Tag: condition monitoring

Switchgear Monitoring: Enhancing Asset Performance and Reducing Risks

Posted on 23 December 2024 | by wesley

In modern industry, where efficiency and risk mitigation are paramount, the monitoring and maintenance of critical assets stand as a cornerstone of operational success. Among these assets, medium to high-voltage switchgear is pivotal, safeguarding essential electrical systems within facilities. Ntokozo Nkosi, the Data Centre Manager at Martec, offers insights into the intricate world of switchgear monitoring and the indispensable role it plays in ensuring operational continuity.

At the heart of Martec’s approach lies a profound understanding of the imperatives driving modern organisations: achieving optimal asset performance while minimising costs and risks. Nkosi elucidates, “To create a real competitive advantage, an organisation must achieve optimum performance from its asset base while reducing costs and risks. Martec understands this uncompromising need and has developed a functionally rich portfolio of solutions for organisations wanting to take up this challenge.”

Switchgear, with its intricate components and critical function, demands meticulous attention. Nkosi delineates the anatomy of switchgear, highlighting its three primary sections: the cable termination points, the circuit breaker compartment, and the bus bar sections. Partial discharge (PD) is particularly concerning, a phenomenon implicated in approximately 85% of switchgear faults. Understanding the nuances of PD is imperative for effective monitoring and maintenance strategies.

Nkosi expounds on the diverse origins of PD within switchgear. Conductive contamination, foreign objects, humidity, and moisture ingress can lead to surface tracking discharges, resulting in electrical treeing and insulation degradation. Contact type discharges or partial arcing, a term coined by Martec, manifest as localised electrical discharges at interfaces within the switchgear. These discharges can stem from various issues, including lousy circuit breaker contacts and inadequate air gaps.

Terminations, crucial connection points within switchgear, are particularly susceptible to PD activity due to installation challenges and environmental factors. Nkosi underscores the importance of meticulous installation, highlighting that it is not just a task but a critical step to prevent internal PD activity and maintain operational integrity.

When PD activity is detected, crucial questions arise, necessitating advanced technologies for accurate diagnosis and remediation. Martec, with its proactive approach, employs the Partial Discharge Frequency System Analyzer (PDFSA), a cutting-edge technology that identifies, locates, and quantifies electrical discharges within switchgear and terminations. This sophisticated tool enables analysts to discern PD activity’s type, location, and severity, facilitating informed decision-making regarding maintenance and repair.

Nkosi sheds light on the intricacies of PDFSA, elucidating its methodology and capabilities. By capturing PD pulses with a wide frequency range of up to 200MHz, PDFSA enables analysts to discern between internal PD, tracking, contact, and corona discharges. Through meticulous analysis of frequency domain spectra, analysts can pinpoint the source of PD activity within the switchgear assembly, empowering proactive maintenance strategies.

In addition to PDFSA, Martec leverages advanced technologies to separate background noise from actual PD patterns, further enhancing diagnostic accuracy and efficacy.

In conclusion, the monitoring and management of switchgear represent a critical imperative for organisations seeking to optimise asset performance and mitigate operational risks. Through deploying advanced technologies and meticulous diagnostic methodologies, Martec stands at the forefront of innovation, empowering organisations to navigate the complexities of switchgear maintenance with confidence and precision.

Ensuring resilience: Navigating transformer risks through advanced monitoring and IoT implementation

Posted on 5 October 2023 | by wesley

Embracing innovation in transformer management

Critical infrastructure management has leapt forward in an era dominated by technological advancement – and transformers are no exception. Gone are the days of relying solely on reactive maintenance, as integrating risk assessments, online monitoring, and the Internet of Things (IoT) promises a new dawn for transformer management. As we delve into the intricate world of transformers, we uncover the pivotal importance of tracking asset and condition risk, shedding light on achieving the elusive goal of 100% uptime.

I. The dual frontier: Asset risk and condition risk

Navigating the terrain of transformer management requires addressing two distinct yet interconnected facets: asset risk and condition risk.

Asset risk

Transformers represent substantial investments in any power infrastructure. Ensuring their longevity and optimal performance is paramount. Asset risk encompasses the probability of:

a safety incident occurring (if power is lost for more than 24 hours)
associated financial loss
environmental risk
contingency design (N minus 1 contingency and alternative back feed options)
strategic spare unit availability
repair capability and time frame
a transformer’s lifespan, considering age, design, and maintainability factors.

In this context, asset risk refers to the potential financial jeopardy from the loss of power to critical plant and is tied to the entire lifecycle of a transformer. This evaluation considers the transformer’s age, design intricacies, substation design and network interconnectivity. Practical asset risk assessment involves meticulously analysing historical data to discern network performance patterns or susceptibility to faults affecting the transformer and the equipment it supplies. In essence, it is the examination of the unavailability of that power source and the consequences of the absence of the power source.

Condition risk

Condition risk focuses on the internal health of transformers in the short- medium- and long-term. Oil-filled transformers are very forgiving and can operate under severe neglect. Neglected and often overlooked maintenance practices lead to costly breakdowns and lengthy service interruptions or repairs that require the transformer to be removed from service and shipped to a repair facility. Frequently, the shipping cost alone is very costly. It is when the transformer has been neglected that unexpected failures occur. These instances can lead to dire consequences, such as fires and the destruction of other equipment!

In the operation of these transformers, some condition parameters take many years to manifest or become apparent. Some take several months to change, and others mere minutes or seconds to occur. The latter set of condition parameters are the parameters every transformer operator or owner needs to monitor more intensely. Traditionally, a transformer’s “lifeblood” (aka oil or insulating fluid) is used to detect these condition changes.

