Is it just me, or does it seem like almost every breakdown of a machine is electrical in nature?
It seems like I've got my meter in my hand more often than a wrench.

Mike

Mike,

When I hear about a facility or company that is experiencing a seemingly one-dimensional type of failure, it looks like an opportunity to perform some effective root-cause analysis. In fact, one of the most effective aspects of proactive maintenance is to review the types of failures occuring over a period of time, and identify the opportunity to identify a common failure mode that can be addressed by looking more closely at operational or maintenance practices, design issues, parts issues, etc.

For your electrical failures, are most of them in a certain component type? Certain voltage? Are you using infrared inspections, motor circuit analysis, power quality analysis or other electrical diagnostic tools? Do you perform root cause analysis, inspect the failed parts? If there seems to be some commonality in the types of components that are failing, I would look closely at them to look for a pattern. Are they being operated outside of design? What about power quality? Are there frequent voltage spikes or low voltage conditions? Low voltage can reak havoc on electrical components as the lower voltage drives current up and results in excessive heating of electrical components.

Good luck with your investigation. I think you might have a real opportunity to address root causes and significant impact overall reliability.

Rich Wurzbach
Maintenance Reliability Group

Mine is an extreme case. I was brought in to try to sort the place out after the previous maintenance regime stopped doing its job yonks ago. The whole place is falling down around my ears. I'm 2 weeks into it and I'm getting it shored up... doesn't leave a lot of time for planning for the future. I'm mostly fire-fighting right now. However, most common component type? Varied. I've had heaters go, sticky buttons (that have probably been sticky for five years), and a lot of sensor problems which all (!) boiled down to poor wiring practices, like using yellow marrettes (meant for 12-ish gage wiring) to connect 18 or 20 gage sensor wires. Since I don't know the equipment intimately, and things are rarely labelled properly, it takes a little longer to find the problem. Still, it'll all get sorted out. It just takes time. However, of the half-dozen breakdowns that I've had since I started, only one was really a mechanical problem, and it was due strictly to lack of maintenance.
I'm actually lucky with the power at the plant... they've got big fridge-sized power factor correctors and whatnot. The power quality is good, which really saves my bacon because the way these poor motors get over-loaded if the phases were off 5% the motors would only last half as long, I'm sure.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Metalworker Mike:
Is it just me, or does it seem like almost every breakdown of a machine is electrical in nature?
It seems like I've got my meter in my hand more often than a wrench.

Mike

If that is true, then what are your electricians are doing with their time?
Has the electrical PM been revised agaisnt failures observed, manufacturer recommendations, applicable codes??
Is the electrical infrastructure well designed?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Eugene,

Sorry I did not read your second job. Lousy (or no) maintenance performed in previous years is a root cause, then electrical side suffering the effects before the mechanical side of the equipment.

Changing the coach may not be enough to change the numbers of the maintenance team.

metalworker mike
i am in the same boat. trying to setup a pm program haveing to fight old school thinking.our electricians say its not there job pm work belongs to rookies. so we are still in the fire fighting mode till i get upper management on board and start a new way of thinking

I just dragged my arse home after working 12 and a half hours with no break and no lunch. Time for bed. Before that, however, I will say that we have no electricians. We have me. Just me. I am the entire maintenance department. Fixing and maintaining all of the machinery in the plant is up to me. I _do_ call electricians when it is something that I just can't fathom (it certainly happens) but for the most part it doesn't matter if it's a button, a contactor, a wonky motor drive or a cranky PLC, I'm the one who has first crack at it. And when I have time, I wander around with a grease gun.
Today was an interesting day... in the same way that it would be interesting to get bitten by a cow. I started off by fixing the staff entrance door, which wouldn't close right. Then I reprogrammed the motor driver on a coiler because it wasn't recognizing the remote start and stop buttons. Then my boss arrived with another maintenance man to convert a line for a different product, and I was helping with that until the sump pump in another line blew its hose, which it had never done before. So I cut a foot off of the hose and hooked it back up (and got a soaker with old coolant in the process). This set the tone for the day, because out of nowhere, after never having any trouble with that pump before, the pump proceeded to blow holes in its drainage line SIX MORE TIMES, giving me oodles of opportunities for soakers, which needless to say I availed myself of with reckless abandon. We had no hose of the right size to replace the drainage line, but after the seventh blow-out I decided the conversion would have to wait, so I drove to two suppliers looking for hose, only to end up at the Tractor Supply Company where I had to spend my own money to buy the hose because my employer doesn't have an account there. So I get the hose back and fix up the pump and everything's great, right? Wrong. Another pump fails and its tank overflows all over the place, flooding the floor with oily coolant. I go to get the big shop vac (which I hadn't used yet) and it's full of black water so I can't dump it and I don't have time to search for alternatives.
Anyway, after twelve and a half hours of that kind of thing... I think I'll go to bed right now.
I hope the rest of you had a better day than I did.
The one bright spot is that I _did_ learn a lot today.

Man, that post qualifies for the worst day at the job. I'm sure lot of us has histories like that but yours compete for the finalists.

It was a hard day, but the next day (yesterday) was easy enough, and this is a short week for Easter, so today is the last work day in the week. Mind you, I'll probably be heading in on Saturday to do some work with all of the lines down, but it'll still be good, because I'll have a day off before and after.

Mike