Hearing is believing

The Lubrizol Corp. is a specialty chemical company that produces and supplies technologies to improve the quality and performance of our customers’ products in the global transportation, industrial and consumer markets. Our first operations, in 1928, were in a small garage in Cleveland. Today, the world headquarters in Wickliffe, Ohio, consists of a number of buildings scattered throughout a large campus.

My duties as a maintenance specialist are to perform predictive maintenance surveys on critical and non-critical pieces of equipment using airborne ultrasound, infrared thermography and vibration analysis. My goal is to locate minor problems before they become catastrophic failures that could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income.

The power of predicting

Companies are in business to be profitable. If a piece of equipment fails unexpectedly, the cost could be enormous. That’s why it’s essential to keep equipment up and running and to avoid breakdowns. If a production line bearing in a paper or steel mill locks up, the costs can run into the millions of dollars.
We have hundreds of pieces of equipment at our Lubrizol facility, each critical to our operation. Together, they have several hundred bearings, essential components in all rotating equipment. Bearings hold and support shafts so that pumps, fans and other machinery can smoothly and freely rotate. As the internal components in moving machinery begin to wear, friction increases, which changes the ultrasonic sound signature. A change in ultrasound becomes apparent before other signs of wear appear, such as vibration.

Like vibration analysis, ultrasound trending can help you make judgment calls. When you ask an equipment operator to take a pump, fan or motor offline because the bearings are bad and need to be replaced, the operator will ask two questions: “Are you sure?” and, “How long will it take?” With trending, you have a history on the bearings that helps you diagnose the problem. Without that history, you are guessing.

Ultrasound allows you to gather more details about how a machine is operating. For example, it might emit a rough grinding sound when it needs to be lubricated. Or, it might give off a rushing water sound when it’s over-lubricated, which can be equally problematic and can cause the bearing to overheat. Using ultrasound to identify bearing wear in its earliest stages is a valuable tool that avoids costly downtime.

How ultrasound works

Airborne ultrasound is an acoustic frequency that a human ear can’t hear. Human-audible sound ranges from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, with the average being approximately 16,500 Hz. Airborne ultrasound allows us to hear sounds in the 20 kHz to 100 kHz range. A transducer mounted in either a scanning module (used for airborne sounds) or a contact module (used to touch an object) captures the sound and transfers it to the instrument. Through a process called heterodyning, the inaudible signal is converted into a frequency that we can hear through headphones. Also, the sound intensity (in decibels) is displayed on the instrument’s meter. The unit has a compact flash card to record sound wave signature.

By either touching the instrument to a test spot or pointing it at a target, you can hear the ultrasonic sounds through headphones and determine the source on the basis of intensity. The advantage of using ultrasound is that the source of the ultrasonic sound is fairly directional and can be easily identified with little interference from competing sounds.

Ultrasound machines are lightweight and portable, and can be used with relatively little training. The applications for ultrasound are numerous, covering most potential mechanical, electrical and leak problems. Also, ultrasonic technology can detect, trend and analyze potential failure conditions earlier than traditional predictive maintenance technologies.

Fundamentals of repeatability

There are five important things to remember when you trend wear in rolling-element bearings:

• The most important thing is to have repeatability.
• Select a location on the machine to take your readings, and take them at the same location every time.
• Approach the machine from the same angle each time.
• Apply the same amount of pressure when taking the readings. Too little pressure causes the reading to be lower; too much pressure causes the reading to be higher.
• Know the machine’s speed and loading because differences affect your readings.

What should I monitor?

You'll have to decide. But keep in mind that no piece of operating equipment is too big or too small to be monitored. If it’s important to you, your operation, or your customer, then it’s worth monitoring and trending.

How often should I monitor?

This is where you need to set your priorities. How critical is the equipment? If you lose a pump, fan or a motor, will your operation cease? If so, you should put these items on a monthly schedule. Is there a backup? If one fails, can another take over? If so, check them every other month. If you could continue to operate even if a piece of equipment fails, check them quarterly. These monitoring schedules are only a guideline. Every situation is different. Plant size, equipment to be checked and the number of trained personal to take the readings affect your scheduling.