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How to cite this thesis

Surname, Initial(s). (2012). Title of the thesis or dissertation (Doctoral Thesis / Master’s
Dissertation). Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg. Available from:
http://hdl.handle.net/102000/0002 (Accessed: 22 August 2017).
Efficacy of maintenance strategies for coal pulverizing
mills to optimize process reliability.

A Minor Dissertation Submitted As part of the Degree Of

MAGISTER INGENERIAE

in

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

at the

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

of the

UNIVERSITY of JOHANNESBURG

by

Bandile Mnguni 217027993

11 January 2022

Supervisor: Prof JHC Pretorius

Co Supervisor: Dr. N. Madushele

 Acknowledgement

I would like to take this opportunity and thank my Heavenly Father, The Lord God
Almighty for granting me the opportunity and the capabilities to pursue my Masters
Studies against many odds that came along the way, resulting from my personal life, I am
fully indebted to God for His grace.

I would also like to sincerely thank my Supervisors, Prof JHC Pretorius and Dr N
Madushele for their unwavering support, their availability even beyond working hours
and during holidays, I thank them for their commitment in assisting and guiding me
throughout this long walk. Their level of professionalism was impeccable throughout this
process and they left an indelible mark in my heart.

May The Lord God Almighty continue blessing them, may He elevate them to even greater
heights in all their expects of life.

Thank you very much.

Abstract
Coal pulverizing mills are very crucial equipments of any thermal power plant. They
pulverize the coal that is burned in furnaces to release the heat energy that is required in
the power boilers. Pulverized coal burns more efficiently and releases more heat energy
compared to un‐pulverized coal. The coal gets fed into the mill as an input simultaneously
with the heated primary air, the primary air performs two critical functions in the
process, it dries the coal and it acts as a transportation medium for the pulverized coal to
the combustion chamber for the ease of burning.

There are different types of mills that are available, however, the purpose of this research
work only the Vertical Spindle Mills (ball and ring) type and Vertical Spindle Mills roller
type have been considered because the power station for whose reliability management
is under study only uses these two types.

Reliability management in terms of maintainability of the mills is crucial since the mills
are a critical part of the plant; every boiler is normally fitted with one extra mill which is
normally kept as redundant for reliability purposes, in this way there is always a standby
mill to enable the unit to always operate at full capacity to reliably maintain the full load
unit output all the time.

There are reliability strategies that are employed to ensure that the plant is always
available when required and to avoid unexpected breakdowns, Reliability Centred
Maintenance is an optimum combination of reactive, interval‐based, condition‐based,
and proactive maintenance practices, it is a comprehensive maintenance strategy that
carters for the holistic view of maintainability and reliability of the plant from the
preventative to the corrective perspective of maintenance based on the requirements and
criticality. The Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is used to detect a
number of failure modes, reasons for failures, effects of failure and the level of criticality
of each failure to the coal pulverizing mill and production, these analyses help to develop
an informed Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM).

Total Productive Maintenance is a type of maintenance strategy that is based on the

concept of Total Quality Management attitude of zero defects; it is basically built on the
idea of five fundamentals which are the improvement of equipment effectiveness, self‐
sufficient maintenance, training of all staff, execution of planned maintenance and
achievement of early equipment management.

Through the FMECA methodology the critical parts of the mills are identified, all of them
are assigned different and fitting maintenance strategies, some of them are maintained
based on time intervals measured in running hours, some in time intervals based on time
blocks regardless of running hours and some based on their conditions after inspections.
There are also components that are considered not to be critical, those are usually left to
run to failure and get repaired or replaced when they fail.

The strategies in place are effectively implemented with the full involvement of
operations, maintenance and management. The teams are adequately trained to gain a
level of competence that is required in the mills. There are PMs and check sheets in place
to assist the teams to effectively execute the required tasks, at the required time.

Keywords:

Mills, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Maintenance strategies, and Failure Mode Effect
and Criticality Analysis .
Table of Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 1 .............................................................................................................................................. 5
1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5
1.2. Dissertation road map ................................................................................................................ 5
1.3. Problem statement ..................................................................................................................... 7
1.4. Research objectives .................................................................................................................... 7
1.5. Research Approach ..................................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. ........................................................................................................ 10
2.1 Mill functions ............................................................................................................................ 10
2.2 Types of mills ............................................................................................................................ 13
2.2.1 Vertical air‐swept pulverizers. .............................................................................................. 13
2.2.2 Vertical Spindle Mill (ball and ring) ....................................................................................... 14
2.2.3 Vertical Spindle Mill (Roller type) ......................................................................................... 14
2.2.4 Factors affecting the Milling Plant Performance .................................................................. 16
2.2.5 Grindability of Coal ............................................................................................................... 16
2.2.6 Moisture Content .................................................................................................................. 16
2.2.7 Fineness of Milled Product ................................................................................................... 16
2.2.8 Size of Coal Input................................................................................................................... 16
2.2.9 Mill Wear............................................................................................................................... 17
2.2.10 Calorific Value and Rejectable Material Content of the Coal ............................................... 17
2.3 Critical components of the mills ............................................................................................... 17
2.4 Reliability Centered Maintenance. ........................................................................................... 19
2.4.1 Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis.......................................................................... 19
2.5 RCM Philosophy ........................................................................................................................ 21
2.6 RCM Principles and Key Features.............................................................................................. 22
2.6.1 Reliability Centered Maintenance ........................................................................................ 24
2.6.1.1 Reactive maintenance ........................................................................................................... 27
2.6.1.2 Preventative (Interval) maintenance .................................................................................... 28
2.6.1.3 Proactive Maintenance ......................................................................................................... 29
2.6.1.4 Condition Based Maintenance. ............................................................................................. 30
2.7 Total Productive Maintenance.................................................................................................. 30
2.8 Critical literature Review........................................................................................................... 34
2.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 39

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3 Chapter 3: Reliability Management in the Power Station. ........................................................... 40
3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 40
3.1.1 Research limitations .............................................................................................................. 41
3.1.2 Maintenance philosophy and limitations ............................................................................. 41
3.1.3 Maintenance Execution Strategy .......................................................................................... 41
3.1.4 Maintenance principles......................................................................................................... 42
3.1.5 Preventive maintenance ....................................................................................................... 42
3.1.6 Reactive maintenance ........................................................................................................... 43
3.1.7 Task interval selection........................................................................................................... 43
3.1.8 Corrective maintenance ........................................................................................................ 43
3.1.9 Planning of mill service or outage work................................................................................ 43
3.2 Roles and responsibilities.......................................................................................................... 44
3.2.1 Mill Mechanical Section ........................................................................................................ 44
3.2.2 Resource Planners for every relevant section ...................................................................... 44
3.2.3 Line Manager Maintenance, Supervisor, Technicians and Artisan (Awareness Training) .... 45
3.3 Scope of work changes ............................................................................................................. 45
3.4 Maintenance Support ............................................................................................................... 46
3.5 Shift Manager Operating .......................................................................................................... 46
3.6 Engineering Departments ......................................................................................................... 47
3.7 PF fineness control .................................................................................................................... 47
3.8 Operating modes ...................................................................................................................... 48
3.9 Condition monitoring ................................................................................................................ 48
3.9.1 Functions of condition monitoring ....................................................................................... 50
3.9.2 Condition monitoring process............................................................................................... 51
3.9.3 Vibration Monitoring ............................................................................................................ 51
3.9.4 Condition Monitoring of Oils ................................................................................................ 52
3.9.5 Mill Performance .................................................................................................................. 52
3.10 Experimental design.................................................................................................................. 55
3.11 Questionnaire ........................................................................................................................... 55
3.12 Questionnaire design ................................................................................................................ 56
3.13 Participant feedback ................................................................................................................. 57
4. Chapter 4: Research findings ........................................................................................................ 57
5. Chapter 5 : Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 67
6. Recommendations ........................................................................................................................ 68

