MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT – 1

CONDITION MONITORING
SUBMITTED BY

K S DIVYA PRIYA

(BFT/17/452)

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INDEX

S.NO TOPIC PAGE NUMBER

1. Introduction 3
2. How condition monitoring is useful? 3
3. Benefits and challenges 4
4. Levels of condition monitoring 4
5. Condition monitoring techniques 6
6. Frequency of condition monitoring 6
7. Example of condition monitoring 7
8. Conclusion 7

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INTRODUCTION

Condition monitoring is the process that assesses the health of an

equipment/system at regular intervals or continuously and exposes incipient
faults, if any. Basically, it consists of extraction of data such as the parameters
that decide the working of equipment and predicting their health without
interrupting the working. It leads to undertaking corrective measures only when
they are required rather than in regular intervals. Therefore, it can eliminate
downtime for unnecessary inspections.

HOW CONDITION MONITORING IS USEFUL?

Condition monitoring uses equipment measurements to perform

maintenance only when that equipment may fail or needs repairs. It determines
the precise maintenance point via visual inspection of a piece of equipment,
performing tests on equipments specs, or gathering data and diagnostics. Pre-
planning also helps to extend support to several aspects of maintenance work
such as, spare parts, technical information, and man power requirements. It helps
in completing maintenance work in scheduled time, thereby reducing overtime
payments and consequently the maintenance cost. It also provides trends in

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machine deterioration to serve the purpose of scheduling constructive
maintenance without affecting production.

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

Benefits Challenges
Improves equipment lifespan. Cost to install the detecting equipment
like sensors.
Reduced cost of machine maintenance. Cost to train employees.
Improved prioritization and utilization Extra cost to maintain and repair
of maintenance time. measurement equipment.
Fewer unplanned downtime events and Difficulty in choosing proper measuring
higher equipment uptime. equipment.

LEVELS OF CONDITION MONITORING

Condition monitoring can be carried out at different levels. There are four
distinct levels.

Level 1 – Visual inspection.

Level 2 – Sensor assisted inspection.

Level 3 – Indicator analysis (wear tear analysis – lubricant analysis)

Level 4 – Monitoring systems integrated with the equipment to provide warnings

of impending dangers.

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LEVEL 1

The level 1 inspection form part of the normal preventive maintenance and
are generally included in the daily and weekly maintenance activities. The person
involved is expected to sense the condition of the equipment by seeing, hearing,
touching, and smelling. Magnifiers, viewing devices, temperature sensors and
other instruments can further assist the process.

LEVEL 2

At level 2, the persons are assisted by the available portable instruments to

make various measurements. The instruments that can be used for this purpose
are as follows.

Measurements Instruments
Speed and distance Tachometer and odometer
Electrical quantities Test meters
Fits and clearance Proximity meters
Temperature Thermograph, pyrometer
Wear Thickness gauge
Corrosion Corrosion meter
Movement Vibration analyzer

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LEVEL 3

The conditon of the lubricant, or the presence of wear debris in the gear
box oil or engine oil can be used as indicators of the condition of the
syste.advanced techniques for analysing the lubicant for its condition or
contaminants are now available. The metal particles persent in the engine oil can
indicate the condition of the engine cylinder or piston. Therefore, lubricat
contaminants provide clear indicators of the machine condition. In the level 3
condition monitoring, these indicator analyses are carried out. For such analysis a
sophiscated test labortory is necessory.

LEVEL 4

The level four monitoring can be carried out with the help of mini-
computers or microprocessors. Process transducers, accelerometers, counters
and other sensors are employed at different points od the equipment for
acquisition of data to indiacte the failure of the system.

CONDITION- MONITORING TECHNIQUES

The success of this monitoring depends on the efficeincy of identifying the

deteriorating trend in the machine components. For this, purpose it is essential to
recognise the sources or cause of failure. Failuresof different types induce
differnent types of effects on the system. These effects may be classified as
dynamic effect, particle contaminant effect, hcemical effect, physical effect,
temperature effect and corrosion effect. The condition-monitoring system aims at
recognising these effects and assessing their degree with the help of some
specially designed devices. These devises or the instruments provide a quantative
measurement of the effects and thus help to assess the condition of the
machine/system.

FREQUENCY OF CONDITON MONITORING

The frequency of examining the condition of a machine or its components

depends on a number of factors such as:
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  Criticality
 Availability of stand-by unit
 Standardistion of items
 Operating conditon
 Failure statistics (MTBF,MTTR)
 Cost of monitoring
 Cost of failure
 Cost of maintenance

EXAMPLEOF CONDITION MONITORING

Conditon monitoring works similar to the warning lights in the car. For
example, the oil light doesn’t pop up when the car is running on its last few drops.
Instead, it conditionally measures the oil content of the car and lets us know
when It is neede to change or replenish the oil. This information allows to make
an informed decision to maintan the vehicle.

CONCLUSION

Condition monitoring may seem too expensive for too little benefit.
However, in any organistion with critical equipment, a condition monitoring
system can prove its worth twice over when it comes to reducing or even
eliminating unscheduled downtime.