and insulation.<br />
Moreover, Adler also advises clients in<br />
the planning of installed, user-specific<br />
infrared measurements and offers problem<br />
analysis and troubleshooting for<br />
already installed IR-measuring systems.<br />
There are hardly any industrial thermographers<br />
in Germany that have as<br />
much experience as Mr. Adler. Even<br />
during his studies at the University of<br />
Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen at<br />
the beginning of the nineties, he programmed<br />
his own evaluation software<br />
for infrared measurements at the laboratory<br />
for energy technology.<br />
- There were no standardized solutions<br />
at the time and therefore individual<br />
initiative was required, Adler recalls.<br />
From the passion he developed as<br />
a student, he then established his own<br />
company in 1996, which celebrated its<br />
20th anniversary in April 2016. Even<br />
back then, the focus was on electrothermography.<br />
- It became clear to me: there was a<br />
great interest in thermographic inspection<br />
in the industrial sector, but there<br />
was a fairly meagre selection of qualified<br />
services. In 1996, there was still no recognized<br />
qualification for thermographers<br />
in Germany and only two years later the<br />
first certifications were introduced here<br />
according to the American standard.<br />
Measurements conducted by inexperienced<br />
service providers were often not<br />
reproducible and some of his competitors<br />
offered little more than colourful<br />
pictures with their infrared cameras.<br />
Martin Adler recalls a particularly horrific<br />
scenario involving an energy provider.<br />
An inexperienced thermographer<br />
had inspected insulators on high voltage<br />
26 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
lines on an extremely sunny day and<br />
thus found a high number of overheated<br />
units.<br />
- However, most of the insulators<br />
were perfectly in order, and the man<br />
simply did not have the necessary experience.<br />
Outdoor recordings often simply<br />
do not provide useful results in strong<br />
sunlight. Such faulty inspections at that<br />
time brought the whole industry into<br />
disrepute.<br />
Systematic approach pays off<br />
Based on his studies, Martin Adler took a<br />
very different and much more systematic<br />
approach, which he has remained faithful<br />
to. Regularly repeated inspection of<br />
critical components under reproducible<br />
conditions plays the decisive role here.<br />
- Back then, I first had to gain the confidence<br />
of my customers, Adler recalls.<br />
- Often a whole year passed between<br />
the first phone call, the first appointment,<br />
a demonstration of the technical<br />
measurement possibilities, internal coordination<br />
between the customer’s technicians<br />
and the purchasing department,<br />
and the actual order.<br />
The initial investment of 120,000<br />
ON A SIGNIFICANTLY SHARPER AND MORE DETAILED<br />
THERMAL IMAGE, YOU CAN DISCOVER PROBLEMS MUCH<br />
MORE EASILY AND WITH MUCH MORE CERTAINTY.<br />
Deutsche marks for a thermal imaging<br />
camera from FLIR’s predecessor<br />
company Agema didn’t make the start<br />
any easier for Martin Adler. He says it<br />
took several years to fully amortize this<br />
investment. He used this time to develop<br />
his excellent reputation. To this day,<br />
this reputation obliges him to use the<br />
best available thermal imaging camera<br />
model.<br />
The FLIR T1020<br />
With the T1020, Martin Adler is using<br />
the absolute top of the range of industrial<br />
thermography.<br />
- The detector’s IR resolution is huge,<br />
explains Adler enthusiastically.<br />
- This increases efficiency: On a significantly<br />
sharper and more detailed<br />
thermal image, you can discover problems<br />
much more easily and with much<br />
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more certainty. You can even discover<br />
small anomalies, which may not have<br />
been recognizable with the other camera<br />
or a lower resolution.<br />
Adler adds that camera operation has<br />
also become increasingly easy over the<br />
years.<br />
- This reduces the error rate, not only<br />
during camera usage, but also in the<br />
evaluation phase.<br />
Adler used to always have a notepad<br />
and pen ready to write down the errors<br />
found. Today, descriptions are stored in<br />
the camera in advance.<br />
- My T1020 “knows” exactly where it<br />
is, e.g. in property No. 1, building No. 10,<br />
switch room on the first floor. If, for example,<br />
I discover a problem in the 39 th<br />
object, then its position is automatically<br />
linked with the thermal image, thus<br />
avoiding confusion.<br />
Electrothermography<br />
Electrothermography is the most important<br />
area of use for Martin Adler. Detecting<br />
malfunctions before they bring a<br />
chemical plant to a halt, for example, not<br />
only makes sense for fire protection and<br />
security reasons, but also with regard to<br />
economic aspects.<br />
- In chemical plants, a half-hour<br />
standstill can incur 6-digit costs, and this<br />
is not only due to interrupted production.<br />
The plant must be commissioned<br />
again as stipulated and certain components<br />
inside the system may need to be<br />
removed so as not to cause negative effects.<br />
Fast procurement of spare parts for<br />
older components can also require great<br />
effort and thus be expensive.<br />
To make sure that none of this happens,<br />
Adler conducts regular inspections<br />
according to a clearly defined schedule.<br />
Electrothermography is<br />
the most important area of<br />
use for Martin Adler.<br />
28 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong><br />
Adler used to always<br />
have a notepad<br />
and pen ready to<br />
write down the<br />
errors found. Today,<br />
descriptions are<br />
stored in the camera<br />
in advance.<br />
Thermal imaging in areas at<br />
risk of explosion<br />
Inspections in areas at risk of explosion<br />
are also part of Adler’s everyday work,<br />
even though he finds far fewer errors in<br />
this setting.<br />
- Areas at risk of explosion are from<br />
the outset so critical that a high value is<br />
placed on safety. Of course this applies<br />
to the electrical and mechanical installations,<br />
so here we find errors significantly<br />
less often, he says.<br />
Nevertheless, the inspections here are<br />
anything but superfluous, because any<br />
abnormalities in such areas could pose<br />
very significant risks.<br />
Lining of furnaces<br />
Industrial furnaces consist of a furnace<br />
shell, which is protected by a fire-resistant<br />
inner lining against the extreme<br />
temperatures of the molten metal. Of<br />
course this lining is exposed to normal<br />
ageing processes: It is exposed to wear in<br />
operation and is eventually damaged to<br />
the extent that it requires replacing. The<br />
time between two linings is called the<br />
“travel time”, and the longer the journey,<br />
the more economic the operation can<br />
be. However, a furnace with a defective<br />
lining could also have disastrous<br />
consequences. The molten metal would<br />
destroy the shell and, in addition to high<br />
costs, in a worst-case scenario could even<br />
cause injury. Using a thermal imaging<br />
camera, it is possible to determine the<br />
condition of the lining from outside the<br />
furnace even during operation. Regular<br />
thermography inspections ensure safety<br />
and prevent economic losses.<br />
Qualification and certification<br />
Today, Martin Adler is one of the most<br />
sought after thermography specialists<br />
with certifications according to the European<br />
DIN EN ISO 9712 Level III, the<br />
ASNT, the CFPA and the VDS in addition<br />
to his many years of experience. This can<br />
be seen in his continually growing order<br />
volumes.<br />
Adler doesn’t worry about competition<br />
from inexpensive thermal imaging<br />
cameras.<br />
- Cheap devices hardly play a role<br />
in the area of professional industrial<br />
thermography. Plant operators may<br />
sometimes purchase them for the occasional<br />
inspection, but they can’t meet<br />
the insurance requirements with regard<br />
to systematics and accuracy with these<br />
devices.