1|Page
7. References .................................................................................................................................... 69
a. Practical Reliability Management. ................................................................................................ 72
b. Mill Maintenance .......................................................................................................................... 74
APPENDIX B : VSM (Ball & Ring) ............................................................................................................ 76
a. Reliability base maintenance ........................................................................................................ 77
b. Reliability cantered maintenance ................................................................................................. 77
c. Ball replacement procedure ......................................................................................................... 78
d. Balls maintenance philosophy ...................................................................................................... 79
APPENDIX C : VSM (Roller/Tyre) ........................................................................................................... 82
a. Grinding equipment ...................................................................................................................... 82
b. Maintenance strategy ................................................................................................................... 82
Appendix D: Research questionnaire. ................................................................................................... 84

2|Page
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Dissertation road map .......................................................................................................... 5
Figure 2: Research design ..................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 3: Power Generation Plant layout (Govender, 2016) ........................................................... 11
Figure 4: Single line illustration of Pulverization ............................................................................. 12
Figure 5: Vertical Spindle Mill (ball and ring) (Toni, et al., 2014) ................................................... 14
Figure 6: B&W Roll Wheel Pulveriser (Babcock and Wilcox, 2006) ............................................... 15
Figure 8: Structure of the proposed predictive maintenance methodology (Sangeetha &
Saravanan, 2016)................................................................................................................................. 20
Figure 9: RCM logic diagram (Soni & Naik, 2016) ............................................................................ 24
Figure 10: RCM (Soni & Naik, 2016) .................................................................................................. 27
Figure 11: RCM Logic (Kleyner & O'Connor, 2012) .......................................................................... 29
Figure 12 : PF fineness control (Brown & McClellan, 2017) ............................................................ 48
Figure 13: Condition Monitoring Program Diagram ........................................................................ 50
Figure 14: Top 10 UCLF Load losses .................................................................................................. 53
Table 1: Mill load losses. ..................................................................................................................... 54
Figure 15: Mill and Coal Burner UCLF ‐ Contribution per Unit ....................................................... 55
Table 2: Vertical Spindle Mill (Ball & Ring). 27 participants............................................................ 58
Table 3 : Vertical Spindle Mill (Roller type). 27 participants. .......................................................... 59
Table 4: Reliability maintenance VSM (Ball & Ring) and VSM (Roller). 27 participants. .............. 60
Table 5 : Qualifications and Training of Operating and Maintenance personnel. 27 participants.
.............................................................................................................................................................. 61
Table 6 : On job training done. 27 participants. ................................................................................ 61
Table 7: Maintenance or operating courses. 27 participants........................................................... 61
Table 8: Experience in the Mill. 27 participants................................................................................ 62
Table 9: Training adequacy. 27 participants. .................................................................................... 62
Table 11: Support from the Engineer. 27 participants. .................................................................... 63
Table 13: Main Mill Gearbox Reliability ............................................................................................ 72
Table 14: Mill Body Reliability ........................................................................................................... 73
Table 15: Lubrication Unit .................................................................................................................. 74
Table 16: Rocker Arm ......................................................................................................................... 74
Table 17: The spring assembly ........................................................................................................... 75
Table 18: Properties of these Mills .................................................................................................... 76
Table 19: balls inspections procedure ............................................................................................... 78
Table 20: Balls replacement procedure ............................................................................................. 78
Table 21: Balls maintenance philosophy ........................................................................................... 80
Table 22: Mill maintenance responsibilities. .................................................................................... 81

3|Page
List Acronyms/Symbol

RCM Reliability Centred Maintenance

CBM Condition Based Maintenance

TPM Total Productive Maintenance

PdM Predictive Maintenance

FMECA Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis

PT&I Performance Testing and Instrumentation.

PF Pulverised Fuel

CV Calorific Value

PF Pulverized Fuel

VSM Vertical Spindle Mill

HGI Hard Grove Grindability Index

PA Primary Air

FMEA Failure mode and effects analysis

TQM Total Quality Management

UCLF Unplanned Capability Loss Factor

PCLF Planned Capability Loss Factor

EAF Energy availability factor

QCP Quality Control Plan

SAP Systems Applications Products

C&I Control and Instrumentation

CAS Cascade Control

PM Preventative Maintenance

RPN Risk Priority Number

4|Page
CHAPTER 1

1.1. Introduction
Coal pulverizing mills are a very crucial equipment of any thermal power plant. They
pulverize the coal that is burned in furnaces to release the heat energy that is required in
the power boilers. Pulverized coal burns more efficiently and releases more heat energy
compared to un‐pulverized coal. A pulverizing Vertical Spindle Mills (ball and ring) type
normally entails of feeder, ball mill and separator. The feeder receives the coal; it
transfers it to the ball mill where it gets crushed into fine powder which gets transferred
to separator which separates large particles from the small ones. The fine coal powder
from the separator is used in blast furnace for combustion [1].

Reliability of the mills in the power station setting is therefore essential as they are of
significant importance to the economy of the nation as their unavailability has a direct
impact to the output power generated by the station. A reliable accomplishment of this
task is reliant directly on the maintenance and repair strategies in a power plant. Such
strategies should be modelled due to the degree of reliability and the costs of
maintenance and of losses subsequent to unanticipated failures [2].

1.2. Dissertation road map

Figure 1 below shows the road map that my dissertation is going to take.

Problem Research Research Literature Research

Research Conclusion
Statement Objectives Approach Review Findings

Figure 1: Dissertation road map

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 • Problem Statement

This subsection explains the problem statement that this research addresses with
regards to the challenges that the coal fired power stations face in addressing the
reliability of the mills.

 Research Objectives

This subsection explains what it is that this research is undertaken to accomplish in terms
of analysing the application of reliability management to the mills.

• Research Approach

This subsection explains how the research is being approached; it explains how the study
case and the literature review have been approached. The details on how data is being
collected and critically analysed are also explained in this subsection together with the
research design which explains how the research is designed to flow.

• Literature Review

The research work that has been done and presented by other researchers is studied and
portrayed on this section, their views and their findings are critically analysed to
establish

• Research

The actual data is collected on the field/power station workers that are involved in the
maintenance, operations and engineering.

• Research Findings

The findings from the research are interpreted and analysed.

• Conclusion

The conclusions are made from the comparison of the actual plant data and the literature.

6|Page
 1.3. Problem statement
Poor reliability management has a great potential of causing unplanned losses, and
that has a direct impact to poor production and the revenue of any organization. This
research examines the maintenance strategies that are being used in the milling plant
in power station under study, and it investigate if the strategies in place are being
implemented in a way that they are designed to. It looks also at the challenges that
prevent them from being implemented correctly where the case is, as well as the
effects of human intervention and human failures to carry out scheduled
maintenance.

The power losses that come with poor reliability management of the milling plant as
well as the benefits that come with reliability strategies are being assessed.

1.4. Research objectives

The objective of this research work is to explore the reliability of the coal mills that are
used in coal fired power stations within the power utility in South Africa. The study is
focusing on the types of reliability management techniques that are used, the results that
are achieved by applying those techniques, the losses that are incurred where reliability
management has failed either due to poor implementation or no implementation at all.
The following are the objectives:

 Investigate the RCM as a maintenance strategy applied to the mills.