Focusing on the more short-term condition is the breakdown of the fluid into gases that can be extracted from a transformer’s fluid body and chemically analysed. These gases can show several other conditions with different interpretation tools (eg Duval triangle, Duval pentagram, gas ratios). These parameters are often used as a gauge for the internal condition of the transformer. However, a thermometer only tells one what the temperature is and, in essence, cannot tell what the illness is. The use of computer databases can assist in extracting the correct data and forming a picture of the transformer’s health.

Considering the above, it is necessary to understand that there is a process of acquiring the data from the analysis. This process is often flawed and takes up to two months to obtain.

Enter the realm of online monitoring – an innovation that is pivotal in transformer management. By deploying online devices such as online DGA (dissolved gas analysis), dielectric, bushing and tap-changer monitors and harnessing the power of data analytics, online monitoring unveils a faster cycle into the transformer’s inner workings. For instance, a sudden spike in the gases beyond established thresholds could indicate a partial discharge, arcing or overheating issues, or a dip in oil quality might hint at an element of neglect and have a long-term impact on insulation degradation. From a bushing monitoring aspect, a shift in the tan delta measurements could show that a bushing is about to fail. A tap changer monitor can highlight added stress on the on-load switching device and cause premature failure. Additionally, oil quality irregularities could point towards loss of insulation capability and longer-term damage to the paper insulation, impairing the transformer’s ability to withstand the network variations and through fault instances. The value of this approach lies in its proactive nature.

Detecting these anomalies at their developing stage empowers utilities to initiate targeted interventions, preventing the domino effect of catastrophic failures and fortifying the overall robustness of the system against unexpected adversities. Higher instances of network disturbances such as cable theft, loadshedding, short circuits and overloading all affect the transformer’s reliability.

II. The digital vanguard: Online monitoring and IoT implementation

Online monitoring

Online devices strategically placed within a power delivery system network relay vital data to central control centres, where advanced algorithms decipher the information, enabling better predictive maintenance and swifter response to deviations from the norm. This intime vigilance transforms risk management from a guessing game into an informative science and resilient supply network.

These online devices meticulously collect a wealth of critical data, ranging from moisture-in-oil and temperature variations to dissolved gas composition nuances and bushing condition intricacies. This wealth of information embarks on a swift and seamless journey from devices to cloud-based applications to dashboards. It has algorithms to decipher the incoming data, unveiling patterns hidden from the naked eye. Enabling enhanced engineering decisions to safeguard the operations under normal and adverse operating conditions when needed, thus delivering the best short- and long-term performance.

Let’s step into a real-world scenario within a plant where the delivery of electrical power is vital. A transformer monitored by its intricate set of devices is available and able to supply the demand needed to ensure the plant delivers. On a typical busy day, soaring electricity demand prompts devices to detect and flag abnormal strain on components, signalling a potential power failure. Swiftly, crucial data is sent to a cloud-based dashboard, where advanced algorithms promptly identify an anomaly and track development. Production is critical, and power loss to the plant would be detrimental to the output of the plant. The proactive response isn’t just immediate; it’s part of predictive maintenance, leveraging data mining of historical and intime data to anticipate issues. Having both the network, asset and condition risk at hand enhances the ability to shift power flow from one network to another or an alternative supply.

What was once a guessing game, where maintenance decisions were based on a mix of historical practices and intuition, has now transmuted into an engineered solution. With its synergy of monitors, data analytics, and predictive algorithms, online monitoring can breathe life into proactive risk management.

Holistically, the risk model and the data associated with the risk data assist in forming a picture of where to spend the maintenance budget wisely, thus getting the best reliability from the power plant assets employed. Ultimately getting both performance when needed and return on investment optimised.

IoT Implementation

Before venturing into an extensive solution, it is best to consider the transformer’s network and the equipment it supplies power to. Much of the decision will be based on the importance of the equipment or processes provided by that transformer. As an example, consider a transformer that supplies power to a furnace. If the power transformer feeding that furnace were to stop functioning, the processes reliant on that hot metal would be without material to produce the end product. Again, in a different context, if the transformer supplied power to 200,000 households or businesses, those households and businesses would cease to function normally, plus the associated loss of revenue. Generally, the operation of the transformer in its environment and supplied load (typically the processes or customers) needs to be the focus of the asset risk. Setting up the correct asset risk evaluation is invaluable in understanding which asset needs to be monitored closely and more frequently.

Once the asset risk is determined, the condition risk can be used as a final step in the process. Taking the assets with the highest asset risk and using the condition risk to tweak the list to indicate which assets deserve closer scrutiny and enhanced monitoring. The asset highlighted in the analysis would be the best candidate to apply the IoT technology.

With the appropriate monitors, these transformers can provide reliable data that can be sent to the decision-making engineers, sharing intricate insights about the transformer’s health. For example, a transformer detects a surge in demand as factories ramp up production during the day. This information is published to a dashboard, allowing Operations to proceed with the comfort of knowing the power delivery system is stable and they can see the production run to its completion.

III. Pinnacle of reliability

The pursuit of perfection

The quest for 100% uptime may sound utopian. However, with IoT implementation, utilities can proactively address potential issues before they snowball into crises by having the details of network- and asset risk combined with sound condition data, allowing the system to operate at its peak. Predictive maintenance, guided by data-driven insights, minimises downtime and maximises efficiency.