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CONDITION MONITORING<br />
ALLAN RIENSTRA,<br />
Director of Business<br />
Development for SDT<br />
ULTRASOUND AND<br />
INFRARED COOPERATE<br />
Faults Found with Ultrasound<br />
Figure 1 displays an example of an electo<br />
Find Transformer Failures<br />
Processing steel requires heavy-duty electrical systems that consume massive<br />
amounts of energy. A single electrical component failure can be all it takes to completely<br />
stop production, resulting in the loss of crucial time and money. Maintenance<br />
crews rely on condition monitoring technologies like ultrasound and infrared imaging<br />
to help them predict electrical component failures.<br />
MOST ELECTRICAL FAULTS are the result<br />
of partial discharge, which is defined as<br />
“a localized electrical discharge in an insulation<br />
system that does not completely<br />
bridge the electrodes.” A discharge is<br />
described as either an “arc” or a “spark”<br />
and can be phase-to-phase, or phase-toground.<br />
Partial discharge is destructive<br />
to the conductor or insulator and, over<br />
time, will cause the component to fail.<br />
The integrity of insulators can be further<br />
damaged by corrosive gases like nitrous<br />
oxide. The time it takes for a system<br />
component to fail can be affected by system<br />
voltage, the shape of the void from<br />
phase-to-phase, ambient temperature,<br />
the condition of the insulation material,<br />
and environmental conditions such as<br />
pollution and humidity. The higher the<br />
voltage, the more destructive the partial<br />
discharge becomes.<br />
One stage of partial discharge is<br />
termed “tracking.” Tracking is difficult<br />
to detect since it doesn’t demonstrate<br />
any heat build-up. Like corona discharge<br />
and arcing, tracking exists only to seek a<br />
path to ground. Dirt, dust and moisture<br />
help tracking follow this path, which is<br />
why simple maintenance like cleaning<br />
is effective in prolonging the service life<br />
of electrical systems. Cleaning should<br />
be done on a planned schedule, but not a<br />
planned calendar schedule. Since hiring<br />
a cleaning crew represents a cost, it is<br />
more efficient to first detect the need<br />
for cleaning with ultrasound, and only<br />
schedule the crew based on the condition<br />
of the electrical system.<br />
Tracking begins with a low buzzing<br />
and crackling and builds in intensity until<br />
it reaches the point of flashover. After<br />
flashover occurs it becomes quiet again.<br />
It is this constant build up in intensity<br />
and discharge that leads to insulator<br />
breakdown and eventually, the progression<br />
to more destructive arcing.<br />
The Combination of Two<br />
Technologies for Electrical<br />
Applications with Gerdau<br />
Ameristeel<br />
The earlier an electrical fault is detected,<br />
the easier, and less expensive it is for the<br />
electrical repair crew to schedule and<br />
perform maintenance. Early detection of<br />
an electrical fault could be the difference<br />
between a simple dusting and cleaning,<br />
or minor parts replacement and a costly<br />
overhaul and total repair/replacement<br />
of the machine. Skip Young, a certified<br />
infrared thermographer (IR) and ultrasound<br />
inspector (UT) works for Gerdau<br />
Ameristeel in Calvert City, KY. Mr.<br />
Young provides us with a good example<br />
of how combined predictive inspections<br />
can prevent transformer outages and<br />
help schedule simple PMs.<br />
Typically, electrical faults only generate<br />
heat once they have reached an<br />
advanced stage. Relying solely on IR<br />
may result in a missed diagnosis but not<br />
for Skip Young. While conducting all<br />
scheduled IR scans, Young includes ultrasound<br />
measurements. He knows that<br />
acoustic energy is generated at all stages<br />
of discharge and that by combining ultrasound<br />
and infrared scans he finds all<br />
faults.<br />
30 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
Figure 1: This insulator was damaged<br />
by tracking and eventually arcing.<br />
The problem was detected early with<br />
ultrasound inspection.<br />
Figure 2: Thermal Images of A-phase<br />
bushing on this 161Kv to 13.8Kv step<br />
down transformer showed no apparent hot<br />
spots.<br />
Figure 3: The sound file can be viewed in<br />
both the time (top image) and spectrum<br />
(bottom image) domain. The top shows<br />
tracking picked up in the ultrasound<br />
range from the A-Phase bushing of the<br />
transformer.<br />
trical problem detected in its early stages<br />
with Ultrasound. The insulator was<br />
damaged with tracking which indicates<br />
the presence of an equipment fault.<br />
When caught at an early stage, it can<br />
often be fixed with simple maintenance<br />
procedures.<br />
Thermal images from several 161kV<br />
to 13.8kV step down transformers were<br />
provided to us by Young. While using<br />
infrared imaging there was no visible<br />
hot spots on the A, B and C phase bushings<br />
as shown in Figure 2, but an ultrasound<br />
measurement taken produced a<br />
sound file with obvious indications of<br />
early tracking shown in Figure 3.<br />
The top image illustrates the time<br />
domain showing the build-up and release<br />
of the ionization discharge as it<br />
finds a path to ground. Ultrasonically,<br />
we hear the build-up and then a neutralization<br />
of the air surrounding the<br />
problem. Heat does not build up here<br />
until the situation progresses and there<br />
is sufficient flow or current to produce<br />
heat along the discharge path.<br />
The bottom image illustrates the<br />
spectrum domain from Young’s ultrasonic<br />
data. There are two things to<br />
note here. First, the obvious repetition<br />
of 60 Hz events clearly tells us that, in<br />
addition to tracking, there is a presence<br />
of nuisance corona. Secondly, the noise<br />
level between the 60 Hz peaks confirms<br />
there is tracking activity.<br />
Similar tracking activity was discovered<br />
from the B and C phase bushings,<br />
while neither showed any signs of heat<br />
when scanned with an infrared camera.<br />
After the Successful<br />
Diagnosis with Ultrasound<br />
Once the diagnosis was made on the<br />
suspect transformers, the decision to<br />
perform simple maintenance during<br />
the next planned outage was made.<br />
Since the problem was discovered at<br />
an early stage the simple maintenance<br />
could be done on the terms of the maintenance<br />
crew rather than dictated by<br />
asset failure.<br />
According to Young, the simple<br />
maintenance merely included a cleaning<br />
and tightening of all connections<br />
on A, B, and C phase bushings. Looking<br />
at the time signal in Figure 4 and the<br />
frequency signal in figure 5, we can see<br />
that simple maintenance definitely<br />
improved the condition of the electrical<br />
assets. Since tracking is a stage of<br />
partial discharge that causes damage<br />
to connectors and insulators, it will be<br />
necessary for Young to continue vigilant<br />
ultrasound scans on the transformers.<br />
The combination of two predictive<br />
technologies while monitoring for<br />
electrical faults ensures that imminent<br />
problems are detected at the earliest<br />
possible stage of failure. Young’s detection<br />
of early tracking with ultrasound<br />
led to maintenance crews at Gerdau<br />
scheduling planned maintenance to<br />