 Establish the critical and noncritical components of the mills that are covered in
this research.
 Establish what reliability strategy is applied on each critical component.
 Establish how reliability strategies are applied on each critical component.
 Establish if there is any management support to the maintenance teams in the
implementation of reliability management strategies.

1.5. Research Approach

The research approach that is used for this study is by means of studying the journal
papers that have been accepted and published on the similar subjects, the books and
articles are also utilized to gather the information that is needed for the literature review

7|Page
by comparing views and arguments from different sources to get an understanding of the
subject.

The historical data will also be collected from the existing database to study the existing
maintenance strategies of the mills from the power station, and analysis will be made to
establish the types of maintenance strategies that are employed, the evaluation will also
be conducted to establish if they are applied correctly and if their benefits are seen.

Questionnaire will also be sent out to all the teams that work in the mills to establish the
nature of strategies used, their frequencies, management support and the teams
competencies to effectively execute the strategies in place. Figure 2 below shows the
methodology that I am following in order to comprehensively answer my research
questions.

8|Page
 • I will do a literature review on the reliability of the mills and critically
analyse it to be able to link it with my research that I will do on the
mills in the case study.
Overall • I will do my research by collecting the existing data in the Power
research Station, critically analyse the data, test the data for the effectiveness of
approach the reliability methodolidies that are currently being used.
• I will assess if there are any improvements that can be implemented to
improve the current reliability methodologies, test for adherence to
the reliability methodolody and the results and reasons of any
deviations. I will also evaluate the human intervantion to either the
success or failure of reliability methodologies.

• I have identified the critical components of the mills that I would like
to assess.
Research
• I will perform data collection of all the identified critical components
design with regards to reliability maintenance and assess the methodologies
that are being used, assess the methodologies for their effectiveness,
assess their failures, critically review the methodologies and give
suggestions where there is a need.

• I will collect the historic data of maintenance from the existing

database and critically analyse it.
• I will collect and study the current PMs and compare them with the
existing strategies.
Data • I will generate and issue questionares to the operating team,
collection engineering and maintenance teams to establish the level of their
competence to perform the required tasks, communication
effectiveness amongs the departments, consistency of the teams that
are being used.
• Collect data from the plant as the teams perform the maintenance
tasts.

• I will critically analyse the data from the PMs, the results that are
measured in the plant from the tests that are done during the
maintenance strategies implementation.
• Critically analyse how the plant performed when there was no
Data
maintenance done when it was due.
analysis
• Check the effectiveness of the system that generates the PMs to
establish if it always does release them when they are due.
• Impact of failing to implement the strategies as required, and also
assess if the strategies holistically address the feasible maintenability
of the plant.

Figure 2: Research design

9|Page
The research approach implemented as described in this chapter will assist in ensuring
that there is a comprehensive view into the matter of understanding the implementation
of these strategies as well as their impact. The data collected in this section will be
instrumental in analysing the maintenance strategies that are currently in place, it will
also assist in developing the recommendations on the areas that would need to be
improved in order to maximise the benefits for maintenance strategies in place.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.

In this section the literature study of the subject of the reliability management of the
milling plant will be consolidated, the section presents the literature arguments that have
been done by other researchers to create a firm understanding of the mills as an
engineering as well as a production component, it discusses the types of mills for which
this reliability management research is being conducted; which are Vertical Spindle Mills
as they will be used on the power station for which this case study is conducted. The
reliability strategies under study are also discussed and critically analysed.

These types of mills are defined and analysed to give an understanding of how they
perform their functions, the critical components will also be defined as they will be
covered for the purpose of this research. The reliability management will be discussed in
detail, looking at their applicability and their individual and collective benefits.

The coal quality, Fineness of Milled Product, moisture, Calorific Value and Rejectable
Material Content of the Coal, Size of Coal Input and grindability will also be covered as
they have impact on the efficiency of the mills.

2.1 Mill functions

The most effective way in which the coal can be utilised for the purpose of steam
generation is through pulverizing it prior to burning it, says Rani, Pooja, et al [3] ,he
describes the pulverized coal firing as the method whereby the coal is generally crushed
to a fineness level such that 70 – 80% of coal particles passes through a 200 Mesh (74
Micron) sieves and gets blown forward by heated primary air through pipes straight to
burners, and gets discharged into combustion chamber of the boiler where the
combination of coal and air ignites and combusts in suspension condition in the chamber.

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A maximum availability of the milling plant is required at all costs as it determines the
output steam of the boiler to the turbine and hence the electrical power output of the unit.

Figure 3 below shows the layout illustrating how the mills (coal pulverising system)
feature in the power generation plant, they are located in the highlighted place in the
figure, they are found in all pulverised fuel‐fired power stations as Rani, Pooja, et al [3]
has also mentioned, to finely grind, dry and preheat, as well as pneumatically deliver the
pulverised coal particles to the furnace for combustion. The mills are commonly classified
under the boiler plant system [4].

Figure 3: Power Generation Plant layout [4]

Figure 4 below shows a single line diagram that further simplifies what Govender [4] and
Rani, Pooja, et al [3] have said above, it shows that the coal and the primary air get fed
into the mill where pulverization takes place to give an output of combined coal and air.

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 Primary
Coal
Air
input
input

MILL
Mill

Primary Air plus PF to Burners

Figure 4: Single line illustration of Pulverization

Hamresin, Schmitz, et al [5] also states that the mills are used in the process of preparing
the coal to be used in the furnace of the boiler, the role of the coal milling plant is pre‐
processing of the coal, and he further emphasises that the milling plant serves to prepare
the coal; it gets ground and dried into Pulverized Fuel of the right size particle
specification to ensure that the combustion in the furnace is done completely and in a
stable manner.
The proper preparation is critical because it helps in feeding the required mass flow. It is
also notable that the quality of coal used in South Africa introduces challenges since it has
a low Calorific Value, these challenges demand that the mills must be run, operated and
maintained in an effective reliable manner, and be run as close as possible to their design
capacity in order to achieve and maintain the required coal quantity output. The mills are
therefore required to be in a good mechanical condition to achieve the correct
requirements of coal particle fineness [5].
Coal mills’ performance and reliability determine the power output of the whole power
station; this makes them very significant components in coal fired power stations. The
capacity of the power station is automatically reduced with every mill trip unless it is

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compensated for by support fuel which is relatively expensive. Experience, as Tigges,
Khan, Mohamed, et al [6] argues, has also shown that the trips of the mills also happen
because of improper design or improper adjustment of the classifier, impaired or broken
mill parts, or because of hard foreign metal material entering the grinding chamber [6],
this also proves that it is very important to maintain the mill.

The other factor that contributes to a poor mill performance is the deterioration of coal
properties compared to the design coal properties. Maintenance and monitoring of the
milling plant is executed on a time and failure‐based system, it is crucial to achieve and
maintain proper control and good health of the whole milling plant. Condition based
maintenance of the milling plant should be implemented with a clear understanding of
the dynamics of the system that governs the operation of a milling plant, monitoring its
key performance parameters and interpreting the resulting data [6].

2.2 Types of mills

This subsection explains the types of pulverizing mills that are being considered for the
purpose of this research study, they are Vertical Spindle Mills (VSM) ball and ring type,
and VSM roller type. There are two different designs that characterise Vertical Spindle
Mills (ball and ring) and VSM (roller type).

