Condition Monitoring

Stream Engineering Solutions Limited is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales. Registration Number 04950317

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Even in these enlightened times, the majority of plant maintenance is still carried out on either a breakdown or a fixed frequency (time-based) basis. Although these are the appropriate strategies for a small number of plant items, for the majority the maxim "if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it" is more appropriate and leads to more productive use of the equipment.

The trick, of course, is to know when the plant is "broken". Leaving plant until it physically breaks or stops producing can be costly in terms of loss of output and this is usually exacerbated by the breakdown happening at the worst time, when the resource and spares needed for repairs are not immediately available but production requirements are at their peak. This approach is therefore largely unacceptable and the result is the widespread practice of time-based maintenance in which plant is overhauled and parts replaced whether they are needed or not. At least this can be planned into production schedules with minimum disruption, but in modern manufacturing every plant stoppage is a lost opportunity, whatever the cause, and is to be avoided if at all possible.

Condition Monitoring is the application of one or more appropriate technique(s) which will detect deterioration of plant in such a way that early warning of failure or a requirement for service is obtained. This gives plenty of time for spares, resource and gaps in production schedules to be arranged for minimum downtime and maximum productivity. The identification of the most appropriate technique or combination of techniques is critical to the success of condition monitoring in order to maximise productivity whilst keeping the risks of un-planned downtime (failure) to a minimum.

Stream ES has a great deal of experience in the specification and use of all of the above techniques and the in-house capability for implementation and training of most of them. We would be pleased to discuss opportunities to increase your production efficiency with you.