fix their problems on their terms. Most<br />
significantly, the only maintenance<br />
required was a simple cleaning and<br />
re-tightening of connections. No costly<br />
purchase of parts was required and the<br />
effects of the maintenance performed<br />
was instantly seen. They are depicted in<br />
figures 4 and 5.<br />
Ultrasound and infrared technologies<br />
performed well together on Gerdau’s<br />
transformer issue, and there is<br />
no reason why the pairing should not<br />
be considered a winner for observing<br />
partial discharge on insulators, MCC<br />
panels and high voltage transmission<br />
and distribution lines.<br />
Figure 4: Time signal of ultrasonically<br />
detected tracking on A-Phase bushing<br />
before (left) and after (right) the simple<br />
maintenance of cleaning and tightening of<br />
connections.<br />
Figure 5: Frequency signal of ultrasonically<br />
detected tracking on A-Phase bushing<br />
before (left) and after (right) the simple<br />
maintenance of cleaning and tightening<br />
of connections. Dominant 60hz peaks are<br />
gone, as is the tracking noise between<br />
peaks.<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 31
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMEMT<br />
Are you Spending More<br />
Time on Technology than<br />
on Processes and People?<br />
A common reason why reliability and maintenance improvement initiatives often do<br />
not generate the expected achievable results is competing priorities and focusing on<br />
the wrong things.<br />
CHRISTER<br />
IDHAMMAR,<br />
Founder & CEO<br />
IDCON INC,<br />
info@idcon.com.<br />
A GREAT EXAMPLE of this is technology.<br />
Technology is good and necessary and<br />
maintenance people like technology. It<br />
is common that the improvement effort<br />
will focus on technology instead of<br />
processes and people. There are many<br />
stories about engineers and these stories<br />
almost always make fun of our personalities.<br />
For example: “How do you<br />
know an engineer is extrovert?” “The<br />
engineer looks at your shoes, instead of<br />
their own shoes when they talk to you”.<br />
Many engineers are used to working<br />
with facts in designs and specifications.<br />
In a maintenance organization, you will<br />
have to manage people with different<br />
opinions and all that come with that.<br />
A new vibration analyzer, a handheld<br />
data collector for inspections or an online<br />
condition monitoring system are all<br />
good and valid technologies, but if they<br />
are not used by qualified people, in a<br />
well-defined and executed process, the<br />
possible improvement from the use of<br />
these technologies will be absent.<br />
For the example above there would<br />
be processes to do vibration analyses<br />
and inspections, with the right methods<br />
and frequencies, and a work management<br />
process to prioritize, plan and<br />
schedule the corrective action from failures<br />
found using these technologies.<br />
As mentioned before it is relatively<br />
easy to develop, document and communicate<br />
the processes. To instill a culture<br />
32 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong><br />
to execute work in these processes takes<br />
much more effort and time.<br />
This will include the education and<br />
training of people to achieve awareness,<br />
understanding and skills.<br />
To sustain craft skills to perform precision<br />
maintenance repairs, it is important<br />
to first implement the basic processes<br />
of inspections and work management<br />
in order to reduce reactive work. When<br />
that is done, people should be trained in<br />
precision maintenance repairs.<br />
If not done in this order, the people<br />
trained will fall back into reactive maintenance.<br />
In a reactive mode, too much<br />
work is urgent so there will not be time<br />
to do for example precision alignment.<br />
The skills acquired during training<br />
will be lost and people will be disappointed.<br />
In summary: Most people know<br />
what to do, but cannot find the time to<br />
do it. As Illustration1 describes. Too<br />
many conflicting priorities are common<br />
reason for this. If you implement and<br />
execute the basic reliability and maintenance<br />
processes and execute them well,<br />
you will free up time to do what you do<br />
not have time to do today.<br />
Christer Idhammar, is Founder and CEO<br />
of IDCON INC a reliability and maintenance<br />
consulting firm headquartered in<br />
the United States with partners in Norway,<br />
Finland, Italy, Germany, Australia,<br />
and South America.<br />
TECHNOLOGY IS GOOD AND NECESSARY AND MAINTENANCE<br />
PEOPLE LIKE TECHNOLOGY.<br />
Illustration 1: I don’t have<br />
time to fix the fence. I have<br />
too many chickens to catch.<br />
©IDCON INC
ASSET MANAGEMENT<br />
Effective Backlog<br />
Management –<br />
Backlog Size Control<br />
Backlog management has a number of different but, interdependent focuses: Backlog<br />
Work Order Quality, Age of Backlog and Backlog Size Management. This article<br />
will focus on Backlog Size Management. In parts 2 and 3, the Age of the Backlog<br />
and Backlog Size Management were discussed in detail.<br />
STEVE GILES,<br />
Marshall Institute,<br />
sgiles@<br />
marshallinstitute.com<br />
DURING the 1960s many major companies<br />
reduced crew size by laying off<br />
junior workers, rolling maintenance employees<br />
to operations roles or temoprarilly<br />
laying them off. It was understood<br />
during that period, that a newly hired<br />
employee could expect several temporary<br />
layoffs until they gained enough<br />
seniority to be above the layoff threshold.<br />
Major companies realized the shortsightedness<br />
of this practice in the mid<br />
34 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong><br />
seventies, and began using other means<br />
of adjusting the crew size when business<br />
was slow.<br />
A common approach during the mid-<br />
1970s was to staff at a 60-80% level and<br />
maintain a supplement contract work<br />
force to meet the requirements during<br />
high demand periods.<br />
I experienced this new approach in<br />
the early eighties when the plant where<br />
I was assigned encountered an extended<br />
slow business period. The company reacted<br />
first by displacing all contractors<br />
with their employees – security, janitorial,<br />
and supplemental maintenance.<br />
As the slow period became extended,<br />
mechanics and operators were loaned to<br />
local community service programmes,<br />
such as Habitat for Humanity. For several<br />
months, I had mechanics building<br />
affordable housing while being fully paid<br />
by the company. Needless to say, the morale<br />
and loyalty of the employees grew<br />
tremendously. The company also gained<br />
from reducing turnover and training<br />
costs.<br />
Reactive organizations will have<br />
very large backlogs (documented and/<br />
or undocumented). This may be interpreted<br />
as an indicator of understaffing.<br />
In reality, adding resources will not have<br />
a substantial impact on the backlog size<br />
without fundamental changes in how<br />
maintenance tasks are addressed and<br />
the quality of the overall maintenance<br />
programme.<br />
The nature of a reactive maintenance<br />
programme will keep the focus on the
ASSET MANAGEMENT<br />
emergencies of the day, causing less urgent<br />
work to be ignored until it becomes<br />