2.2.1 Vertical air‐swept pulverizers.

A typical vertical air‐swept mill has two input streams, it has a coal and air inputs as
shown on Figure 4 above, and the pulverised coal plus air combination gets extracted
through two or more (up to a maximum of 4) mill outlet pipes. The pulverization or
grinding of the coal into smaller particles of the required size is achieved by the rolling
action of grinding elements that compress it against a moving table. During the grinding
process it is important to maintain a constant feed as it works as a cushion to reduce wear
on the mill components, wearing of the mill components results from the collective effects
of abrasion and erosion [4].

These types of mills have a long vertical height, this allows them longer time for coal
particles to lose moisture, they also has a low level of power consumption, and owing to
these advantages these mills are more preferred by the power stations [4].

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 2.2.2 Vertical Spindle Mill (ball and ring)
These pulveriser mills shown on figure 5 comprise of nine steel balls that are hollow, they
are located freely between two grinding rings, there are bottom and top grinding rings,
each bottom grinding ring is designed to rotate at a speed of 40rpm, it is connected to a
shaft. The top grinding ring is spring loaded and it does not move during the normal
pulveriser operation. The coal enters the pulveriser and settles on a rotating table
through the central pipe from a volumetric feeder, the coal feed flow rate is controllable
by varying the feeder speed [4].

Figure 5: Vertical Spindle Mill (ball and ring) [7]

2.2.3 Vertical Spindle Mill (Roller type)

These types of mills as shown on Figure 6 below, use the force of gravity to feed the coal
that comes from the top through the coal inlet central feed pipe to the grinding table,
centrifugal force action causes it to flow outwardly and get ground between the grinding
table and hydraulically loaded vertical orientated rollers resembling big tires to pulverize
raw coal fed down onto a rotating grinding table. The primary air that has been heated
for coal drying and transference enters the wind box plenum beneath the grinding table
and flows upward through a swirl ring with many inclined nozzles located around the
grinding table. This air blends with the coal and dries it in the grinding zone by removing
unwanted moisture and transfers the pulverized coal particles upward into a classifier.

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The fine coal that has been pulverized leaves the outlet unit through numerous pipes for
coal discharge that directs it to the burners, the oversized coal particles get rejected and
sent back to the grinding zone for further grinding. Pyrites and much dense impurity
material fall down through the nozzle ring and are removed by the scraper blades that
are attached onto the grinding table, into the pyrites chamber for removal [8]

Figure 6: B&W Roll Wheel Pulveriser [9]

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 2.2.4 Factors affecting the Milling Plant Performance
This subsection is to articulate the factors that affect the performance of the milling plant,
it is important for reliability to understand these factors as the knowledge assists in the
proper running of the mills, operation and properly maintaining them. It will be noticed
that these factors don’t only focus on the mills, but they also take into account the
condition and the quality of the coal that is being fed into the mills, this helps giving a
broader understanding and more informed decisions in terms of maintaining and
running them properly and effectively.

2.2.5 Grindability of Coal

This is a very important factor as it is the measure of how easy the coal can be pulverized.
It is relatively easy to combust the coal that has been well prepared through good
grinding. The grindability is dependent on a Hard Grove Grindability Index (HGI) of coal;
the higher the HGI the easier is the coal to pulverize [3].

2.2.6 Moisture Content

The capacity and the efficiency of the mill drop with the moisture increase. To reduce the
0 0
moisture content, a hot air at a temperature ranging between 75 C – 85 C is blown into
the mills by the use of Primary Air fans [3]. It should be noted the moist coal causes
reduced output as it increases residence it; longer inside the mill before being ejected and
it requires a higher temperature on the air [3].

2.2.7 Fineness of Milled Product

The fineness of the coal is highly dependent on the quality of coal in relation to the mill
design, when a correct coal quality is fed into a mill it will be able to produce the correct
size particles at the output, this results in effective combustion [3]. It is important to
design the mill for the coal that is available for use because otherwise the fineness could
be affected [3].

2.2.8 Size of Coal Input

The size of the coal input into a mill is restricted to a certain range because the larger
sizes of coal fed as an input to the mill require the mill to do more amount of work per
unit to get the same fineness level [3].

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 2.2.9 Mill Wear
Coal is abrasive in nature and its abrasive nature combined with the grinding action
naturally causes mill wear with time. Wear is mainly dependant on the gap between the
table surface and grinding rollers and the coal quality being ground [3].

2.2.10 Calorific Value and Rejectable Material Content of the Coal

Each plant is designed for coal having certain quality and a certain calorific value; this
factor has a greater impact on the performance of the mills. The rejectable materials such
as stones and foreign metals cause damage to the mill parts; they also cause vibrations,
coal spillages and mill unplanned outages [3].

2.3 Critical components of the mills

Figure 7 below depics the critical components of VSM (Ball & Ring) and VSM (Roller) for
which reliability will be studied and assessed. The data will be collected from the plant
and the existing database of records of maintenance, maintenance strategies and
critically analyse the applied philosophies, and their success and failures and come up
with recommendations where applicable. The questionaries will also be sent out the
teams working in the mills to establish the effectiveness of the strategies in place.

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 1. Grinding Elements And Assembly
Components
1.1. Hollow Grinding Balls
Critical 1.2. Grinding Rings
components
1.3. Mill Yoke (Table)
2. Grinding Elements Loading System
VSM (Ball & 2.1. Loading System With Pneumatic
Ring) Cylinders

noncritical
components Will be listed in the appendix

Pulverizing 1. Grinding Tyre

Mills 2. Grinding Roller
3. Grinding Tyre/Roller Mounting And
Critical Securing
components 4. Grinding Tracks
5. Tyre/Roller Hub And Bearing Assemblies
6. Tyre/Roller Assembly Main Body
VSM
(Roller) 7. Loading System With Hydraulic Cylinders

noncritical
components Will be listed in the appendix

Figure 7: Critical components for each mill type.

2.3.1 Critical components common to [VSM (Ball & Ring) and VSM
(Roller)]

 Mill Drive Trains And Associated Auxiliary Equipment

o Mill Main Gearbox
o Mill Main Motor
o Mill Motor Couplings

 Seal Air Systems

o Seal Air Flow Measurement
o Seal Air Fan Motors

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  COAL FEEDERS (Non‐Liner Table Feeders )
o Feeder Table Drive Gearbox
o Feeder Discharge Blocked Chute Detection
o Feeder Lubrication Piping

 Reject System (Vertical Spindle Mill)

o Plenum Chamber
o Pyrites

2.4 Reliability Centered Maintenance.

This subsection discusses the types of maintenance strategies that are employed in the
coal milling plant, the strategies are analyzed comprehensively starting with the Failure
Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis as it is very essential in analysing the failure modes,
their effects and their criticality to mills and production. RCM is also discussed
comprehensively as it is an optimum combination of reactive, interval‐based, condition‐
based, and proactive maintenance practices which are also discussed in this subsection
together with the Total Productive Maintenance.

2.4.1 Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis.

The power utilities develop Predictive Maintenance policies that include RCM and
Condition Based Maintenance for coal pulverizing mills by incorporating the Failure
Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis and output measurements. FMECA is used to detect
a number of failure modes, reasons for failures, effects of failure and the level of criticality
of each failure to the coal pulverizing mill and the overall production. In consistence with
each failure mode, the output of the coal pulverizing mill is measured and the measured
data is used to calculate the output confidence interval [1].

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 No

Yes

Figure 8: Structure of the proposed predictive maintenance methodology [10]

[10] says that failure mode and effects analysis was developed in the 1950s by military
reliability engineers who were prompted by malfunctioning of military systems; this
makes it one of the first systematic techniques for failure analysis. He continues to say
that FMEA is generally the first step of a system reliability study, and it is therefore very
involved, it comprises studying and reviewing as many components, assemblies, and
subsystems as practicable to identify and specify failure modes, and their possible causes
and effects.

