MAINTENANCE
ANAC is a service of TOTAL that provides a complete range of analytical monitoring systems for in-service oils
has proven to be a very successful and cost effective condition monitoring technique for companies that operate large intensive capital equipment such as in mining.
TOTAL adds:“ Oil analysis as a conditioning monitoring tool has one foot each in predictive and proactive maintenance strategies. The results from the oil analysis can be used as a predictive tool for identifying adverse wear trends and their likely causes such as coolant leaks, fuel dilution or environmental dust entry issues etc. The information from the oil analysis results can then be used to aid in planning and performing appropriate maintenance activities
that will reduce the total operating costs arising from premature equipment failures, as well as to optimise oil usage through oil drain extension programs.
In addition, oil analysis can assist in identifying whether proactive strategies such as improvements in filtration have achieved the cleanliness( ISO code) target. It can also be used to establish if changes in the maintenance activities have had the overall desired effect of generating equipment improvements over past performance.
“ Unfortunately, there are many occasions where oil analysis is used on an ad-hoc basis,
such as a yearly sample on a main conveyor gearbox, or after a failure. Whilst this could be used to provide a one off indication as to the health of the oil and the amount of contaminants that has accumulated in the oil since the last oil change, it cannot be used to ascertain overall equipment health or performance. This type of practice leads to little or no value being realised from this very useful condition monitoring technique. On other occasions, oil analysis may be viewed as a work management tool to drive work maintenance activities rather than using the results as a tool to assist in work maintenance practices. This strategy should not be viewed too favourably either as oil analysis does not cover every technical angle. The point is not to confuse a condition monitoring tool as the main driver for maintenance activities. Rather, it should be used to compliment maintenance procedures and allow for forward planning.”
To get the best information from ones oil an analysis program, TOTAL argues that mines must take oil samples in the same manner and at the same identified scheduled intervals, continuously over an extended period. The ideal oil sampling period will vary depending on the identified criticality of equipment. If the maintenance strategy has been identified as predictive or proactive, then the associated oil analysis sampling regime established may be to sample the equipment / compartment every 250 or 500