one of the next day’s emergencies. With<br />
this firefighting mentality, short cuts<br />
and Band-Aid maintenance techniques<br />
become the norm, guaranteeing more<br />
emergencies and shorter life cycles. This<br />
cycle will continue until a strong effort<br />
to implement a proactive work management<br />
process is taken.<br />
High level metric<br />
of staffing levels<br />
Organizations with a proactive programme<br />
and a well-implemented work<br />
management process can use backlog<br />
size as a high level metric of its staffing<br />
levels (overall and individual craft<br />
mix) and the quality of its Planning and<br />
Scheduling process.<br />
This is not a metric that triggers rapid<br />
action, but should cause a thorough investigation<br />
to determine the root cause.<br />
World Class maintenance programmes<br />
have a 5-week backlog target by craft and<br />
crew with a 3 to 7 week upper and lower<br />
control limit. This should be monitored<br />
ORGANIZATIONS<br />
WITH A PROACTIVE<br />
PROGRAMME AND A WELL-<br />
IMPLEMENTED WORK<br />
MANAGEMENT PROCESS<br />
CAN USE BACKLOG SIZE AS<br />
A HIGH LEVEL METRIC OF<br />
ITS STAFFING LEVELS.<br />
on a monthly basis, but only trigger an<br />
investigation if a trend is established<br />
over a number of months. Once a trend<br />
is recognized, an objective investigation<br />
should be undertaken to determine why<br />
the trend is occurring. There are normal<br />
activities that could cause a temporary<br />
trend in the backlog level. For example<br />
a major plant outage or turnaround can<br />
push the backlog higher when many routine<br />
tasks have to be delayed.<br />
Reaction to the trends can result in<br />
cleaning the backlog (see Part 1 of this<br />
article in <strong>Maintworld</strong> 3/2017) or reducing/increasing<br />
the contract crew size<br />
to bring the backlog within the control<br />
limits. Today, many companies use supplemental<br />
maintenance as a relief valve<br />
during difficult business periods.<br />
Some companies take a long term<br />
view, allowing reduced replacement of<br />
attrition to lower the crew size to match<br />
the workload. In cases of a high backlog,<br />
both increasing overtime and bringing<br />
on more contractors are commonly used<br />
tools.<br />
A note of caution if you allow your<br />
supplemental contractors to maintain<br />
their own backlog: any decisions to reduce<br />
or increase crew size must be done<br />
only after a thorough review of the quality<br />
of the work orders in backlog.<br />
I experienced the need to take this<br />
step a number of years ago. The supplemental<br />
maintenance contractor manager<br />
requested increasing the number<br />
of his staff due to a high backlog. His<br />
request was at first considered and he
ASSET MANAGEMENT<br />
started the process of hiring more supplemental<br />
mechanics. When knowledge<br />
of this increase reached the maintenance<br />
planners, a number of questions<br />
were raised. A thorough review of each<br />
work order revealed many with unreliable<br />
estimates, work orders that had<br />
already been completed or work orders<br />
for tasks that had no business benefits.<br />
The contractor’s backlog was reduced<br />
to normal levels and the hiring of additional<br />
supplemental mechanics avoided.<br />
To ensure this didn’t reoccur, a regular<br />
backlog review meeting was established.<br />
Contract firms do use backlog metrics<br />
as a means to control job security<br />
and profitability for the firm by moving<br />
personnel between jobs, if possible, or<br />
reducing crew size (layoffs) to match<br />
the available work. They will set the<br />
backlog targets at an appropriate level<br />
for the industry they are serving, normally<br />
much higher than the 5-week<br />
target of world class companies. Specialty<br />
contractors can have much higher<br />
backlog targets, especially if there is a<br />
limited number of firms specializing in<br />
their field.<br />
Establishing a Backlog Metric<br />
A clear definition of when a work order<br />
is placed in backlog should be developed<br />
first to ensure an accurate backlog.<br />
Some organizations include all work orders,<br />
even those without accurate estimates.<br />
This adding of work orders with<br />
“guesstimates” will make the backlog<br />
greatly exaggerated.<br />
To ensure an accurate backlog, only<br />
those work orders that have been fully<br />
estimated should be included. Work<br />
orders that are awaiting planning or being<br />
planned should not be added to the<br />
backlog.<br />
Any backlog size metric will only be<br />
as accurate as the planner's estimates.<br />
World class metrics for work order<br />
estimate accuracy is =/- 10%. Reactive<br />
maintenance organization’s work order<br />
estimates will be +/- 50% to many times<br />
more.<br />
A separate backlog metric should be<br />
kept for each craft and crew (multi shop<br />
sites) with control limits to trigger any<br />
possible actions.<br />
While the man-hours per craft and<br />
crew are what are pulled from the work<br />
orders, converting the metric to manweeks<br />
helps make the metric easier to<br />
use.<br />
Typical Backlog metric<br />
This metric should be reviewed on a<br />
monthly basis and investigated when<br />
a trend of several months is seen. The<br />
first step should be a quality review by<br />
those personnel who are familiar with<br />
the operations needs and maintenances<br />
resources (Operations and Maintenance<br />
supervision or managers). This<br />
review will need to look at all the work<br />
orders in backlog, not just those that are<br />
overdue. If the quality review doesn’t<br />
bring the backlog into control limits,<br />
a continuous improvement tool such<br />
as a 5 Why analysis can be applied to<br />
Typical Backlog metric<br />
discover the cause of the out of control<br />
backlog.<br />
Possible causes of an out of control<br />
backlog are:<br />
• Work order quality – inaccurate<br />
estimates – invalid work orders –<br />
completed work<br />
• Major turnaround being done<br />
with plant maintenance or supplemental<br />
maintenance personnel<br />
• A time-driven capital project being<br />
completed with plant maintenance<br />
or supplemental maintenance<br />
personnel<br />
• Business slow period – short or<br />
long term<br />
• Crews not correctly sized to the<br />
workload<br />
• Crafts not sized correctly – too<br />
few or too many of one craft<br />
• Inexperienced mechanics<br />
Corrective steps that could be taken:<br />
• Clean the backlog<br />
• Be patient and let time correct<br />
the cause (turnaround, project, or<br />
a temporary business slowdown)<br />
• Balance crews across all shops<br />
• Identify areas of inexperience<br />
and provide training<br />
• Reduce or increase the supplemental<br />
maintenance personnel<br />
Regardless of what the cause is determined<br />
to be, any corrective steps should<br />
be carefully considered for their longterm<br />
effect. Any corrective effort should<br />
be discussed with all stakeholders and a<br />
consensus reached.<br />
Typical Backlog metric<br />
8<br />
6<br />
4<br />
2<br />
Mech<br />
E&I<br />
Upper Control limit<br />
Lower Control limit<br />
0<br />
1<br />
Jan-16 Mar-16 May-16 Jul-16 Sept-16 Nov-16<br />
36 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
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servicemax.com/uk/servicemax-workshop-series-<strong>2018</strong>