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Figure 8 above extracted from Srivastava, Sandeep, et al [1] shows the approach in which
FMECA assessment of a coal pulverizing mill in a thermal power plant is done, in their
study Srivastava, Sandeep, et al [1] say that one year data was collected to investigate the
abnormalities in output for an individual failure mode and the standard deviation of the
output for each and every failure mode was worked out. To pick up the manifestation of
a particular failure mode, the mill output was constantly measured and in event of any
nonconformities from the expected output the strayed value was matched with the set
output range of different failure modes and after the classification of the failure mode the
relevant maintenance was done.

Sangeetha,, Saravanan [10] further states that FMECA addresses reliability and quality
challenges related to design, manufacturing, process, safety, and environment; he
continues to voice out that it becomes more evident that there is an urgent need to
determine the effects of system and equipment failure, he says that based on his findings.
Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis has been established to evaluate system
potential failures; it also identifies the potential hazards that are associated with each of
the failures, and categorizes them according to their severity.

The records are normally kept for the failure modes and their resulting effects on the
whole system for each component, assembly and subsystem. FMEA can also be a
qualitative or quantitative basis analysis where mathematical models for failure rates are
combined with a statistical failure mode ratio database [10].

2.5 RCM Philosophy

According to Tee [11] it is a fact that asset functional failures lead to the unavailability of
that asset and production downtime, which disturbs the capability of their expected
usefulness. Every RCM process should guarantee that it answers the seven key RCM
questions reasonably and that they are answered in the order as follows [12]:
1. What are the functions and related expected standards of performance of the asset
(functions)?
2. In what ways can it fail to achieve its prescribed functions (functional failures)?
3. What are the reasons for each functional failure (failure modes)?
4. What happens when each failure occurs (failure effects)?
5. What are the failure consequences?

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 6. What can be put in place to predict or prevent each functional failure (proactive
tasks and task intervals)?
7. What can be done if an appropriate proactive task cannot be developed (default
actions)?
Mohamed ,Duffuaa, et al [13] argues that RCM philosophy is essentially different from
other maintenance strategies by conserving system functionality to a required level as
opposed to maintaining equipment in isolation from their relationship to the system. He
says it is a systematic approach to defining a planned maintenance program composed of
cost‐effective tasks while preserving critical plant functions.

An important aspect of this philosophy is to prioritize systems by assigning levels of

criticality based on the consequences of failure. This aspect, in particular, is in line with
the fundamental objective of being cost effective with efficiently channelizing the
resources to the high priority tasks, this is achieved by identifying required design and
operational modifications and justified maintenance strategies according to the priority
levels [13].

As an example given by Mohamed ,Duffuaa, et al [13], equipment that is non‐critical to

the plant may be left to run to failure while equipment serving critical functions is
preserved at all cost. Maintenance tasks are selected to address the dominant failure
causes by addressing preventable failures through maintenance. RCM underlines the use
of predictive maintenance besides traditional preventive measures.

2.6 RCM Principles and Key Features

The RCM process is characterized by four key features and principles. These features are
[14]:
 It is very crucial to understand the functions and outputs of the system, this helps
the organization to develop the strategy that will be applied in a way that will
preserve the functionality of the given system, and this approach assists in shifting
the focus from just a typical maintenance view. This is the most important RCM
feature as it also ensures the continuous availability of the system

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 Observation, identifying and understanding of different modes of failure is a
second RCM process feature as failure modes have a potential of causing system
failures. Recording this kind of data is essential in every stage of modifications, be
it design modification, operational or the development of maintenance plans.

 To maintain the cost effective running of the plant and to avoid the breakdowns
that can result in major shutdowns and plant degradation, it is of great importance
to prioritize the key and significant functionality failures in the process of RCM
[14].

 The fourth step is to select appropriate tasks for maintenance that are effective in
improving the efficiency and cost effectiveness in the use of resources. Figure 9
below gives a depiction of the logical approach to RCM.

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Figure 9: RCM logic diagram [14]

2.6.1 Reliability Centered Maintenance

RCM is a well‐defined, systematic process that is employed for the development and
optimization of the required maintenance requirements of a physical asset when it is in
its operating mode to appreciate its characteristic reliability by rationally incorporating
the maintenance strategies like preventive, reactive, proactive and condition‐based
maintenance [15].

RCM is a logically and carefully developed structure for developing and improving the
requirements and standards for maintenance of physical plant assets in their
environment of operation to guarantee their characteristic reliability, which is the
standard of reliability that is required and possible to accomplish with an effective

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maintenance program. RCM is also understood to be a procedure employed to regulate
that which requires to be performed for making sure that every component of the system
is not hindered from performing whatsoever its design demands it to perform under
given conditions [16]. It provides an appropriate structure for the management of the
complex maintenance matters by complementing and supporting all the known
traditional maintenance strategies [17]

Tadpon, Suthep [18] says that Reliability Centered Maintenance is a maintenance

strategy which is developed at an organizational level, it is applied to enhance the
maintenance programs of a corporation or assets. He says that the final outcomes of an
RCM program are the maintenance strategies that should be applied on each of the assets
in the plant. The maintenance strategies are adjusted so that the functionality of the plant
is sustained using cost‐effective maintenance techniques. There is an agreement between
Deepak, Jagathy [16] and Tarar [19] in stating that RCM is used by organizations or
corporations to develop strategies that are implemented to ensure that the plant retains
its functionality and hence has a maintainability that enhances cost‐effectiveness.

Muyengwa, Marow [20] views RCM as a process or a procedure that is employed by an

organization to establish what must be performed to ensure that every physical asset
continues to perform what its user needs it to perform in its present operating
environment, and according to Mohamed, Duffuaa, et al [13] RCM is founded upon a
system enhancement technique that retains a cost effective view to assets while
recognizing and developing operational and maintenance regulations and strategies, his
understandings tie up with those of [16] and [19]. Tarar [19] continues to state that RCM
is the organized framework for safeguarding equipment functionalities, It is employed to
formulate a premeditated maintenance program that will guarantee availability of
equipment with reliability and maintainability.

According to Mohamed, Duffuaa, et al [13] RCM is established with an aim to manage the
risks of functionality failure of a system and equipment in a way that is effective
economically, and it is particularly appropriate to circumstances where the financial
resources are little or entirely constrained. Deepak, Jagathy [16] and Mohamed, Duffuaa,
et al [13] agree in their arguments that there are questions that RCM asks and from these

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questions arises a methodical process that is employed to define the maintenance
requirements for any plant asset in its operating setting, the questions are as follows:
 Are the functions and related performance standard that are critical for the
particular equipment in its current mode of operation known and what are they?
 In what ways can the equipment fail to accomplish its functions?
 What are the reasons for the functional failure?
 What effect does each failure have when it occurs?
 How does each failure matter?
 In what ways can each failure be predicted or prevented?
 What plans can be made in the event where a suitable proactive remedial
procedure cannot be established?

Following this questioning approach clearly leads to a development of the strategy that
addresses the critical aspects of the equipment and the whole system. The first step in
the process of RCM process defines the functions for each and every equipment in their
operating setting in line with the related anticipated standards of their performance and
outputs, then establish what kind of failures can occur and defeat the functions [13].