Synergy in action

The synergy between asset risk evaluation and condition risk monitoring is the cornerstone of continuous power. As plant owners refine their risk assessment strategies, they align maintenance schedules with intime condition updates, ensuring that transformers are optimised for performance throughout their lifecycle.

Illuminating the future of transformer management

The combined force of network risk assessments, online monitoring, and IoT implementation to communicate the data is revolutionising transformer management. The importance of tracking assets and their condition risks cannot be overstated. The amalgamation of these cutting-edge technologies enables transformer owners to proactively safeguard transformers, minimising disruptions and inching closer to the coveted 100% uptime.

To read more about our transformer monitoring services, click here.

100% uptime with your switchgear? Impossible dream … or a new reality?

Posted on 1 June 2023 | by wesley

Engineering managers in South Africa have their work cut out for them when it comes to achieving 100% uptime for their MV switchgear. They face a daunting task with an infrastructure that has to withstand unreliable and frequent power outages that play havoc with critical systems. Most MV switchgear systems are designed for long or continuous operation and not for the on /off situation caused by loadshedding. However, various technologies are available to ensure that switchgear remains operational – from remote monitoring to predictive maintenance and backup systems. These tools can become a formidable arsenal to help to keep systems running smoothly, even in the most adverse conditions.

Remote monitoring is one of the most critical technologies for achieving 100% uptime with switchgear. With remote monitoring, you can keep a close eye on systems at all times, allowing quick detection of any issues that arise and taking corrective action before they become serious problems. Remote monitoring can be especially beneficial for plants in remote or hard-to-reach areas.

The power of remote monitoring

Remote switchgear monitoring typically involves sensors, data analysers, IOT monitoring devices and software for realtime data collection and analysis. This technology enables monitoring of critical parameters such as temperature, current, and voltage. More often these days – online partial discharge monitoring of busbar, breakers, cable terminations and cables and receiving alerts when these readings exceed predefined thresholds. In addition, remote monitoring solutions often include advanced analytics capabilities, such as machine learning algorithms, that can detect patterns and anomalies in the data that may indicate potential issues. Leveraging these technologies can proactively identify and address problems before they cause downtime or operational disruption.

A multi-sensory approach

Switchgear can be equipped with various types of sensors to monitor different aspects of its performance. For instance, temperature sensors can detect overheating in circuit breakers, transformers, or other components, indicating potential failures or other issues. Current sensors can measure the electrical current flowing through different switchgear parts, providing valuable energy consumption and performance data. Voltage sensors can monitor the voltage levels at various points in the system, helping to identify any irregularities that could lead to malfunctions or damage. Other types of sensors used in switchgear include partial discharge gas pressure (SF6), humidity, and gas sensors, which can detect leaks or other abnormalities that could pose safety risks to staff or compromise the reliability of the equipment.

Typical switchgear failures and the technologies used to prevent them

Partial discharge / Arcing and tracking: Cause significant damage to switchgear components and increase the fire risk and safety to staff in the substation environment. Technologies used: ultrasonic monitoring, infrared thermography, partial discharge analysis/monitoring.
Contacts erosion: Contacts in switchgear can wear out over time, leading to increased resistance and decreased performance. Technologies used: partial discharge monitoring, ultrasonic monitoring, resistance monitoring.
Insulation breakdown: Insulation breakdown can cause damage to switchgear components and increase the risk of electrical faults. Technologies used: partial discharge monitoring, insulation resistance monitoring, ultrasonic monitoring, thermal imaging.
Corrosion: Causes damage to switchgear components and increases the risk of electrical faults. Technologies used: ultrasonic monitoring, visual inspection, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and corrosion monitoring sensors.
Mechanical failures: Occur on switchgear components leading to reduced performance and increased downtime. Mechanical failures can be prevented by monitoring the condition of switchgear components, detecting issues early on, and performing maintenance to extend the life of switchgear components.

A comprehensive view of the switchgear’s condition is obtained using these tools and technologies, and predictive maintenance comes to the fore. Thus, we can prevent failures before they occur with proactive steps to optimise performance, minimise downtime, improve equipment reliability and minimise the risks associated with equipment failure.

Predictive maintenance strategies

In addition to these technologies, several other strategies come into play to achieve that elusive 100% uptime with switchgear. For example, one can implement redundancy and backup systems to ensure critical systems remain operational even if one component fails. Comprehensive testing and training programmes can be implemented to ensure staff can quickly and effectively respond to any issues. For example, we consider what risks condition monitoring can avert in a power plant.

What risks can remote monitoring avert at a power plant?

Condition monitoring is critical for ensuring safe and reliable switchgear operation at a power plant. For example, temperature sensors can detect hot spots in the switchgear that could lead to equipment damage or fire. By detecting these hot spots early on, one can implement measures such as cooling or rerouting the circuits to prevent further damage. Similarly, PD scanners, ultrasound, or vibration sensors can detect abnormal vibrations on external parts of the switchgear. These vibrations may indicate loose connections or faulty components, which could lead to arcing or other electrical faults. By addressing these issues promptly, the risk of electrical faults, outages, and other disruptions that could compromise the safety and reliability of the power plant is reduced. Overall, condition monitoring ensures smooth and safe switchgear operation at a power plant.

Do you have a significant edge over your competition?

In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive business landscape, achieving 100% uptime with switchgear is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Adopting a comprehensive approach incorporating cutting-edge technologies, practical strategies, and best practices ensures that your critical systems remain operational and reliable. Whether you’re operating in the mining, manufacturing, or energy sectors, leveraging the latest tools and techniques can give you a significant edge over the competition and help you stay ahead of the curve in this rapidly evolving industry. With the right approach, achieving 100% uptime with switchgear is not only possible but essential for the success and sustainability of your operations.