PARTNER ARTICLE<br />
SmartDGA by LumaSense<br />
with single valve transformer<br />
installation.<br />
Text: LumaSense Technologies GmbH,<br />
info@lumasenseinc.com<br />
Implementing Online<br />
Dissolved Gas Analysis<br />
Transformer and Load Tap Changer<br />
(LTC) assets are among the most<br />
expensive pieces of equipment for<br />
electric utilities. Preserve these<br />
assets by using an appropriate DGA<br />
(Dissolved Gas Analysis) diagnostic<br />
method to improve service reliability,<br />
avoid transformer failure, and<br />
defer capital expenditures for new<br />
transformer assets.<br />
MONITORING AND ASSESSING transformer and LTC health<br />
(especially with ageing and overloaded equipment) is essential<br />
for maintaining optimal operation and avoiding downtime. All<br />
transformers experience electrical and thermal stress on the<br />
insulating materials over time. As the stresses increase, the insulating<br />
oils breakdown and can result in transformer faults.<br />
Monitoring the dissolved gas levels in transformer oil samples<br />
is a useful, trusted maintenance tool for assuring optimal<br />
asset health. However, conventional manual methods are periodic<br />
and expensive, while real-time monitoring solutions are<br />
more proactive and lower cost in the long-term.<br />
Transformer insulating oils are made up of different types of<br />
hydrocarbon molecules. During decomposition (breakdown),<br />
there are chemical reactions between these molecules, which<br />
result in various gas formations.<br />
In order to measure asset health on a daily basis, utilities<br />
need an online 24-hour, 7 days-a-week solution for monitoring<br />
and assessing the gas samples.<br />
As experienced leaders in NDIR technology through our Andros<br />
brand, LumaSense chose industry-proven Non-Dispersive<br />
Infrared (NDIR) for our online SmartDGA® solution. The NDIRbased<br />
SmartDGA instrument works in cycles to obtain a sample<br />
of oil, detect concentrations (in PPM) of key gases, and record<br />
the values, making them available for review in the SmartDGA<br />
Viewer software or other optional communications. Operators<br />
can set up alerts when gases reach certain thresholds, allowing<br />
for true condition-based maintenance (CBM).<br />
With the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in the industry,<br />
SmartDGA makes DGA available online 24 hours-a-day, 7<br />
days-a-week to help utilities lower costs while improving safety,<br />
reliability, and efficiency. Installation can be completed in as few<br />
as 4 hours and our ultra-low maintenance solution does not re-<br />
38 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
quire consumables, carrier gas, or scheduled calibrations.<br />
Each SmartDGA packing unit includes the instrument,<br />
mounting hardware, connection cable, the SmartDGA<br />
EZHub unit (for power and communications), and<br />
SmartDGA Viewer Software (for reviewing collected data).<br />
With continuous DGA values, this solution develops<br />
a comprehensive analysis of potential fault conditions<br />
through the monitoring of key gas levels, rates, and ratios.<br />
LumaSense has setup a dedicated website with useful<br />
information about implementing online dissolved gas<br />
analysis on www.smartdga.com.<br />
Besides a detailed description of the unit with accessories<br />
and installation options is also contains a link to the<br />
product video explaining the main benefits and features<br />
of LumaSense’s SmartDGA instruments, specifically why<br />
the exclusively-used composite membrane technology is<br />
a robust method for online DGA.<br />
Moreover, there is a platform enabling registrants to<br />
view a technical webinar entitled “Understanding DGA<br />
techniques and interpretations”, which aims to provide<br />
with the necessary foundation to understand and analyze<br />
dissolved gas analysis reports.<br />
This webinar is set up especially for industry professionals<br />
who want to learn how to use some of the best<br />
diagnostic tools available for assessing the condition of<br />
their equipment. In addition, it will help understand how<br />
gases form, and their relationship to faults.<br />
11 – 15 June <strong>2018</strong><br />
Frankfurt am Main<br />
CONTACT:<br />
LumaSene Technologies GmbH<br />
www.lumasenseinc.com<br />
www.smartdga.com<br />
info@lumasenseinc.com<br />
BE INFORMED. BE INSPIRED. BE THERE.<br />
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HSE<br />
MANAGING<br />
HAZARDOUS<br />
ENERGY SAFELY<br />
Electricity, hydraulics, pneumatics, kinetics, chemistry and<br />
thermodynamics – energy can be dangerous in every form if it is<br />
released unintentionally or in an uncontrolled manner. To be able to<br />
classify a machine as safe in all operating conditions, it must not only<br />
be able to be disconnected from all energy sources; it must also be<br />
guaranteed that the machine will not start up unexpectedly or that<br />
machine parts will not move unexpectedly due to stored energy. For<br />
this reason, Lock Out Tag Out programmes - as required in the USA -<br />
are increasingly being used in Europe.<br />
NIELS ALPERS,<br />
Customer Support<br />
Pilz GmbH & Co. KG<br />
40 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong><br />
DISCONNECTING A MACHINE from the<br />
power supply can be sufficient from a<br />
safety point of view if the isolation device<br />
is in the line of sight of the person working<br />
on the machine. It must however not<br />
be possible for another person to reconnect<br />
the machine to the electrical grid<br />
during the work. The safety issues of servicing<br />
and maintenance are of particular<br />
concern, as considerably more fatal work<br />
accidents occur during these processes<br />
than in production. According to statements<br />
by the German Trade Association<br />
for Wood and Metal (BGHM), 21% of fatal<br />
work accidents occur during servicing.<br />
The Occupational Safety and Health<br />
Administration (OSHA), a division of the<br />
US Department of Labour, defines hazardous<br />
energies and describes how they<br />
are to be handled. The US Regulation 29<br />
CFR 1910.147 clearly states that machinery<br />
and other work equipment in special<br />
operating modes such as cleaning, servicing<br />
and maintenance is isolated from<br />
the energy supply and secured in such<br />
a way that an unexpected switching on<br />
or an unexpected start-up of machinery<br />
and equipment, or the release of hazardous<br />
energy, is ruled out. The specifications<br />
are summarised under the term<br />
LoTo (Lock Out Tag Out).<br />
Photo: Pilz GmbH & Co. KG<br />
Taking a closer look<br />
at energy sources<br />
Traditionally, LoTo is associated with<br />
the isolation from electrical energy. All<br />
types of energy can be hazardous, however,<br />
which is why it is necessary to check<br />
whether LoTo can be used for all energy<br />
sources. For example, energy can be<br />
stored in mechanical parts that continue<br />
to move due to inertia (such as on vertical<br />
axes), capacitors, accumulators, pressurised<br />
fluids and gases as well as in springs.<br />
If stored energy can cause hazards,<br />
facilities for dissipating or retaining<br />
stored energy must be integrated into<br />
the machinery. Examples of this type of<br />
facilities are: Resistors (for discharging<br />
electrical capacitors) or valves with corresponding<br />
line ventilation.