Following the identification of each functional failure, the following step is the
identification of the reasons of failures and all occasions which are probable to initiate
each failure type. These occasions or events are called failure modes. The fourth step in
the process comprises documenting all failure effects, which explain what transpires
when every failure mode happens at the local and or system level [13].
The RCM process categorizes these consequences into four groups that follow [13]:
 Failure impacts and consequences that are hidden;
 Consequences of failure to Safety and environmental;
 Operational consequences; and
 Consequences that are non‐operational.
With an application of this logical approach, RCM can be employed to develop a
maintenance strategy that is very cost‐effective while addressing main causes to failure
of equipment. It is a methodical approach to outlining a preventive maintenance package
composed of cost‐effective tasks that preserve important systems functions [13].

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Soni, Naik [14] understands RCM to be the optimum combination of reactive, interval‐
based, condition‐based, and proactive maintenance practices as illustrated on figure 10
below, these major maintenance strategies, instead of being employed independently, are
integrated to make the most of their individual strengths in order to maximize the
reliability of the facility and equipment while reducing to the minimum life‐cycle costs.

Figure 10: RCM [14]

Tarar [19] agrees with what is stipulated by Soni, Naik [14] on figure 10 above that there
are four components of RCM program and they are,
1. Reactive Maintenance
2. Preventive (Interval) Maintenance
3. Predictive (Condition Based) Maintenance
4. Proactive Maintenance

2.6.1.1 Reactive maintenance

As the depiction of figure 10 above, the reactive component of RCM is applicable when
dealing with small items that are easy to replace without really compromising production
and operation, it is also applicable to equipment or systems that are unlikely to fail and
the systems that have redundancy. Soni, Naik [14] says it is also called breakdown
maintenance since the repairs are only done when equipment has already broken down

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and failed, he says its attention is on reinstating the equipment to its standard operating
conditions.

2.6.1.2 Preventative (Interval) maintenance

This is a type of maintenance that is carried out at prearranged time intervals, or in
accordance with prescribed criteria with an intention to reduce the probability of
equipment failure or the degradation of the functionality of an equipment. It assists to
reduce the prospect for functions to fail. This is achieved through the use of certain tests,
planned inspections, replacements and routine actions [12].

Preventive maintenance in its nature represents the first effort to reduce possible
equipment failure and its frequency. Essentially, Preventative Maintenance possesses an
ability to reduce the probability failure by predetermining the frequency of required
inspections, replacements and modification according to the established failure rate of
the equipment in question [21].
Andre, O'Connor, et al [22] says that it is a form of maintenance that is done based on the
certain time intervals, especially on the equipment component that is subject to wear that
may fail after a certain number of running hours. This is applicable to the mill components
like balls and rollers.
In order to able to improve preventive replacement, it is essential to know the following
for each component.
 The time‐to‐failure for the main failure modes.
 The effects of all modes of failure.
 The failure cost.
 The cost of planned replacement.
 The possible outcome of maintenance on reliability.
Figure 11 shows the logical flow chart that needs to be followed when applying
preventative maintenance taking cost into account

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Figure 11: RCM Logic [22]

2.6.1.3 Proactive Maintenance

Proactive maintenance is essentially a preventive maintenance strategy for maintaining
the stability of reliability of equipment; it has a combination of preventive and predictive
maintenance elements [14]. A proactive maintenance plan component allows a business
the capacity to extend the life of equipment and avoid a complete and unanticipated
breakdown of production facility. A proactive maintenance plan component allows an
organization to schedule production stoppages for repairs, assessments and maintenance
[14].

RCM is a Living System according to [14], he says that it collects information from the
results attained and it feeds this data back to improve design and future maintenance
plans and strategies, he explains that this feedback is an important part of the Proactive
Maintenance component of the RCM program. Figure 9 above shows the implementation
of this logical approach.

Srivastava, Sandeep [1] says that there are some difficulties with implementation by
stating that there are two main hindrances in real application of predictive maintenance
policy, firstly being the unavailability of solid statistical model for predictive
maintenance, followed by the fact that the application of predictive maintenance

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demands sophisticated and special monitoring technologies, together with advanced data
acquisition systems making it an intricate and expensive issue

2.6.1.4 Condition Based Maintenance.

Condition‐based maintenance is a PM system or method that is carried out depending on
monitoring and evaluating the performance of parameters of the equipment. This
maintenance philosophy is used to determine a probable failure in order to enable a
corrective action to be taken thereby circumventing the manifestation of the potential
failure [12].
This according to Deepak, Jagathy, et al [16] is the philosophy that was developed before
the other models were developed. Condition Based Maintenance is a management idea
that suggests that an equipment should either be repaired or replaced, this applies to
equipment that is currently running and equipment that is planned for the future, he
concludes that the change in the way the equipment performs, and its state or condition
is a key motivation for implementing this maintenance.

The best time to execute maintenance is judged from real‐time monitoring of equipment
and its components. The assessment of the condition of the assets spans from the simple
visual examinations to more specific automated examinations implementing a variety of
tools and systems for condition monitoring. The principal objective of CBM is to minimize
the overall cost of examination and repairs by accumulating and interpreting sporadic
and/or continuous statistics associated with the operating condition of critical
components of an asset [16].

There are parameters that are dedicated to indicate the condition of the equipment, those
parameters are continuously measured or measured intermittently, and the equipment
replacement is executed when the condition is no longer satisfactory and within the
specification of good healthy [23].

2.7 Total Productive Maintenance

Total Productive Maintenance is according to Deepak, Jagathy, et al [16] a technique
wherein the attention is on eradication of principal factors that lead to the loss of
production. The eradication progression begins from the time when the plant was reset,
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and then the operator performs maintenance and the programming, and compilation of
preventive maintenance.

TPM is employed to amend the preventive maintenance resulting from the results
acquired in the plant opposed to acquiring them from the equipment manufacturer. The
maintenance is partitioned into three components – Independent Maintenance which is
executed by operators, the subsequent level executed by maintenance personnel, this
makes the workers feel accountable for the primary level works they are executing; and
the last level is executed by the equipment manufacturer.

TPM promotes communication, it commands that operators, maintenance personnel and

engineers jointly work together and comprehend each other; it defines and facilitates a
relationship that is co‐operative among all the functions of the organization, but
predominantly between maintenance personnel and production personnel, for the
constant enhancement of product excellence, efficient operation and enhanced
productivity with maintaining safety. He continues to claim that TPM “establishes a
maintenance plan for the entire life of equipment, by including maintenance,
preventative maintenance and maintainability improvement. All‐encompassing is the
notion of autonomous maintenance by operators. TPM seeks to eliminate the ‘six big
losses’: equipment failure, set‐up and adjustment, idling and minor stoppages, reduced
speed, process defects and reduced yield. Minor stoppages are reduced by lubrication,
cleaning, performing adjustments and conducting inspections which are done by
operators with maintenance staff performing periodic inspections and preventive
repairs” [16].

Robson, John et al [24] adds that PTM is based on the concept of Total Quality
Management attitude of zero defects, it is built on the idea of five fundamentals which are
the improvement of equipment effectiveness, self‐sufficient maintenance, training of all
staff, execution of planned maintenance and achievement of early equipment
management. TPM uses these guiding fundamentals to drive maintenance effort, it is a
Just in Time technique and thus it encourages the use of different complementary teams
to work on the process of reducing the six main losses so as to improve the Overall
Equipment Effectiveness.

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Deepak, Jagathy, et al [16] further states that the TPM methodology can be defined with
a process of 12 step that are described below. These steps are based on the concept of
Total Quality Management.