While achieving 100% uptime with switchgear is critical, it is only one part of ensuring critical systems’ safe and reliable operation. Another vital component is transformer technologies, which are crucial in maintaining stable and efficient power delivery to critical loads.

In our next article, we will unpack the current transformer technologies and explore how they can be leveraged to achieve 100% uptime. From smart transformers to predictive maintenance tools, we will examine the latest trends and best practices in transformer technology and offer insights on staying ahead of the curve in this ever-changing field.

Move over downtime – hello uptime

Posted on 14 March 2023 | by wesley

The face of maintenance management is constantly evolving. For decades we ticked the “it is functional again box” after an equipment breakdown – and we were okay with it. Today, technology makes it possible to foresee when an asset will fail and what we can do to prevent it – often in realtime.

The traditional definition of uptime is: “the percentage of time that your critical equipment is 100% operational”. Is this doable or pie in the sky? Some would say if all the stars align and you are lucky to work with new equipment, it might be the case.

Our condition monitoring experts say that it is doable. Cosmic stars aside, the condition monitoring field has several star performers that can work in tandem with an asset management strategy, maintenance tactics and proper work management processes to make reliability your reality.

To help you move from a defensive to an offensive strategy, we shed some light on condition monitoring’s value as a preventive maintenance tactic.

Condition-based maintenance is a maintenance tactic consisting of a set of tasks where an inspection or test task (condition monitoring task) is performed to verify the condition of the equipment. This leads to corrective follow-up work if the condition is approaching an unacceptable state.

Identifying potential failures with a wide range of technologies

The asset condition can be monitored using a variety of technologies, such as:

vibration analysis
oil analysis
ultrasound technology
infrared thermography
partial discharge detection

Simplistically, these technologies are a data gathering technique to assess asset health and identify potential failures before they develop into functional failures. Their core purpose is to attempt to create the largest possible potential to functional failure (P-F) interval in which maintenance can be scheduled and completed.

As condition monitoring technologies evolve and equipment becomes more intelligent, more technologies continue to come to the fore supporting condition-based maintenance.

What are the benefits of using condition monitoring technologies?

As we’ve discovered, condition monitoring technologies can play a crucial role in providing realtime data about the condition of assets, helping to identify potential problems before they become serious issues, helping to optimise maintenance activities, and ultimately enabling organisations to achieve their AM goals while improving the performance of their assets, such as:

Early detection of issues: Condition monitoring technologies can detect problems with assets before they become serious issues. This allows timely interventions to prevent downtime, reduce maintenance costs, and improve equipment reliability.
Equipment optimisation: Condition monitoring technologies can provide valuable insights into the performance of assets, which can be used to optimise equipment operations. For example, data from vibration analysis can detect imbalance, vibration, bearing failure and resonance conditions before they cause catastrophic failure and determine the best operating conditions for equipment, helping reduce wear and tear and improve performance.
Cost reduction: By detecting problems early and optimising equipment performance, condition monitoring technologies can help to reduce maintenance costs and minimise downtime. This leads to further cost savings associated with lost production and emergency repairs and improves return on investment.
Improved equipment reliability: By identifying potential problems and performing maintenance before they become serious issues, condition monitoring technologies improve the reliability of assets. This leads to improved equipment availability and reduces the risk of unplanned downtime.
Increased equipment life: By performing maintenance at the right time, condition monitoring can help extend the assets’ life. This reduces the frequency of replacement, leading to further cost savings.

The benefit of deploying condition monitoring technologies goes further. As an example, we consider what risks condition monitoring can avert in a power plant.

What risks can condition monitoring avert at a power plant?

Safety risks: Power plants are dangerous places, and equipment failure can result in serious safety risks to personnel, such as electrical shocks and burns, boiler fires and explosions, and contact with hazardous chemicals. By detecting problems early and performing maintenance before they become serious issues, condition monitoring technologies help to reduce the risk of injuries or even fatalities.
Environmental risks: Oil spills resulting in water and soil pollution and the release of toxic chemicals as air and water pollution are huge environmental threats. Condition monitoring technologies help to prevent equipment failure and reduce the risk of such environmental incidents.
Financial risks: Power plants are expensive assets, and equipment failure can result in significant financial losses. By reducing downtime and improving equipment reliability, condition monitoring technologies can help to reduce the financial risks associated with equipment failure.
Reputation risks: Power plants are often in the public eye, and equipment failure can damage the organisation’s reputation. By improving equipment reliability and reducing downtime, condition monitoring technologies can help to minimise the risk of damage to the organisation’s reputation.

Condition monitoring technologies will add significant value if correctly used as part of your maintenance strategy. Downtime on your selected critical assets can be a thing of the past.

Look out for our next edition, where we unpack the use of specific technologies to secure that elusive 100% uptime with switchgear.

The role of condition monitoring in optimising performance and safety in the mining sector

Posted on 21 February 2022 | by Bronwen Klassen

Mining reserves in South Africa are vast. According to statistics from the South African Department of Mineral Resources and the US Geological Survey our ore reserves amount to a value of more than US$2.5 trillion [1]. Conversely the industry is in crisis – why? Costs have become prohibitive, primarily due to years of lack of development in R&D, causing the industry to reduce its international competitiveness and no longer be an innovator on the forefront of new industrialisation opportunities.