HSE<br />
Photo: Pilz GmbH & Co. KG<br />
Components of LoTo:<br />
Lock and…<br />
On the one hand, LoTo comprises<br />
a physical lock. This can be a main<br />
switch or an isolation device with<br />
which the transmission or release of<br />
energy is physically prevented, e.g. isolating<br />
switches, slide switches, valves,<br />
blocks and blank flanges. There is also<br />
a “personal” security lock. Meaning<br />
a lock that is handed over to a person<br />
so that they can lock a main switch<br />
in the “OFF” position or a valve in a<br />
fixed closed position. Depending on<br />
the company rules, all keys for a “personal”<br />
security lock must, for example,<br />
be kept by the person to whom the<br />
security lock was issued or stored in a<br />
suitable place. The company must determine<br />
whether there are additional<br />
keys and who has them.<br />
The lock ensures that the machine<br />
can only be operated after this has<br />
been properly removed again. Furthermore,<br />
the operator is prevented<br />
from being able to inadvertently start<br />
the machinery. E-STOP pushbuttons<br />
are not categorised as isolation<br />
devices.<br />
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HSE<br />
... tag<br />
LoTo also includes the corresponding<br />
labelling of the isolation device by means<br />
of a sign or a tag on the lock: Why is the<br />
equipment secured against restarting<br />
and labelled accordingly? Who approved<br />
LoTo? Who carried out LoTo? How long<br />
does the lockout last? Who can provide<br />
additional information?<br />
LoTo is not just about attaching a<br />
lock and a label. It is a comprehensive<br />
programme that has far-reaching consequences<br />
in the company and the handling<br />
of machinery. The goal is a process<br />
with which safe handling of hazardous<br />
energy sources is guaranteed under<br />
normal operating conditions and other<br />
foreseeable conditions.<br />
As is always the case in the field of<br />
Photo: Pilz GmbH & Co. KG<br />
machinery safety, the first step is an assessment<br />
of the existing machines and<br />
energies. Specifically, this includes the<br />
determination and assessment of risks<br />
and hazards, the determination of sources<br />
of hazardous energy, the determination<br />
of cut-off points and the definition<br />
of additional required measures (e.g.<br />
vents, brakes).<br />
Step by Step<br />
At the beginning of the LoTo process, it is<br />
necessary to determine which people are<br />
responsible for LoTo and which people<br />
are participating in LoTo. It is also necessary<br />
to clarify which permissions and approvals<br />
are necessary for the work. Then<br />
a LoTo process tailored to the individual<br />
needs of the company must be created.<br />
The individual steps and responsibilities<br />
etc. are described below.<br />
Generally, a LoTo procedure comprises<br />
the following steps:<br />
1. Assessment and preparation of<br />
the task/work to be performed<br />
on the machinery<br />
2. Handover of the equipment: The<br />
equipment (lock & tag) can be<br />
managed centrally (foreman) or<br />
locally (maintenance engineer)<br />
3. De-energise and lockout plus apply<br />
tag<br />
4. Check point 3<br />
5. Performance of the task, such as<br />
maintenance<br />
6. Approval for release and cancellation<br />
of the disconnection<br />
7. Cancellation of the disconnection<br />
by removing the lockout and<br />
the tag<br />
Lock Out Tag Out<br />
is the systematic<br />
disconnection of<br />
machinery as well as<br />
securing it against<br />
restart. The LoTo<br />
system also includes<br />
the development<br />
of procedures for<br />
machinery isolation<br />
as part of specific<br />
tasks, as well as the<br />
training of machine<br />
operators.<br />
8. Examination<br />
9. Return of the equipment<br />
Who releases the machinery again<br />
depends on the specific process in the<br />
company. Additional components of the<br />
process include the determination of<br />
the purpose, scope and rules of the LoTo<br />
procedure, the description and determination<br />
of the energy control process<br />
to be applied and the description of the<br />
means for the implementation of and<br />
compliance with the LoTo programme.<br />
The disconnection from an energy<br />
supply must be visible (visible interruption<br />
of the energy supply circuits)<br />
or indicated by the clear position of the<br />
manual control (actuator) of the isolation<br />
device. Installation devices such<br />
as manometers or test points are to be<br />
provided to check whether the parts<br />
of the machinery in or on which the<br />
interventions are to be performed are<br />
de-energised.<br />
Assemblies that contain hazardous<br />
stored energy and that can be removed<br />
or disassembled are to be permanently<br />
labelled to warn about the hazards<br />
caused by the stored energy.<br />
Software-supported<br />
documentation<br />
When documenting Lock Out Tag Out<br />
processes, software tools can provide<br />
support to ensure machinery can be<br />
safely de-energised: Job specifications<br />
for dealing with hazardous energy sources<br />
can be produced and documented<br />
simply. Using the PASloto software, it<br />
is possible to produce LoTo reports and<br />
check the company’s own LoTo guidelines.<br />
PASloto produces a poster that<br />
documents a plant’s entire LoTo procedure<br />
and enables images of the machinery<br />
and energy sources to be added to<br />
the Lock Out Tag Out poster.<br />
Employee training is essential<br />
It is critical for success: The personnel<br />
must be trained in this procedure.<br />
This is true for all personnel, irrespective<br />
of their role in the company, as<br />
all employees must understand what<br />
LoTo stands for. Authorised employees<br />
require intensive training and any other<br />
employees involved must be informed<br />
of LoTo and must not undertake any<br />
attempts to restart the machinery. All<br />
employees must understand the significance<br />
of a lock and even employees from<br />
external contractors must be involved<br />
in the training courses. The procedure<br />
is to be implemented across the entire<br />
company.<br />
Finally, the system must be constantly<br />
monitored and checked to ensure that<br />
it functions properly and all elements<br />
are covered. In addition, a predictive detection<br />
of defects and weaknesses of isolating<br />
systems and the implementation<br />
of corrective actions can be enabled. The<br />
ability to react in the event of incidents<br />
should also be determined, as should the<br />
relationship between these incidents<br />
and organisational changes.<br />
The feedback from all participants on<br />
the effectiveness and usefulness of the<br />
(LoTo) process should be continuously<br />
assessed. This is then incorporated into<br />
any continuous process improvement.<br />
There will always be changes, as new<br />
machinery will be added and existing<br />
machinery changed.<br />
42 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
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T: +31 546 725 125 | E: info@uesystems.eu | W: www.uesystems.eu
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
PROPER OIL<br />
SAMPLING:<br />
The First Step<br />
in Oil Analysis<br />
For years companies<br />
have used oil analysis<br />
to determine the<br />
health and condition<br />
of their equipment.<br />
However, most<br />
companies are not<br />
getting the most out<br />
of their oil analysis<br />
program because they<br />
do not understand the<br />
importance of proper<br />
oil sampling.<br />
MIKE HALL,<br />
President, Checkfluid<br />
Inc.,<br />
mhall@checkfluid.com<br />
OIL ANALYSIS is a highly effective method<br />
of determining the health of your equipment’s<br />
lubricant and discovering wear<br />
modes in your machine. With oil analysis<br />
you can: decide on when the oil needs to<br />
be changed, and prevent failures. However,<br />