1. TPM is announced by the top management to build up a kind work environment

that supports its introduction because otherwise the teams will be sceptical and
be resistant and cause it to fail.
2. A formal training program should be introduced to play a role of informing and
educating everybody about how important it is everybody to contribute it, as well
as the activities involved and the benefits.
3. An organizational support framework should be developed with an aim of
upholding and sustaining TPM actions. All levels of the organization should be
represented in this framework; this will encourage properly enhanced interaction
and will ensure that everybody has same objectives.
4. Launch fundamental policies and measurable objectives. The current conditions
should be scrutinized and the objectives that are SMART: Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Realistic, and Time‐based be set.
5. Develop a comprehensive master placement strategy. This strategy will classify
what requirements of specific resources and the requirements for training,
equipment refurbishment and enhancements, latest technologies and
management systems for maintenance.
6. TPM commencement. This phase begins the implementation process.
7. The improvement of efficiency of each portion of equipment. The teams involved
in the project will scrutinize each part of the given equipment and implement the
required enhancements.
8. Develop the program of maintenance that can be easily used by the operators, the
simple routines like visual inspections and cleaning can assist in terms of
stabilizing the conditions and hinder the process of deterioration.
9. Come up with a planned and preventive maintenance program, a comprehensive
schedule to be created for preventive maintenance covering each equipment part.
10. The staff must be trained to ensure an improvement in operation and the skills of
maintenance. The responsibility of providing training, guidance, and equipment
data to all the teams should lie with Maintenance.

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 11. “Develop an early equipment management program. Apply preventive
maintenance principles during the design process of equipment.” [16]
12. The organization must cultivate, embrace and encourage a constant improvement
attitude.

It is however worth noting from Deepak, Jagathy, et al [16] that even though TPM has
become so popular, its success is still debatable, and he says that a lot of literature has
been narrated that TPM application is a very challenging task and the number of
organizations that have effectively and successfully employed a TPM program is
perceived somewhat trifling.

Although there are several cases of success cases and successful research and studies on
TPM, there are also cases of disappointment that are documented in the application of
TPM programs under diverse conditions. Apart from commitments, TPM also demands a
proper structure and a clear direction.

Some difficulties that are noticeable in employing TPM comprise the culture of resistance
to change within the organization, incomplete implementation, to be excessively
optimistic in expectations, a failure to precisely define routine for achieving the
intentions of application, proper training not done, lack of or poor communication within
the organization, and the application of TPM to follow the normal standards instead of its
instrumentality and benefits to achieve the required objectives [16].

Muyengwa, Marow [20] stresses that TPM can strongly contribute to the organization by
improving the dimensions of cost, quality, and delivery, he says that basically TPM is a
methodology which seeks to improve maintenance culture by means of a combination of
parameters measurement, task planning, training, and the active contribution of a wider
assortment of employees additionally to maintenance employees.
It is a normal practice to design the power stations with redundancy when it comes to the
mills, they are normally designed with at least one extra mill to allow for maintenance to
be done while the boiler is operating at full load, this kind of design allows for reliability
of output [25]

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 2.8 Critical literature Review
The power utilities develop RCM policies that include Predictive Maintenance and CBM
for coal pulverizing mills by incorporating the Failure Mode Effect and Criticality
Analysis. FMECA is a methodology that is very important in developing maintenance for
the mills as it is used to detect firstly a number of failure modes, knowing the number of
failure modes and types assists in developing an effective maintenance strategy that is
tailor made for the pulverisers, it helps to cover the whole scope of the system and help
to avoid surprise failures from unexpected components, it also looks at the reasons for
failures [1].

Sangeetha, Saravanan [10] says that FMECA helps to identify and address the effects of
each failure, once the effects of each failure mode have been established it becomes easy
to classify the components of the pulveriser and be able to establish if they are critical or
not critical, this helps to develop the correctly suited maintenance strategy for each
component, the system owner can easily which components needs to run to failure, which
ones to be maintained based on the time intervals and which ones are to be proactively
maintained, proactive maintenance is essentially a preventative maintenance strategy for
maintaining the stability of reliability of equipment; it has a combination of preventive
and predictive maintenance elements which helps to develop plans that allow a power
station a capacity to extend the life of equipment and avoid a complete and unanticipated
breakdown of the mills.

Sangeetha, Saravanan [10] continues on his study on An Innovated Method Using Failure
Mode And Effects Analysis For Improving Quality Of The Software says that FMEA is
generally the first step of a system reliability study, and it is therefore very involved, it
comprises studying and reviewing as many components, assemblies, and subsystems as
practicable to identify and specify failure modes, and their possible causes and effects.

According to Tee [11]it is understood to be a well‐structured decision logic that is

employed to the failure mode effect analysis to allocate a correct, best fitting maintenance
strategy and the times for maintenance tasks allocated.
FMECA is without a doubt a very important tool that helps to analyse the system and help
the system owner to be able to develop a maintenance strategy that is best suited for the

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whole system, the strategy that comprehensively addresses every components [11]. If
FMECA is applied correctly and precisely in the mills, their efficiency increases as well as
their reliability in terms of their endurance and availability. It is very important to note
that the components and system will fail at some point, as they cannot run indefinitely,
so it is important to develop these strategies, and to develop them with a deserving level
of skill and precision.

The final step of FMECA is to analyse the level of criticality each failure mode would have
to the coal pulverizing mill and the overall production. It becomes clear that one can
never isolate the RCM from the FMECA simply because the FMECA is applied as a very
powerful aid in developing an effective RCM [10]. The skilled professionals, including the
designers should be involved in the process of developing the maintenance strategies due
to the level of detail employed and the level of importance they carry.

RCM as applied to the pulverizing mills is a logically and carefully developed structure
that is uniquely designed to address the maintenance and reliability needs for each and
every component of the mills, it is established and applied for developing and improving
the requirements and standards for maintenance of the mills in their environment of
operation to guarantee their characteristic reliability and avoid unexpected failures, this
makes it possible to develop the maintenance programs derived from the strategy that
are unique for every component. Deepak, Jagathy, et al [16] on his CBM, TPM, RCM and
A‐RCM ‐ A Qualitative Comparison of Maintenance Management Strategies journal echoes
that the RCM is a procedure employed to regulate that which requires to be performed
for making sure that every component of the plant is not hindered from performing
whatsoever its design demands it to perform under given conditions, his findings are true
with the mills as the application of the RCM makes them to function as efficiently as
possible because the RCM helps to develop the maintenance programs that address the
mills operation needs based on the design requirements and capabilities [16].

Reliability Cantered Maintenance is a method and a process that is mainly used for
developing the maintenance strategies and tasks corresponding to it in the actual context
of operation and the expected consequences the asset failure would incur. This is done
owing to the fact that each component does require a certain kind of maintenance that is
effectively suitable to the context of its operation [26].

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The coal fired power stations under study have adopted RCM for their coal pulverizing
mills as their maintenance strategy; this strategy comprehensively covers Reactive,
Preventive, Predictive and Proactive Maintenance, this is attested by Soni, Naik [14] on
his journal on Research Review on Reliability Centred Maintenance where he was
addressing the basic concepts of Reliability Cantered Maintenance that establish the
method of selecting the most effective maintenance approach, he says that RCM is the
optimum combination of reactive, interval‐based, condition‐based, and proactive
maintenance practices.

Tarar [19] on her journal article named Study Reliability Centred Maintenance of
Rotating Equipment through Predictive Maintenance concluded that the successful RCM
implementation in any industry can ensure improved performance to allow that industry
to take a competitive advantage in the global market, her conclusion is true with regards
to the implementation of RCM to the mills since every time the mill breaks down and
there is no redundancy available, (which is easy to happen with poor application or
absence of reliability strategies in place), there will the power loss because the unity will
be forced to deload with a power equivalent to what the mill can provide, the power loss
in that fashion translates directly into the loss in revenue.

