Earlier this year, Plant Services delivered a surprise result in our annual PdM survey, When asked which predictive maintenance technologies readers has deployed or were planning to deploy, the top two results were oil analysis and vibration analysis, each of which registered more than a 12% increase in planned usage since the last survey.

We conducted our research in January 2016 and attended Noria's Reliable Plant event in April; during that show, I became aware of a new event planned for later in the year: the International Machine Vibration Analysis Conference, or IMVAC.

That event is now a reality, filling a gap in the series of maintenance and reliability practitioner events, and I'm looking forward to attending and being a part of what promises to be a forward-looking and much needed resource in our industry. The opening keynote has already been delivered by vibration authority John Mitchell, who traced the efficiency gains in condition-monitoring data gathering over the past several decades, enabling a greater emphasis on analytics, and who challenged attendees to widen their thinking to evolve vibration monitoring and asset management beyond its current plateau of use.

This morning's keynote is being delivered by Dr. Ken Piety, VP of technology at Azima DLI who argues that, in the age of the Internet of Things and similarly advanced asset monitoring approaches, technology alone cannot drive asset management programs to their full potential. Piety also will review how software tools can enable automated screening and graphical visualization, and advanced reporting functions which heavily impact the accuracy and the speed at which the analyst can process this information, offering a better ROI from PdM programs.

Other sessions that look promising include the following:

• Tu 9:30am - "Debunking the Myth around Predictive Maintenance in the Cloud," by Heather De Jesus and Michael DeMaria, Azima DLI
• Tu 10:45am - "OEMs are Right ... Just About: A Case Study in a Paper Mill," by Tarun Motwani, Visy Paper
• Tu 11:45am - "Condition Monitoring for the Long-Term," by Tod Baer, Minnkota Power Cooperative Inc.
• Tu 2:30pm - "Slow Speed Bearing Monitoring Using Ultrasound," by Adrian Messer, UE Systems, Inc.
• W 9:00am - "Rolling Element Bearings – Why the Harmonics, Why the Sidebands," by Clyde Volpe, Vibration Institute of Australia
• W 10:00am - "Testing and Acceptance of Million Dollar Vertical Mixer Pumps for Savannah River Site," by Jerald Danny Newton, Savannah River Remediation
• W 1:00pm - "Selling Reliability to the C-Suite: Know how to Justify and Finance Your Initiative," by Tom Clawser, Delta Reliability

If you're at the show, be sure to say hi, or swing by the final sessions at 3pm Wednesday to learn about more from our 2016 PdM survey. More to follow in the form of an event wrap-up later this week!