Predictive maintenance

"Predictive maintenance is solely a maintenance management tool."

I think that because the concept is misunderstood by many who should Know what it really is the
majority of established predictive maintenance programs have not been able to achieve a grate
decrease in maintenance cost or a real improvement in aviation because when used properly it can
increase the production capacity, product quality and overall effectiveness of any manufacturing and
production plants. Predictive maintenance is much more than a maintenance scheduling tool and should
not be restricted to maintenance management. Predictive maintenance is a philosophy or attitude that,
simply stated, uses the actual operating condition of plant equipment and systems to optimize total
plant operation.
Many of the predictive measures have to be made on the basis of intuition and the personal
experience of the maintenance manager. Predictive maintenance is a condition-driven preventive
maintenance program that determines the actual moment of failure of a machine by useing direct
monitoring of the mechanical condition, system efficiency and other indicators.
Although predictive maintenance can be used as a maintenance managemanet tool, as a plant
optimization tool or as a reliabilty improvement tool I will speak more about the usege of the predictive
maintenance as a maintenance management tool because is more relevant to the subject of aircraft
maintenance. In most cases the use of predictive maintenance as a maintenance management tool is
limited to preventing unscheduled downtime and/or catastrophic failures. Although this goal is
important, predictive maintenance can provide substantially more benefits by expanding the scope or
mission of the program. As a maintenance management tool, predictive maintenance can and should be
used as a maintenance optimization tool. The programs focus should be on eliminating unnecessary
downtime, both scheduled and unscheduled; eliminating unnecessary preventive and corrective
maintenance tasks; extending the useful life of critical systems; and reducing the total life-cycle cost of
these systems.
I think predictive maintenance can provide substantially more benefits by expanding the scope or
mission of the program and should also be used as a maintenance optimization tool. The programs
focus should be on eliminating unnecessary downtime, both scheduled and unscheduled; eliminating
unnecessary preventive and corrective maintenance tasks; extending the useful life of critical systems;
and reducing the total life-cycle cost of these systems. Although the program is mostly used as a
maintenance management tool is limited to preventing unscheduled downtime and/or catastrophic
failures.
I think that a varity of technologies can and should be used as part of a total predictive
maintenance program. Machines account for most plant equipments so my first component of a
predictive maintenance program should be vibration monitoring but this technique is not
comprehensive enough so a predictive maintenance should include thermography, tribology, visual

inspection, ultrasonics, and other nondestructive testing techniques. Each technique has a unique data
set that assists the maintenance manager in determining the actual need for maintenance.
I will talk briefly about each type of tehnique:
Vibration monitoring is the dominant technique used for predictive maintenance management,
this tehnique uses the noise or vibration created by mechanical equipment and in some cases by plant
systems to determine their actual condition. It can be broadband trending which acquires overall or
broadband vibration readings from select points on a machine train and these data are compared with
either a baseline reading taken from a new machine or vibration severity charts to determine the
relative condition of the machine. Narrow trending narrowband analysis uses vibration frequencies that
represent specific machine components or failure modes. Signature analysis which provides visual
representation of each frequency component generated by a machine train.
Thermography is a tehnique that can br used to monitor the condition of plant machinery,
structures, and systems. It uses instrumentation designed to monitor the emission of infrared energy,
that is, temperature, to determine their operating condition. Detecting thermal anomalies one can
locate and define incipient problems within the plant. One can use Infrared Thermometers or spot
radiometers are designed to provide the actual surface temperature at a single, relatively small point on
a machine or surface. Or one can use line scanners this type provides a single-dimensional scan or line of
comparative radiation. Or one can use infrared imaging which unlike the other 2 this type provides the
means to scan the infrared emissions of complete machines, process, or equipment in a very short time.
Tribology is the general term that refers to design and operating dynamics of the bearinglubrication-rotor support structure of machinery. Two primary techniques are being used for predictive
maintenance: lubricating oil analysis and wear particle analysis.
Visual inspection was the first method used for predictive maintenance. Almost from the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution, maintenance technicians performed daily walkdowns of critical
production and manufacturing systems in an attempt to identify potential failures or maintenancerelated problems that could impact reliability, product quality, and production costs. A visual inspection
is still a viable predictive maintenance tool and should be included in all total-plant maintenance
management programs.
Ultrasonics, like vibration analysis, is a subset of noise analysis. The only difference in the two
techniques is the frequency band they monitor. Ultrasonics monitors the higher frequencies, that is,
ultrasound,produced by unique dynamics in process systems or machines.
Numerous other nondestructive techniques can be used to identify incipient problems in plant
equipment or systems; however, these techniques either do not provide a broad enough application or
are too expensive to support a predictive maintenance program. Therefore, these techniques are used
as the means of confirming failure modes identified by the predictive maintenance techniques discussed
in this chapter.
Conclusion :
Predictive maintenance is a very versatile, quality improving , capacity increasing,
cost efficient and easy to implement way of handling future problems just by being more attentive to
every machinery.