Safety also plays a role in this arena. Although the number of fatal injuries has reduced by limiting reactive or unplanned maintenance, and further decreasing the likelihood of safety hazards, 58 deaths still occurred in 2020 [2].

Let us unpack how effective condition monitoring can work towards ameliorating this somewhat dire situation.

Mining in particular is fraught with unreliability due to mechanical haulage with extensive wear on equipment, and the best way to improve the reliability of a mine is with effective condition monitoring. Condition monitoring more than any other maintenance tactic can optimise your maintenance strategy whether you take an online, offline or intime condition monitoring approach.

With mining in particular the scale of economy in downtime is huge – moving the ore from the pit to the crushers to the end product – if any one of those stages breaks down the resulting financial loss is vast. For example, if a furnace transformer at a mine is off for one day losses can be calculated at up to R2.5M per day.

In addition, the synergistic roles of condition monitoring and safety in the mining sector cannot be underestimated. Condition monitoring consultant Tom Dalton says: “Safety often drives condition monitoring – human life or limbs are not replaceable. The condition of plant can have far reaching consequences in terms of safety. Consider the scenario at a deep mine hauling up to 30 people in the cage. Not only is it crucial to have condition monitoring technology on the cable to ensure it is within serviceable limits, we also need to consider the hidden reliability risks – if the cable should snap and the brakes (a hidden failure) failed, the results could be catastrophic. Thus, we can see that condition monitoring in our mining sector needs to consider multiple systems need to ensure optimal safety.”

Let us now consider the condition monitoring technologies which can be put in place with relative ease of implementation to improve both safety and ROI.

One of the original and stalwart pillars of condition monitoring is vibration analysis. This is a simple yet effective way to detect faulty components through placing accelerometers in strategic positions on the asset to be analysed to measure the vibration of the system. Vibration analysis utilises displacement, velocity and acceleration time waveforms (TWF), or the fast fourier transform (FFT) of the TWF to accurately detect faulty components.

“People don’t understand how easy these are to implement.” – Tom Dalton, Condition Monitoring Consultant

Another technology which should be considered on assets where early failure detection is especially important, is that of ultrasonic analysis. This technology can be used to detect sound abnormalities in electrical systems (eg corona, tracking, arcing); mechanical systems (eg drive belts, couplings, bearings) and tightness integrity (eg marine, chemical, medical).

Condition monitoring allows us to detect potential failures across all systems well in advance, allowing for proper planning, thereby improving the reliability of a mine and improving safety for the workforce. Simply put – condition monitoring allows us to increase uptime and decrease downtime.

Condition-based maintenance is applied when the deterioration in asset health or performance is detectable, or there is adequate warning time to react. (PF interval is large enough, HSSE issues are addressed and it is cost-effective).

Condition monitoring provides an accurate asset health diagnosis, which leads to preventive actions being taken as soon as potential failure is detected.

There is no equivalent to the P-F curve and for this reason performance is often overlooked. The consequences of unacceptable performance over the long term can be more costly than functional failure, which is quickly rectified.

Whilst these technologies can be readily implemented, there are hurdles to overcome. In this industry one of the biggest obstacles which we face today is the lack of training. Condition monitoring consultant Tom Dalton asserts this with the statement that: “There is lack of knowledge – people don’t understand the technology or they feel the technology is too expensive. Avoidance of proper succession planning also plays a role where the technology knowledge lies with only one person in the organisation. Organisations need to ensure that sufficient resources are trained in the technology.”

A further observance is that an organisation may have implemented the appropriate condition monitoring technologies, but fail to react on the information it provides. Essentially, it all comes down to trained and skilled resources implementing effective of condition monitoring in the system.

With all of these factors to consider – how do we move to the forefront of industry, ensure workforce safety and from a global standpoint, remain competitive?

The advent of IIoT is upon us and to remain relevant in this arena we need to consider migrating our condition monitoring technologies to being intime, to remain relevant in this highly competitive global market. We cannot underestimate and consider the impact of what intime condition monitoring can bring to the ROI of our plant, as well as improved workforce efficiency and safety.

Online Monitoring: AN overview of intime IIoT

“We have to look at the optimal state we want our plant to be in – you need to determine your plant’s strategic path,” says conditioning monitoring consultant Tom Dalton. “Our reliability engineers are best equipped to determine the most cost-effective savings – yes – some may take years to realise – but we need to consider the that condition monitoring today is about extracting value, the role of technology and the integration with asset management. They are key to a sustainable benefit for the ROI of your plant and your workforce safety. These are the factors we need to consider in condition monitoring today.”

Statistics referenced/cited in the article
[1] The South African mining sector – Wits University
[2] South Africa: Mining industry fatalities 2020 | Statista

Should Condition-based Maintenance form part of your maintenance programme?

Posted on 9 December 2021 | by Bronwen Klassen

In this day and age, where technology is a great enabler in helping to predict equipment or plant downtime, one would reckon that most asset-intensive companies have condition monitoring as one of the arrows in their tactical maintenance quiver. With condition-based maintenance in place, you get a better understanding of the condition of your equipment which in turn helps you to do the appropriate maintenance when required. The spinoff to this is increased production, improved safety, reduced maintenance costs and failures, a controlled budget and ultimately – longer-lasting assets.

While there is a definite increase in the number of companies using CM technologies and services, we still encounter businesses either with limited /failed or partially implemented CM programmes, or no plan business strategy related to their reliability or condition monitoring programmes. So why then do engineering managers not include condition monitoring in their maintenance and reliability programmes? We’ve found a lack of knowledge and some misconceptions about condition monitoring being the biggest culprits. In this article Gerrit Visagie, Martec Condition Monitoring Consultant will address the issues at hand.

