Infrared Inspection Smoothes Over Rough Operations

In manufacturing sandpaper, a little friction can be expected. Too much friction, and it can lead to hot areas and fires. That's what was happening on the production line at a North American sandpaper manufacturing facility. The facility was forced to drop the line speed to 200 feet per minute to reduce the friction-induced heat.

The manufacturer contacted Predictive Service to inspect the line to help find a solution. An infrared thermal inspection identified areas on a smoothing (flexor) bar that had rough burrs on it and excess tension on the operator's side of the bar, creating excess friction. The manufacturer adjusted the alignment of the bar. A subsequent infrared inspection showed the overall heat pattern to be more evenly distributed across the sandpaper.

"For a long time, they had been operating at a slower line speed. A quick, quarter-inch adjustment cut the temperature in half even when running at more than twice the line speed. This reliability process has allowed them to more than double their daily throughput while running safer," said Allan Hines of Predictive Service.

Got BI?

The current economy has driven many companies to embrace business improvement (BI) initiatives. These initiatives result from management's need to reduce the costs of operations. It is not uncommon to hear executives say, "We need to reduce operating cost by 30% to remain competitive." Some organizations have already suffered headcount reductions, yet still need to perform the same work.

How does this affect the maintenance and reliability (M&R) function in these organizations? In almost every case, M&R teams are asked to do more with fewer resources. By analyzing CMMS data, managers can identify trends and repetative problems: emergency vs. planned work, completed vs. deferred PM/CM work orders, bad actors, etc. Maintenance activities can then be incrementally improved by implementing process improvements, root cause analysis (RCA) and other BI techniques.

But what if more is needed? These days, organizations must find solutions that are game-changers. Predictive Maintenance can be that game-changer. By implementing a predictive maintenance program, M&R teams can dramatically reduce the amount of wasteful work that they are performing.

A well thought-out predictive maintenance program can achieve this in several ways. First, predictive maintenance can detect failures before they happen, reducing or eliminating catastrophic failures and unplanned outages. The cost of a failure to an organization can be significant: increased repair/replacement costs, overtime, and the defeating spiral of deferred PM activities.

Additionally, predictive maintenance technologies can help eliminate PM work tasks. Many PM activities add value. Yet, these same activities can become wasteful or less effective compared to predictive maintenance data. It is well known that calendar-based PM will replace many fully-operational parts. It is less well known that PM activities can induce failure in an otherwise serviceable piece of equipment. PM can actually cause premature failure and create additional, unplanned work when the PM's are not adequately written, personnel are not adequately trained or simply by reintroducing infant mortality failures into the system.

An M&R team that has been challenged with an "impossible" BI goal can change their game plan by implementing a predictive maintenance program. Combined with PM optimization that evaluates and eliminates or replaces PM activities, a predictive maintenance program can significantly reduce total work activities and costs, while improving operating results for the organization.

Aerial Infrared Helps Landfills be Cooler and Greener

With more than 3,000 active landfills in the U.S., subsurface fires caused by chemical interactions are not that uncommon of an occurrence. The difficulty comes in detecting the location of such fires because they are below the surface. Detection has traditionally relied on imprecise processes. Aerial infrared technology has helped change that, allowing for subsurface hotspots to be detected and their location accurately pinpointed.

The process involves flying over a landfill and using infrared technology to identify thermal gradients within the landfill. Landfill operators can then take action, such as drawing off gases from near the area, to reduce their size or eliminate them altogether. Left alone, subsurface fires can create environmental hazards, lead to EPA fines and create unstable land on top that could collapse.

Regular aerial infrared inspections show temperature trending over time so landfill operators can determine their progress in reducing hotspots. Predictive Service has been doing monthly aerial inspections for several years for a 40 acre landfill in the Midwest. Subsurface fires had been a problem, but now are under control with the help of infrared inspections pinpointing the fires and hotspots.



A Green Energy Source
One of the newest energy trends is to extract methane gas from landfills, convert it and use the gas as a renewable, green energy source. One method used for extraction involves injecting steam into specific areas of the landfill. Aerial infrared is used to monitor internal temperatures, and better control the efficiency of the steam injection system.

"We use aerial to identify how far out steam is saturating the landfill to help fine tune the system and ensure the steam isn't too hot to melt the bottom liner or lead to hotspots," said Joe Cobb, Director of Quality Control, Predictive Service.

Cobb said that a minority of landfill operators are extracting methane for energy, but the number continues to grow. "We expect the use of aerial infrared inspections to grow as more and more landfills tap into this new energy source," he added.

The methane is used to create electricity, heat buildings and even power vehicles. The process also helps reduce the emission of methane into the atmosphere, which is a powerful greenhouse gas.

Predictive Service Named to Inc. 5000 Third Year in a Row

Inc. Magazine has named Predictive Service one of the fastest-growing companies in the country for the third year in a row. Inc. recently released its annual ranking of the Inc. 5000, which is the comprehensive guide to America's fastest-growing private companies. Predictive Service achieved nearly a 100 percent sales growth rate from 2005 to 2008, placing the company at number 13 on the list in the Midwest in the energy industry category.

"To make the Inc. 5000 three years in a row is quite an accomplishment. It really demonstrates the commitment each one of our employees has to growing our business by providing outstanding customer service. Plus, our ability to continue expanding our offerings and expertise to remain a leader in the predictive maintenance industry," said Don Frankel, president and CEO, Predictive Service.

Upcoming Trade Show Appearances

SMRP, Oct 19-22, St Louis, MO. Booth 85.

IMC-PDM 2009, Nov 16-18, Daytona Beach, FL. Booth 316.