If starting a Reference Library on Mainteance & Reliability, and you are given a limited budget that could cover for just five books; which would do buy first?

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

How about these books?
Book Suggestions For A Machinery Reliability Library

1. Bloch, Heinz P. and "Pump User’s Handbook: Life Extension," 2004, The Fairmont Press, Inc., Lilburn, GA, 30047, Allan Budris ISBN 0-88173-452-7

2. Bloch, Heinz P.: "Improving Machinery Reliability," 3rd Edition, 1998, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, TX, ISBN 0- 88415-661-3

3. Bloch, H.P. and "Machinery Failure Analysis and Troubleshooting," 3rd Edition, 1997, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, TX Fred Geitner: ISBN 0-88415-662-1

4. Bloch, H.P. and "Machinery Component Maintenance and Repair," 3rd Edition, 2004, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, TX Fred Geitner: ISBN 0-87201-781-8

5. Bloch, H.P. and "Major Process Equipment Maintenance and Repair," 2nd Edition, 1997, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, TX Fred Geitner: ISBN 0-88415-663-X

6. Bloch, H.P. and "Introduction to Machinery Reliability Assessment," 2nd Edition, 1994 Fred Geitner: ISBN 0-88415-172-7,

7. I.J. Karassik et al: "Pump Handbook," 2nd Edition, 1986, McGraw-Hill, Tel. 800-262-4729, or www.mcgraw-hill.com; ISBN 0-07-033302-5,

8. Vibration Fundamentals (Plant Engineering Maintenance Series) by R. Keith Mobley

9. Root Cause Failure Analysis (Plant Engineering Maintenance Series) (Hardcover)
by R. Keith Mobley "Reliability engineering and predictive maintenance have two major objectives: preventing catastrophic failures of critical plant production systems and avoiding deviations from acceptable performance levels that..." (more)

10. An Introduction to Predictive Maintenance, Second Edition (Plant Engineering) by R. Keith Mobley (Hardcover - Oct 2002)

11. Industrial Machinery Repair: Best Maintenance Practices Pocket Guide by Ricky Smith, R. Keith Mobley Price: $33.95

12. Practical Plant Failure Analysis: A Guide to Understanding Machinery Deterioration and Improving Equipment Reliability
Neville W. Sachs Price: $99.00

13 Effective Maintenance Management: Risk and Reliability Strategies for Optimizing Performance by V. Narayan Price: $32.78

This is a somewhat commercial post.

This is certainly a good list. Just to let everyone know, RELIABILITY®Magazine, one of the sponsors of this board, is now selling maintenance and reliability related books. There are over 50 on the web site now and most of those included above are available from us at http://www.reliability-magazine.com/bookstore.htm

We have copies of most of these books at the learning events and conferences that RELIABILITY®Magazine and Reliabilityweb.com sponsor. So, it you want to look before you buy, you'll have several opportunites for that during the next year.

I have accumulated a pretty big library collection myself mostly in the areas of preventive maintenance, vibration, and rotating equipment maintenance (I'm not particularly interested in the maintenance management aspects).

I hesitate to give recommendations because the question/subject is pretty broad and it depends what you want to get out of those references.

I will provide some thoughts which may help to narrow down the comprehensive list provided by Josh.

I am a very big fan of Heinz Bloch. I have his items 2-6 on the list and have read a lot of his articles. I think he is really on the mark on a lot of technical issues and reading his material has introduced me to a lot of aspects that perhaps are not widely known but are still very important. I would heartily recommend those references as a sound investment that you will use for a long time.

On the flip side, I am very disappointed with the books by Keith Mobley (I hope he's not a member of this board). I have his items 8-10 on the list above. In my opinion, they seem to be a very shallow rehash of information that is widely available in other places. Perhaps if you are brand new to a subject, they may be useful as a very basic introduction to subjects such as vibration, predictive maintennace etc, but they won't remain valuable references to you for very long after your introduction to the subject IMO. (In contrast I often refer back to Heinz Bloch's books for detailed specific information on bearings and other subjects).