Publisher's Note
High cost of production is the biggest challenge faced by any organization and one of the major reasons for this is idle time of machines which is either caused by their breakdown or improper working. The idle time of the machine disturbs the whole process flow. Identifying total defect cost and failure cost shows how vast amounts of money are wasted throughout an organization when a failure happens. The bigger the failure, or the more often it happens, the more resources and money is lost. The profits that could have been made are gone, wasted, and it can never be compensated. This also lowers the morale for the workmen and others involved in the manufacturing and maintenance of the organization.
Today, modern lubricants are regarded as high end construction parts that play an integral role within the equipment or machine on which they are used. It is therefore critical that any system set up to monitor the condition of a machine are also capable of monitoring the condition of the lubricant. Lubricant plays an important role in keeping the pace of production.
The cost of lubricant in any industry is typically 1-3% of the maintenance budget, however more than 40% of equipment failures are lubrication related i.e. due to wrong choice or incorrect handling of lubricants. Hence avoidable. Many investigations require a tiered approach. It’s like peeling back an onion. Each layer or tier guides the subsequent analytical and investigative steps.
In the current issue we will share with you. The Proven methods for determining the cause of machine failure.
Readers will also find a very interesting article by the guru of lubrication, Jim Fitch who describes the power of Root Cause Pre Failure Analysis in which he explains abnormal wear is not like a bad rash, which tends to go away on its own in time. Instead, it’s more like early-stage cancer, which requires intervention and treatment. Oil analysis can’t fix a failed machine. That’s what mechanics do. It can provide pre-failure alerts, both cautionary and critical. If a root cause is detected, such as the wrong oil, dirty oil or wet oil, these conditions can be remediated quickly.
We got an overwhelming response from or readers on the last issue which dealt with a better way to test Grease Consistency and drew keen attention of the industries and professionals.
We are very glad that or readers are so responsive with their suggestions and comments and that’s the key point for us to deliver the unmatched in-depth articles on lubrication and Tribology . Please share your ideas and views so that we can serve you better.
Your feedback and suggestions are very important for us.
Warm Regards.
Udey Dhir
