Technology-based Maintenance Gains Traction

Plants are using predictive maintenance and condition-based monitoring to increase availability, enhance process quality and improve safety.

Dow Corning Corp., in Midland, Mich., started using condition monitoring 15 years ago. The company—which produces thousands of non-finished-goods products, monitors vibration at its 24-hour-per-day process plant.

By monitoring vibration, plant technicians were able to replace bearings and other parts before they failed. The plant was also able to avoid scheduled part replacement when the part showed no deterioration. In recent years, plant engineers have extended condition monitoring to go beyond simple vibration. “Over the last four or five years, we’ve added other technology and we’re absolutely seeing a payback,” says Dan Warren, condition-based monitoring analyst at Dow Corning

The plant now monitors for heat using infrared technology to identify hot spots. Some problems can be recognized and understood more quickly by monitoring heat build-up than by monitoring vibration, says Warren. “So now we can see a hot spot... Read more

Technology Upgrades Boost Plant Performance

In North America and Western Europe, plants are retrofitting with new technology to get more from existing assets.

The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News (SJMN) had a problem with its printing plant. Its four Goss printing presses—which print the SJMN as well as a couple of dozen other newspapers—were at various stages of aging. The existing controls were outdated and consisted of a mix of proprietary technology. Plant managers were scrambling to keep the presses operating

“We were at risk of losing one or more of our presses, which would mean late papers or color interruption, which would upset our advertisers,” says Joe Boessenecker, operations director at SJMN at the time of the upgrade... Read more

Asset Management for Profitability

It’s seldom a good feeling in the pit of your stomach when management issues you a challenge.

But Chris Van Sambeek took it on and met it. Van Sambeek is a control systems engineer at Appleton Papers Inc., a diversified paper manufacturer based in Appleton, Wis. He was involved with upgrading and re-instrumenting a large paper-coating machine when management asked if there was a way to tap into diagnostic information in the various field devices on the machine to improve reliability, and, as a bonus, to provide accurate information to support the company’s ISO 14001 certification process.

Though challenges remain for connecting assets to information, engineers automating asset management systems have boosted plant profitability—and even helped increase sales... Read more

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