What is condition-based maintenance (CBM)?

Those activities involving continuous or periodic monitoring and diagnosis in order to forecast component degradations so that as-needed, planned maintenance can be performed before equipment failure.

The purpose of CBM as a tactic is to prevent unacceptable consequences by monitoring asset conditions. CBM is predictive in nature with periodic inspections or condition monitoring being carried out to assess the asset condition. If the condition is unacceptable corrective follow-up maintenance is initiated.

CBM is applied when the deterioration in asset health or performance is detectable, or there is adequate warming time to react (PF interval is large enough, HSSE issues are addressed and it is cost-effective).

We suggest two standard tasks to be included in your enterprise asset management system to do inspections and follow-up’s which can be activated based on inspection findings.

When is condition-based maintenance feasible?

We feel you are doing it right when you get the following results:

The potential failure mode can be clearly defined and detected.
The period from detection to failure (P-F) is fairly constant and predictable.
It is practical to monitor at intervals smaller than the P-F interval.
The warning level is detected long enough before failure to allow the intervention.

What are some of the most important value-adds of CBM?

You can plan and schedule corrective action in good time, which include your spare parts, materials and special resources.
You can conduct appropriate maintenance with the right people and at the right time and place.
With selected or target maintenance you become more efficient and reduce downtime.
You can eliminate defects that would result in failures.
With more control over your budget, you stabilise and then start decreasing maintenance costs.
Well maintained assets have an increased lifespan.
By mitigating breakdowns on certain critical assets, you reduce the risk of collateral asset damages.
Decision making becomes easier with better insights available.

How can we calculate the return on investment when implementing condition monitoring?

This is a very important question as it definitely justifies the investment of implementing condition monitoring, CBM and even something like asset health management.

Here is a simple calculation to determine the return on investment:

Estimated cost if the asset run to failure = R735 000
The actual cost of PDMR (eg. Parts, consumable materials, contractor support, repair shop cost, etc) = R 143325
Cost avoidance for this PDMR = R735 000 – R 143325= R591 825

This is an important cost to consider as part of the overall maintenance budget, especially as input into life cycle costing for specific assets of high value and budgeting purposes.

What are the typical technologies or tactics (approaches) used for mechanical equipment?

Technologies that are widely used are the following:
Vibration monitoring/ Portable and permanent monitoring systems
Ultrasound/ Portable and permanent monitoring systems
Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA)
Oil Monitoring (Tribology)
Thermography (IR Imaging)
NDT (Non-destructive testing)

What steps should be taken to compile an integrated CBM and asset management plan?

Again, one needs to define the goal and endpoint of what you want to achieve.

The philosophy of asset condition monitoring is to watch carefully, determine health status on a continuous or periodic basis, predict future status based on deficiencies found, then maintain or return asset health to normal before complete loss of function.

From my experience and perspective, I would suggest the following steps:

Step 1 | Identify the assets that you want to monitor. Concentrate on assets that are:

Criticality – Importance to production and organisational success
Costly to repair and replace
Not going to be replaced any time soon
Reaching the end of life
High Failure rate
Long replacement lead time

Step 2 | Identify all known and probable failure modes

The best way to do this is by performing an RCM analysis and focus on the failure modes that can be managed using CBM strategies.

Step 3 | Select the right CBM solutions and monitoring techniques

A condition monitoring technologies road map can help prioritise what to get and can allow for a gradual uptake to assist in change management when implementing new tactics.
Choose the correct CBM technology based on the FMEA/RCM Analysis for the specific assets

Step 4 | Define baseline limits for chosen CBM solutions

You need to define acceptable condition limits so that the system can warn you when monitored equipment is starting to deteriorate. These limits have to be set in a way that you have enough time to perform corrective actions.

Step 5 | Establish the CBM program

Running any maintenance program requires you to define tasks and responsibilities and assign them to your maintenance team. Collecting and recording measurements should be in the centre of your plan.

Step 6 | Analyse the data and act accordingly

Analyse the data coming in from sensors and inspections to plot a trend and schedule maintenance work accordingly.

Who oversees this plan?

Ideally, this would be the responsibility of the reliability engineer, manager or technician. It also depends on the availability of competent persons. I have come across many plants with a condition monitoring technician leading the team.

How do CBM and normal scheduled maintenance fit together?

Both are maintenance tactics and they should form part of the same asset management strategy. The structure of the asset management department will determine how these activities are executed, but in general, the person responsible for CBM, usually a reliability engineer, will identify and report the defects and recommendations to the planning department which will, in turn, instruct the maintenance department to go and do the corrective actions. We have encountered tension between the various departments as CM is sometimes perceived as a ‘policing tool’ as it can highlight the absence of maintenance and imply that the maintenance team did not do their work. Companies must invest in training people to understand the value and place of condition monitoring and how it supports their collective efforts to improve the performance of their equipment.

Historically most plants had their own condition monitoring departments, but as with many other special functions, more and more companies tend to outsource this function to a specialist condition monitoring company. In my view, this service provider should become an extension of the asset management team and work towards the same goals as stated in the strategy.

What are the typical misconceptions about condition monitoring?