most companies are not getting the<br />
most out of their oil analysis programs<br />
due to inconsistent oil samples.<br />
The importance of taking a proper<br />
sample for oil analysis cannot be overlooked.<br />
A proper sample represents the<br />
true condition of the equipment, it is taken<br />
when the machine is running, and it<br />
is taken from the same spot in the active<br />
zone every time. A proper sample is then<br />
compared to the baseline sample and<br />
trended against past and future samples.<br />
With oil sampling, there are two main<br />
objectives: safe sampling and reliable<br />
sampling.<br />
Safe Sampling<br />
Safety is the first objective. This means<br />
safety for both personnel sampling and<br />
the machine. Technicians need to understand<br />
the equipment and hazards. They<br />
should follow all safety procedures and<br />
use proper personal protective equipment<br />
while sampling. But even when<br />
following safety procedures, typical<br />
sampling methods can be dangerous.<br />
Oftentimes sampling from the drain has<br />
caused burns and opening up a system<br />
for sampling can expose the workers<br />
to dangerous hazards. With drain port<br />
sampling, it is also difficult to control<br />
the flow of oil out of the machine and too<br />
much oil loss can result in starvation.<br />
Furthermore, opening the equipment up<br />
to external particulate, moisture and water<br />
contamination can often defeat the<br />
purpose of getting a representative sample.<br />
It can even damage the equipment.<br />
Drop tube sampling is another traditional<br />
method that is hazardous. It is<br />
extremely dangerous to insert a plastic<br />
sampling tube into the live zone while<br />
the equipment is running. Without extreme<br />
precision there is a strong likely<br />
hood of the plastic tube getting caught in<br />
the gears. Thus in order to get a safe oil<br />
sample the equipment must be turned<br />
off. Even when turning the equipment<br />
off the system is still being opened up<br />
to external contamination. Properly installed<br />
oil sampling valves can help keep<br />
your people and equipment safe. For<br />
THE IMPORTANCE OF TAKING<br />
A PROPER SAMPLE FOR OIL<br />
ANALYSIS CANNOT BE<br />
OVERLOOKED.<br />
44 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
CONDITION MONITORING<br />
FIGURE 1: Example of remote<br />
access installation setup on a<br />
pressurized system.<br />
starters, burns can be avoided as sampling<br />
valves allow oil to be directed safely<br />
and cleanly to the bottle. Additionally<br />
there are many remote access options<br />
available so that sampling can take place<br />
away from any and all of the equipment<br />
hazards (Figure 1). Sampling valves<br />
also allow you to sample from a closed<br />
system, preventing contamination from<br />
entering the system. Also, costly downtime<br />
can be avoided by sampling while<br />
the equipment is running.<br />
Reliable Sampling<br />
While safe sampling is the first objective,<br />
getting a reliable sample is also important.<br />
Successful oil analysis is about accurate<br />
trending. Oil samples need to be<br />
taken the same way every time and from<br />
the same location every time. It is important<br />
that the trends in the oil analysis<br />
reports are because of changes in the oil<br />
and equipment and not because of who<br />
took the sample, or how and when the<br />
sample was taken.<br />
SUCCESSFUL OIL ANALYSIS<br />
IS ABOUT ACCURATE<br />
TRENDING.<br />
Drain valve sampling and drop tube<br />
sampling do not produce representative<br />
samples. For starters, taking an oil<br />
drain sample can lead to the oil analysis<br />
results showing false positives. Since<br />
wear particles, contaminants and water<br />
settle at the bottom, the oil samples can<br />
show elevated amounts of wear metals<br />
or contamination. This can lead to<br />
unnecessary repairs, resulting in lost<br />
productivity and elevated maintenance<br />
costs to fix a problem that never existed<br />
in the first place. Additionally both sampling<br />
methods require machine shut off.<br />
The samples will not be representative<br />
of the equipment during operation. Additionally,<br />
shutting off the machine and<br />
waiting for the oil to cool down enough<br />
to safely take a sample allows for more<br />
wear particles settling in the drain. Thus<br />
the sample can show elevated amounts<br />
of wear particles.<br />
Sampling valves are needed for obtaining<br />
consistent and reliable samples.<br />
They allow for oil to be taken directly<br />
from the active zone, safely, while the<br />
equipment is running. This means that<br />
oil samples can be taken at any time<br />
since shutdowns are no longer necessary.<br />
Technicians also no longer have to<br />
open the system, reducing the chance<br />
of moisture or contamination. Furthermore,<br />
sampling while the equipment is<br />
running ensures that the samples are a<br />
direct representation of the machine’s<br />
condition. The oil samples are reliable<br />
because they are coming from the same<br />
spot in the active zone every time. Each<br />
sample pulled will contain hot, information-rich<br />
oil that can be trended against<br />
previous samples to show the condition<br />
of your equipment.<br />
1/<strong>2018</strong> maintworld 45
XXXXXX CONDITION MONITORING<br />
FIGURE 2: Direct installation example of a<br />
pushbutton valve on a pressurized system.<br />
FIGURE 3: An<br />
installation example<br />
of a sampling tube in<br />
a drain port. In this<br />
example the sampling<br />
tube is combined<br />
with a sight glass and<br />
portable filtration<br />
quick couplings.<br />
Installing Oil Sampling Valves<br />
Pressurized systems (such as<br />
engines, transmissions,<br />
compressors and hydraulics)<br />
When installing a sampling valve on<br />
pressurized equipment, like hydraulics,<br />
look for a port that will provide the best<br />
representative oil sample. The ideal<br />
port will be located downstream of<br />
the components to be monitored (i.e.<br />
pumps, bearings) but before the filter<br />
(unless the filter is being monitored).<br />
Many times a simple pushbutton valve<br />
can be installed directly in a port on a<br />
pressurized system (Figure 2). However,<br />
if the port is not easily accessible<br />
many sampling valve manufacturers<br />
have remote access solutions to allow<br />
samples to be taken from a distance<br />
(Figure 1).<br />
Low or Non-Pressurized<br />
Systems (Gearboxes)<br />
Many times gearboxes only have a small<br />
number of ports to choose from. The<br />
drain port allows an ideal location to<br />
insert a sampling valve with an attached<br />
permanent sampling tube (Figure 3).<br />
The permanent metal tube should be<br />
bent and positioned close to gears to<br />
get the most representative oil. The<br />
sampling valve with tube will reach oil<br />
directly in the active zone and avoid getting<br />
sediment from the bottom of the<br />
gearbox, thus producing representative,<br />
and reliable oil samples. The breather<br />
port is also another option for sampling<br />
tube installation.<br />
SAMPLING VALVES ARE<br />
NEEDED FOR OBTAINING<br />
CONSISTENT AND RELIABLE<br />
SAMPLES.<br />
Get the Right Sampling Valve<br />
Once a location and available port is<br />
determined, it is necessary to determine<br />
the oil viscosity range, pressure range<br />
(for pressurized systems), thread size<br />
and thread type of the port. Sometimes,<br />
this is available from the manufacturer.<br />
Often times, it is necessary to use a pressure<br />
gauge, micrometers, thread pitch<br />
gauge and a thread identification table.<br />
Once the information is gathered,<br />
contact your oil sampling valve partner<br />
to get help in choosing the best valve,<br />
fittings and sampling accessories for<br />
your application.<br />
Get the Right Procedure<br />
