Try this simple experiment. With notepad in hand, go out into your plant and walk around a sampling of your most critical machines. These are the ones that have high probability of failure and/or the greatest consequences of failure. They are also known as show-stoppers and, as such, generally merit a disproportionate allocation of reliability and maintenance resources.

Next, on your notepad make a list of all the lubrication-related enhancements that have been implemented on these same machines since they were commissioned. Take special note of those that have been applied in the past five years. Solicit any amount of help (from old-timers, for instance) you need to flesh out your list.

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Costly particulate contamination slowly degrades and jams machine components causing product defects, shorter machine life., increased production downtime and decreased energy efficiency. Even the smallest amount of water, or the most microscopic particles, can ·eventually grind a machine to a halt. Yet, maintenance has historically been a ·reactive type activity .. When a machine breaks down, maintenance personnel give the failed components the “4R Treatment”- that is remove, repair, rebuild and/or replace. When evidence suggests that material degradation and/or deterioration is taking place at an accelerated rate, the cause has been determined and. action taken to correct the problem. In today’s world when there are increasingly complex- systems., maintenance personnel must supplement such traditional reactive maintenance Practices with proactive methods that can identify aberrant root causes of failure long before materials or component performance degradation occurs. No maintenance discipline has previously taken the micro view on machine damage concentrating on the· causes instead of the symptoms of wear. Proactive maintenance is that discipline, and it is quickly being recognized worldwide as the most important means of extending machine life.

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Condition monitoring can be easily performed by following a few simple principles. Among these principles include monitoring two sets of conditions:

1. The operating and environmental conditions that precede failure, and
2. Early-stage failure symptoms

Several models are presented that show the benefits of monitoring machine conditions, as well as the consequences of ignoring them. Also discussed is the integration of both proactive and predictive maintenance techniques to extend machine life.

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Recently, maintenance managers and corporate executives have shown a greater interest in rising maintenance costs and failure rates. The realization of the need to curb these costs has logically brought about the field of proactive maintenance. This is a program that concentrates on minimizing downtime and maximizing machine life.

This paper discusses proactive contamination control for hydraulic and lubricating systems and describes its three step implementation process. Proactive maintenance begins with establishing appropriate cleanliness targets for each individual machine pursuant to machine specific criteria. This step sets the goal or benchmarks for each machine. The second step involves the process of selecting and implementing contaminant removal devices such as filters and separators necessary to” achieve the specified target cleanliness level. The final step is the routine monitoring of machine cleanliness at frequencies based on the previously established cleanliness target and the application conditions. This final step closes the loop and insures that “control” of fluid contaminant levels is achieved.

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