Condition monitoring is expensive – Equipment can be expensive, but part of the strategy can be to appoint a condition monitoring partner to do the work for you. This reduces the need for upfront equipment costs.
Condition monitoring is time consuming and a complex task – With the right equipment and experience you can quickly and effectively set up equipment in the database (or on the datalogger itself) and take multiple data points in a matter of minutes.
Specialists must gather and analyse data – With some very basic training, a lowered skilled person can gather the correct information and send it to an adequately skilled person or CM partner to analyse, interpret and advise on what to do.
Each and every piece of equipment must immediately be included in the CBM programme – Start with a pilot plant and equipment and gradually include more assets from thereon.

To find out how CM has helped companies, you can visit the Martec resource page to browse through our case studies and client reference stories. You can also read our value-adding TechTalks that unpack the different condition monitoring applications and tactics.

Martec’s safe work practices awarded with a NOSA 5-star rating

Posted on 7 December 2021 | by Bronwen Klassen

What we have always professed is now confirmed. Our work practices are extremely safe. In fact, the NOSA 5-star rating acknowledges our efforts as occupational risk management excellence. And what is really great is that the 5-star rating is now aligned with the ISO 45000 Occupational Health and Safety standard. This means that our practices are higher than usually expected from service providers.

“Our clients can be assured that their plants, equipment and most importantly, staff and clients are in safe hands when we come on-site to perform work. We take all the necessary precautions to ensure safe operating conditions before starting the work and then performing the work safely. If any associated safety events or incidents arise while we work, a further risk assessment is conducted and managed according to our safety protocol, and the incident is reported”, says Naldo Bester, National Projects Manager.

What makes our practices so safe?

Firstly, our people and culture. We have a safety culture and a Goal Zero approach to safety incidents. At home and at work, we endeavour to do things safely.

Secondly, our staff’s competence. We make sure that our teams are suitably trained and competent to do their work and understand the risk associated with the tasks they perform. Using our safety management system, we can track if staff is not adhering to safety standards and address this in their training plans.

Lastly, we have a very involved and stringent safety management system in place. It consists of an incident reporting system, the HSSE app, that integrates with our Enterprise Asset Management system, On Key, where incident data is collected, processed, and used to inform our risk assessment. This, in turn, feeds to our management system, where different levels of control reside. Tasks have been configured in On Key to manage and deliver on our statutory compliance controls and legislative requirements. A further part of our management system is our competency matrix, where we define competency requirements for different roles and responsibilities. These requirements are included in job descriptions and reviewed during six monthly development discussions. Relevant courses are bookmarked in their training plans, and their training status is reported back in the management system.

Our eyes are set on ISO 45000 certification

According to Toni de Klerk, Pragma HSSE Manager, the 5-star rating confirms that our management system and work processes are of a very high occupational health and safety standard. It provides a solid foundation for our plan to achieve ISO 45000 certification.

The Pragma group endeavours to lead the way and become the benchmark for safe work performance in the asset management industry.

Asset Health Monitoring

Posted on 16 August 2021 | by Bronwen Klassen

Back in 2019, researchers from Verdantix identified the trends in technology roadmaps for asset management technologies and compiled a helpful graphic to illustrate the value and associated growth of these technologies. Of interest to us at the time was the rapid growth and high value associated with Asset Reliability Analytics, Fault Detection and Diagnostics and Asset Performance Management software. Even more exciting was the high value related to Remote Condition Monitoring technologies that started reaching maturity.

Timely technologies for a global pandemic

Speed on to July 2021, and we realise just how timely these technologies were to help mitigate health risks and save critical assets and companies alike. The continued disruption of business operations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has globally expedited the need for digitalised and remotely managed business processes and assets, especially in the maintenance management arena.

The realities of in-person transmission of the virus and health protocols to keep people away from each other and from high touch points begs for the implementation of alternative solutions to monitor the reliability, performance and health of assets, especially those critical to the continued operation of businesses.

Technologies and your asset care plans

With constrained resource movement and availability, time is of the essence.

Monitoring and predicting the potential failure of an asset remotely, builds in a buffer to action cost-effective, controlled and timely preventive actions and avoid breakdowns of assets, such as standby generators, not performing when suddenly required to do so.

Your digitalisation strategy and technology roadmap ties in with your asset management strategy and asset care plans. You require a clear understanding of the criticality of each asset and its associated function, its failure modes and the effect on your operation. This information will help you determine the best maintenance tactics of which the rise of predictive maintenance are emphasised in the Verdantix report. Technologies enabling predictive failure detection are of high value and are a driving force changing the maintenance and reliability landscape. Not only do these technologies offer you the capability of 24/7 real-time online access to monitor the health of your equipment and to receive timely warnings before potential failures. These systems should also triggers the selected corrective maintenance tasks and get your maintenance teams working on the problem before you even know of it.

Visualising your asset management processes can also help determine how to deploy technologies in your operation. Below is a simple diagram depicting various scenarios from a planned inspection to a manual detection, periodic condition assessment, an IIoT enabled condition monitoring value chain, along with how each one feeds into the work or maintenance management process.

A holistic approach to condition monitoring technologies and sensors

The growing scope and availability of predictive condition monitoring technologies and sensors has given many companies a way to convert their assets to “smart assets” and adapt their maintenance processes and tasks with the enriched information derived from data provided by these smart assets.

We found that the success of the use of technologies hinges on a holistic approach.

Individual technologies as such aren’t the silver bullet, but correctly scoping the stack of correct measurement and assessment technologies that provide the required information should be used in combination with the required expertise to analyse the data and tweak the frequency of asset monitoring.