After the valves are installed, take the<br />
time to create proper oil sampling<br />
and handling procedures. Use these<br />
procedures to help with training and<br />
minimizing data disturbances within<br />
the samples. Additionally, all involved in<br />
oil sampling should make sure that the<br />
fluid pathways are purged, the sampling<br />
bottles and tubes are clean, and the<br />
sample goes directly to the lab for analysis.<br />
Even these “little” factors can make<br />
a huge difference in the quality of your<br />
oil analysis results.<br />
Oil analysis has a wealth of benefits<br />
for those who utilize it. A world-class oil<br />
analysis program starts with a good oil<br />
sample. The resulting data from a good<br />
oil sample will hold more useful information<br />
on the health of the machine.<br />
These results will give teams the information<br />
needed to maximize reliability<br />
and reduce unplanned downtime.<br />
46 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
BETTER<br />
OIL<br />
SAMPLING<br />
SOLUTIONS.CHECKFLUID.COM
TRAINING & PERSONNEL<br />
Attract<br />
the Right<br />
Knowledge<br />
and Skills<br />
The NVDO Maintenance Compass gives an overview of the trends and current<br />
state of the Dutch maintenance market. For the NVDO (Dutch Maintenance<br />
Society), the goal of the Maintenance Compass is to facilitate its members<br />
concerning their developments and challenges related to maintenance within<br />
the asset management chain.<br />
THE SIZE of the Dutch maintenance<br />
market stands between 31 and 36 billion<br />
Euros, which is approximately 4-5 percent<br />
of GDP. Moreover, almost 3.5 percent<br />
of the Dutch labour force is active<br />
in the maintenance sector. The Dutch<br />
maintenance market is expected to grow<br />
in the coming five years, according to 86<br />
percent of the participants. A possible<br />
ELLEN DEN<br />
BROEDER-<br />
OOIJEVAAR,<br />
NVDO<br />
reason behind this expectation is the growing economy. Companies<br />
have seen a rise in their investment budgets and are<br />
grabbing the opportunity to invest in deferred maintenance<br />
and replacements. Furthermore, high availability and reliability<br />
of assets has become increasingly important for companies,<br />
causing the demand for maintenance to rise as well.<br />
From the NVDO-survey several important developments<br />
can be distinguished. These developments,<br />
briefly explained below, will<br />
undoubtedly play a major role in<br />
determining the current and future<br />
position of maintenance.<br />
• Scarcity of technical work<br />
force – Above 40% of the participants<br />
expect technological employees.<br />
The scarcity could be caused by an increase of complexity<br />
regarding maintenance activities. Additionally,<br />
we see that supply of new employees cannot keep up with<br />
the booming demand. However, a positive prospect is that<br />
companies seem open to collaborate with educational<br />
institutions to improve the connection between education<br />
and the business world<br />
48 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
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• Ageing asset base – Companies<br />
increasingly focus on solutions to<br />
cope with problems and challenges<br />
faced by ageing assets. 30 percent<br />
of the asset base is considered either<br />
at end of life or the lifetime of<br />
the assets is already extended. To<br />
deal with this situation companies<br />
could roughly consider two options.<br />
On the one hand, companies<br />
have the option to simply replace<br />
their ageing assets, which has become<br />
easier due to the recent economic<br />
growth. On the other hand,<br />
maintenance organizations could<br />
invest in innovative/technological<br />
solutions to optimize the ageing<br />
asset base. This year, the NVDO<br />
Section Suto have done further research<br />
on this topic in the benchmark<br />
PrestatieManagement with<br />
the Technical University Twente.<br />
• The increasing role of technology<br />
and data within maintenance<br />
– Several of the most<br />
important are linked to technological<br />
developments. In particular,<br />
the combination of the need<br />
for ICT-systems and processing<br />
large amounts of data lead to<br />
higher demand for technological<br />
knowledge. As stated in the Facts<br />
& Figures, companies are looking<br />
for innovative and technological<br />
knowledge<br />
Generally, we see that the maintenance<br />
market is facing some problems<br />
due to the lack of technically-educated<br />
personnel and the ageing asset base.<br />
But, due to the improving economic<br />
climate in combination with technological<br />
innovations, the prospects are<br />
promising. Still, to reach sustainable<br />
growth, maintenance companies<br />
should dare to invest in innovation,<br />
data and technology in order to develop<br />
and attract the right knowledge<br />
and skills.<br />
Shortage of technically-trained personnel<br />
The trend of a shortage of technically-trained personnel is the development with the<br />
most impact for the Dutch maintenance sector in 2017/<strong>2018</strong>. This problem has been<br />
recognised for several years, and has been paid a great deal of attention by the business<br />
community, the government and the media. The current tightness of the labour<br />
market is due to a quantitative and qualitative shortage of personnel.<br />
The quantitative personnel shortage is increasing because of the ageing of the population<br />
on the one hand and the resurgent economy on the other. The qualitative shortage<br />
is caused by an insufficient supply of technical personnel with the necessary competencies.<br />
The qualitative shortage in particular has brought about tight labour market<br />
conditions.<br />
All-rounders needed<br />
Besides problems with the growing demand for technically-trained employees, maintenance<br />
companies have an increasing need for all-rounders, that is to say employees<br />
with an understanding of both technology, ICT and data: we can see a lack of experience<br />
in dealing with data in maintenance organisations. Now and in the future, a maintenance<br />
professional does not only have to be able to carry out maintenance work, but<br />
must also be familiar with the analysis and storage of data so that this can be effectively<br />
converted into useful information.<br />
It is vital that the educational sector and the business community come together<br />
more closely to alleviate the tightness in the labour market. This can be achieved by<br />
closer liaison on the curriculum and the competencies and knowledge that are expected<br />
to be needed in the future, and by partly replacing teaching in the classroom with<br />
learning in practice. After all, the need for technical knowledge is declining. Technicians<br />
want to gain practical knowledge and skills that they can put into immediate use in the<br />
workplace. A number of in-company training centres have already made a start on this.<br />
Governmental responsibility<br />
We can also see that a large number of companies are prepared to enter into partnerships<br />
with each other and with the educational sector to ease the tightness in the<br />
labour market. A key aspect of this is to improve the image of maintenance among<br />
young people. For this to truly succeed, the government also has a role to play. Encouraging<br />
young people to go into technology and innovation, instead of introducing fixed<br />
quotas for these types of courses, would help.<br />
Level Proportion in 2013-2014 Proportion in 2016-2017 Difference (in%)<br />
Pre-vocational secondary<br />
Education (VMBO) 20% 19% -1%<br />
Secondary vocational 29% 32% +3%<br />
Higher professional education 21% 25% +4%<br />
University education (WO) 34% 36% +2%<br />
The proportion of students, per level, that enters a technical education<br />
50 maintworld 1/<strong>2018</strong>
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