MACHINERY LUBRICATION- INDIA MARCH-APRIL 2020 | Page 13

P h ot
A Brief History semi-annually on these machines started to
Before the current maintenance PM become a fruitless and very costly PM task.
coordinator started working for Advanced
Composites, the original maintenance Advanced Composites took a step in the
and lubrication program consisted of right direction by beginning an oil sampling
only two semi-annual oil changes. The program. Unfortunately, the program was
PM task team would change out the oil put in place with very little direction or
on their vital equipment during the July knowledge of how to run it. Oil samples
and December shutdowns as a preventive were scheduled to be drawn as a quarterly
measure against breakdowns. For reference, PM task. The team would go to the
vital equipment is defined as the equipment equipment, open it up through the breather
necessary to keep the facility running and port, and draw a sample with the vacuum
making product. The current lubrication pump and tubing. Sometimes additional
program is set to only sample equipment contamination would fall into the gearbox
that has 100 or more litres of oil or is through this sampling procedure. The
defined as “support vital equipment.” reports would come back and be filed away.
This equipment has a direct impact on all
production operations, such as laboratory When it came time to filter, personnel
test equipment or air compressors. Through would go out to the oil shed/maintenance
semi-annual oil changes, Advanced shop to get a plumbing fixture to attach
Composites was disposing of about 5000 the filter cart to the gearbox (or other
litres of oil per year on average from just 12 equipment). This process could take up to
pieces of equipment. Changing out the oil 30 minutes. Sometimes the plugs and pipes
Ha
o s by
rr y A
co s t a
were not wiped down, leading to additional
contamination entering the system.
After almost two years in the evolution of
Advanced Composites’ early maintenance
and lubrication program, Scott Briner
was hired as the PM administrator. His
responsibility was to lead and manage this
lubrication program and the preventive
maintenance program. Within the first few
months, Briner started Noria’s lubrication
training and took the certification test to
obtain his Level I Machinery Lubrication
Technician (MLT I) certification through
the International Council for Machinery
Lubrication (ICML).
After receiving his certification, Briner
implemented an “oil change/filtering
worksheet.” This worksheet helped him
to better manage, schedule and then note
when jobs were completed. It also provided
a paper trail to file electronically for future
reference as needed.
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