Randomly selecting technologies proves to be costly. It would be best to consider the technologies you already have and the interfaces or integrations required to develop the most practical and sustainable system landscape for your needs. If you are concerned about the needed investment, a technology roadmap can help with a cost-effective approach that can be expanded. The importance of a use case should also not be underestimated as it can help validate the return on your investment before you commit to the costs.

An example of a technology roadmap can be found here. It depicts a systematic approach to a holistic solution for organisations, both big and small.

The value of in-time asset health monitoring and analysis

In-time monitoring and analysis provide reliability and maintenance engineers access to visualised real-time data dashboards, which provide them with information about an asset’s health status and its associated risk levels. These solutions typically use engineered algorithms for predictive analytics, which gives reliability engineers a better sense of the overall status of asset or equipment reliability, but it also enables them to make better decisions to increase this reliability and overall integrity of a plant asset-dependent organisation.

In-time monitoring and analysis also enable local and remote monitoring and support to allow for the most efficient decision-making when coupled with in-depth analysis and expert advice on corrective actions to maintain uptime and increase asset or equipment longevity.

The digital twin

A step up from basic condition monitoring is asset digitisation, which allows for the development of digital twins with the visualisation of the asset’s condition and its associated process parameters in real-time. Alarms and notifications can be triggered to warn of any asset anomalies and ultimately prevent asset downtime. Where this is coupled with an automated work management process where work orders are created based on the anomalies identified, you have predictive maintenance without any human intervention.

Imagine the transparency this will achieve for the state of your critical assets. You will be able to track utilities, like water and energy usage or the fuel levels of your standby generator, which is a highly critical asset in the South African context, given load shedding. You will understand exactly what is happening inside your oil-filled transformer, and you will be able to make decisions that will help you significantly reduce costs, the risk of failure, downtime and even the impact on the environment. Digital twins help to ensure a more reliable and optimal performing asset-intensive organisation or any small business for that matter. The power of having access to live information and a built-up history of asset information or failure trends enables predictive responses to reliability-centred maintenance. It provides peace of mind to asset and business owners.

Agility – the core of the smart organisation

But perhaps the most important tool one can have is agility, to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to manage our assets better. Predictive maintenance enables this, avoiding or reducing downtime and ultimately ensuring that expensive repairs and maintenance work are either avoided or planned accordingly. Maintenance readiness is also vital, taking into consideration a whole lifecycle asset management approach. Agility is also our ability to think and understand quickly. We must process all the information we are bombarded with as quickly as possible, and importantly, extract what will add value to our respective organisations or businesses.

In closing, just as it is important to monitor one’s heart rate regularly and respond to anomalies, asset health monitoring is literally having your finger on the pulse, enabling informed and predictive decision-making. It is vital that organisations or businesses in South Africa start developing a digitisation roadmap and gradually commence on a journey to sound and sustainable asset management reliant on intelligent assets and smart asset owners.

First published Pragma website.

Martec strengthens its specialist team with additional mechanical condition monitoring expertise

Posted on 22 June 2021 | by wesley

Mechanical Generation Equipment

As part of an expansion drive to further secure their position as a leading provider of a comprehensive range of condition monitoring solutions and products, Martec recently incorporated IDEAS Solutions.

IDEAS is especially well suited to dealing with mechanical condition monitoring needs ranging from sensor technology and field service all the way to training. Heading up this team operationally, and co-founder of IDEAS, is Kobus van der Westhuizen, a mechanical equipment condition monitoring expert who has joined the Martec team as part of the incorporation.

Kobus brings with him a host of specialist product knowledge, technologies and depth of experience. In addition to Martec’s already attractive range of products, clients will gain access to and support on the ACOEM OneProd range, including the FALCON vibration analyser and balancer, EAGLE wireless online sensor system, and the MVX, MVX-120 and KITE wired online monitoring systems. These are all run by the NEST suite of software. Also available are solutions for laser alignment in the FIXTURLASER range of products and a broader training offering that includes mechanical condition monitoring courses such as vibration analysis and laser alignment training.

Kobus says, “At Martec we take a holistic approach to condition monitoring by applying the correct measurement and assessment technology and combining it with the optimal frequency of asset monitoring based on a detailed FMECA (Failure Mode and Effects Criticality Analysis). This approach contributes greatly to increased bottom-line earnings as a result of engineered condition monitoring, providing clients with peace of mind about their assets.”

Martec now also stock and distribute Connection Technology Center, Inc (CTC) products and technology which includes a wide variety of high-quality accelerometers, vibration sensors’ cables and connectors for industrial use in condition monitoring and predictive maintenance applications.

Johannes Coetzee, MD of Martec, says, “We listened to our clients. Over the years Martec has proven its position as the market leader in condition monitoring of key electrical assets. Our clients wanted Martec to offer the same expertise for their critical mechanical assets, and now we have ensured that Martec is a true one-stop shop for anything condition monitoring related. We have integrated condition monitoring on critical mechanical and electrical assets into a seamless product that covers consulting, sensor technology, real-time monitoring (IoT web solutions), field service support and training.”

Condition monitoring is in a phase of rapid technological advancement and with a vast number of companies realising the value of predictive and preventive maintenance, the demand for condition monitoring is on the increase. Condition monitoring identifies hidden defects in equipment to improve the reliability of critical assets and foretell anomalies that might lead to breakdowns. It uncovers the exact causes of failure and guides the most effective corrective action.

In today’s economic environment where clients have constrained resources of cash and skills, it is very important to be able to prioritise asset-related risk based on the best possible predictive information and so utilise these resources where they will have the greatest impact. This allows businesses to mitigate risks, increase efficiencies and save costs.