Condition Based Monitoring

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Big Pete
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Condition Based Monitoring

Post by Big Pete »

http://www.imarest.org/themarineprofess ... -standards

Interesting article about using condition based monitoring to schedule maintenance rather than running hours or the calendar.
Includes an estimate that the average ship requires 24 Engineers to do all the planned maintenance! I would like to see that in the minimum manning schedule!!! ( I know, min manning is calculated on a run only basis with no allowance for Maintenance or cargo work.)
Personally I have been on many ships that at one time had started doing vibration analysis and then stopped.
My present company is very keen on it and we are supposed to take readings of most of the machinery on a running hours basis which can mean 3 or 4 times a month then send the reading for analysis, however the analysis company are only paid to analyse one set of readings per month, so they ignore most of the readings we send in. Some of their results are weird, they keep telling us that the Alternator on the Harbour Generator is out of line with the engine, but this is a close coupled Alternator that is bolted directly to the engine and has no other form of support!
I don't have a lot of faith myself, I think there are too many variables in using a hand held analyser on felt tip pen marks on the machinery.
What do other people think?

BP
It is always better to ask a stupid question than to do a stupid thing.
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JK
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Re: Condition Based Monitoring

Post by JK »

15 years ago and more we had rotating positions to do both VA and lube oil monitoring. Over the years, both positions disappeared and the VA equipment purchased became obsolete. To start it again is starting over in training and buying equipment. It is unfortunate as both were used to defer inspections as we could confidently point out that the equipment was operating fine. Its a beancounter world.

I actually did a CBM course a couple of years ago.
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Merlyn
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Re: Condition Based Monitoring

Post by Merlyn »

Years ago I remember major gas turbine manufacturers on aircraft offering monitoring services, loads of sensors on the engines transmitting readings to the cockpit and thence automatically to a ground station and thence if you paid for it back to the engine manufactures. Great emphasis was placed on vibration analysis and the boast was that bearing/ blading problems could be detected in the very early stages thus saving operators money big time. I see some prodded propulsion ships suffered from water ingresses into the pod and in retrofit vibration sensors were fitted to detect problems in the early stages. Cost several pod manufactures millions in repair costing, downtime, cancelled cruises compensation etc. I think this preventative maintenance idea on ships perhaps came from the aircraft industry. I recently read in a shipping book that a fully automatic engineroom idea was being designed whereby fault codes/ diagnostic information was being transmitted ashore to another computer whose job was to fix any faults etc but how piston /liner changes were carried out is beyond me. Scary stuff out there nowadays and all to save money and thus reduce overheads, primarily the likes of us.
Remembering The Good Old days, when Chiefs stood watches and all Torque settings were F.T.
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JK
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Re: Condition Based Monitoring

Post by JK »

I finally had a look at my bookcase. I had the Reliability Centered Maintenance course. They were hot for it at work, I couldn't wrap my head around it because it was mainly a shore based process using minimal equipment to run a plant. If a pump packed it in, you had 3 hours to fix it, or all hell would break lose, for instance. I must look at the book again to refresh my memory.
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