Ensuring machines are always operating efficiently is a priority for many organisations, but never more so than when lives are at stake
According to research by RS and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, downtime is the biggest challenge facing maintenance engineers. Given that an average of nearly 20 hours per week is spent on unscheduled maintenance, at an average cost of over £100,000, it is also a major challenge for the organisations they work for.
The same report also found that the biggest drivers of unscheduled downtime are ageing assets and mechanical failure, but there are ways to address these issues. Condition monitoring, for instance, uses sensors, oil analysis and the tracking of lubrication levels to detect faults before they become apparent and avoid unscheduled outages. The data generated also improves preventative maintenance so that it is based on the actual performance of components in service.
RS Maintenance Solutions can help take the complexity out of the process of condition monitoring. Here’s an example showing how.
The challenge
Blood plasma products are a vital element in the treatment of cancer, haemophilia and some immune conditions. They are also used during transplant operations. Keeping supplies flowing is essential to saving lives.
A major pharmaceutical company, which produces £1 million worth of plasma products every day, was unable to predict production failures caused by the breakdown of sterilising oven fans.
Without sterile containers to transport the product, the whole production process had to be stopped. This resulted in the loss of plasma donated by the public. The location of the fans also meant breakdowns led to a shutdown of at least four days.
In the absence of any other solution, the company was using time-based inspections to avoid breakdowns. These were included in scheduled plant shutdowns over 10 days each year.
The solution
The RS Maintenance Solutions team and the customer agreed that online condition monitoring was the best way to prevent breakdowns.
RS supplied a Siemens condition monitoring system that connected to the site’s existing cloud-based data repository. By continuously checking the condition of the fan’s bearings 24-hours per day, the monitoring system alerts staff to imminent failures and provides performance data that allows for more accurate planning of routine maintenance, which in turn eliminates the risk of sudden breakdowns altogether.
The outcome
The customer is now able to predict and plan preventative maintenance, avoiding the loss of vital medical products. There is also less downtime with planned preventative maintenance. Schedule overhauls take just two days, half the time previously needed to resolve a breakdown.
The installation process also uncovered a major problem that could have seriously disrupted production if left undiscovered. While testing the equipment on the last day of a planned shutdown, overload messages were seen. The RS Maintenance Solutions team checked the cable and installed a new sensor, but the message persisted. On further investigation, the team found that a bearing within the fan unit was in a failing condition and would not have lasted until the next planned maintenance in six to nine months’ time.
Extending the shutdown by two days was unwelcome news for the customer but finding the fault in time saved the company around £4 million in lost production. The replacement fan, in contrast, cost £20,000. The return on investment was less than two days.
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