This maintenance strategy is ideal for the pulverizing mills as they have different critical
components that have different characteristics and hence each of them needs to be
approached in a different manner to address its uniqueness and its design needs, some
components are rotating and need constant lubrication while some are stationery, some
are subjected to high temperatures and friction, and some are subjected to erosion and
abrasion, Deepak, Jagathy, et al [16] also describes RCM to be a procedure employed to
regulate that which requires to be performed for making sure that every component of
the plant is not hindered from performing whatsoever its design demands it to perform
under given conditions.

The pulverisers are by design a complex system that needs a proper strategy that has to
be well communicated amongst all the teams to guarantee the success of the strategy, all
the teams that are involved in the design, operation and maintaining the milling plant
have to have a clear communication and a clear understanding amongst themselves in

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order to be able to apply the correct reliability strategies and apply it successfully, I can
conclude that communication forms part of the implementation of reliability strategies.

The best time to execute maintenance is judged from the type of maintenance strategy
that is used for each component. Some strategies demand a complete shutdown of the
mill in question, that is why the power stations have redundancy and a part of reliability
strategy, there is one extra mill for every boiler that is always on standby, there are
scheduled test runs for the standby mill as well to ensure that it is readily available
whenever it is called.

The assessment of pulverisers condition spans from the simple visual examinations to
more specific automated examinations implementing a variety of tools and systems for
condition monitoring, Mungani, Visse [23] from his study on Maintenance Approaches
For Different Production Methods also says that there are parameters that are dedicated
to indicate the condition of the equipment in the system, those parameters are
continuously measured or measured intermittently, and the equipment replacement is
executed when the condition is no longer satisfactory and within the specification of good
healthy; this is true for the mills, after a certain number of ours as mentioned above they
get shutdown for full inspections, each and every critical component gets inspected
according to its own prescribed strategy, the noncritical components are normally left to
run to failure and gets replaced when they fail, this approach I believe is economical as it
because the noncritical components don’t necessarily result in any production loss when
they fail, so it is better to run them to failure and get the maximum benefit out of them.

The RCM methodology has come with noteworthy benefits in terms of the reliability of
the mills and the power station productiveness, it lowers costs in terms of production
losses as it reduces the probability of unexpected shutdowns, and this also has a direct
impact in increased productivity, Mohamed, Duffuaa, et al [13] on his Handbook of
Maintenance Management and Engineering affirms that RCM is instituted upon system
enhancement techniques that retain a cost effective view to assets while recognizing and
developing operational and maintenance regulations and strategies.

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Since the RCM is a kind of maintenance that is centred in reliability, it improves mills
operating performance and reduces the risks of unexpected failures because all the
critical components of the mills have maintenance strategies to ensure that they are kept
within their design specifications.

Total Productive Maintenance is a type of maintenance that is based on the concept of

Total Quality Management attitude of zero defects according to [24], it however seen as a
very difficult strategy to implement and according to [16], he says that its success is still
debateable. I see a lot of strength on this strategy if all the parties that are involved do
participate as required, it creates more of a teamwork environment than having people
working in islands, and it also promotes enough communication.

The other good point about it is that it promotes that the systems should have
redundancy as a part of reliability, this is particularly good with the mills as they have a
direct impact on the unit output, Pattanayak, Paul, [25] says that it is a norm to design the
power stations with redundancy when it comes to the mills, he says that they are
normally designed with at least one extra mill to allow for maintenance to be done while
the boiler is operating at full load, this kind of design allows for reliability of output, this
type of redundancy adds to the point that is made by Muyengwa, Marowa [20] in saying
that TPM can strongly contribute to the organization by improving the magnitudes of
cost, quality and delivery because TPM is a methodology which seeks to improve
maintenance culture by means of a combination of parameters measurement, task
planning, training, and the active contribution of a wider assortment of employees
additionally to maintenance employees.

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 2.9 Conclusion
The maintenance of the plant equipment is of great importance, it is beneficial to the
organization in many ways, the organization gains production and cost benefits when
maintenance strategies are developed and implemented precisely. The literature review
shows that the proper implementation of RCM, TPM, PdM and CBM could save a lot of
money for the company. The study done by Soni, Naik [14] where he was doing research
review on RCM broadly shows that RCM is very comprehensive in context and
application, with a pro application thereof, an organization could be proactive and
reactive, have interval maintenance plans and can also incorporate CBM.

Though these maintenance strategies are so successful when mastered and followed
correctly, they are not easy to implement, Deepak, Jagath [16] says even though TPM has
become so popular, its success is still debatable and it has been narrated in the literature
that its application is a very challenging task and the number of organizations that have
effectively and successfully employed it is considered somewhat small, some of the
noticeable difficulties he mentions in employing TPM include cultural resistance to
change within the organization, partial implementation, excessively optimistic
expectations, lack of a precise and well‐defined routine for achieving the intentions of
implementation, lack of proper training, lack of communication within the organization,
and implementation of TPM to follow the norms instead of its instrumentality to achieve
the required objectives.

RCM also has about four principles that have to be followed when implementing it says
[14], they need to be observed carefully and they are: Preserving the system function,
identification of the particular failure, prioritizing key functional failures, selection of
applicable and effective maintenance tasks for the high priority items. These principles
aid with the implementation of the equipment or system reliability. The conventional RCM
also does have some limitations that were noted by Deepak , Jagathy et al [27] on his journal
paper named A New Model for Reliability Centred Maintenance in Petroleum Refineries.

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3 Chapter 3: Reliability Management in the Power Station.

3.1 Introduction
This section details and scrutinizes the maintenance that is done on the mills in the Power
Station, it focusses on the main components that are under study for both VSM (Roller
Type) and VSM (Ring and Ball Type) Mills. There are maintenance strategies that have
been put in place to ensure proper maintenance is conducted and that the maximum
reliability possible is achieved.

There are also operational procedures that are in place also to ensure that the mills are
operated in a way that ensures reliability. There are engineers that are assigned a task to
develop these strategies, since the mill as a system comprises mechanical, electrical, and
control and instrumentation engineering components, all these engineering disciplines
develop the strategies for maintenance.

The strategies are reviewed and authorized by the departmental line managers, and then
finally approved by the head of engineering department before they get implemented.
The strategies are developed from the information that is available from the
manufacturers of the mills. Once the strategies have been approved, they get
communicated with maintenance and operating departments, the engineers ensure that
the maintenance and operating teams are fully cognizant of the tasks that they are
required to perform to ensure reliability.

The QCPs are developed from the strategies, the QCPs break down the tasks into short
and more understandable lines of information, that is done to ensure that the
maintenance and operating teams understand every single task and also to ensure that
they are able to mark every task as they pass it, this ensures that all the tasks are
performed and correctly so. The engineers put hold points on certain tasks that are
deemed critical, this is done for an engineer to be satisfied that these tasks are performed
correctly, the reliability of the mills is highly important.

For every component of the mill there is a running PM or PMs to ensure a maximum
reliability, the PMs address tasks from simple visual inspections to the more detailed
technical tasks. All the PMs are executed by trained and competent persons to ensure
quality of work and reliability. The station is fitted with a combination of VSM balls and

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VSM roller mills, their maintenance strategies are similar but not identical since they have
some components that are not common, each type has a specific set of PMs to ensure
proper attention to detail and maintenance of required level of reliability. Maintenance is
performed at different time intervals as stipulated by an engineer on the PMs.

3.1.1 Research limitations

The research limitations that have been identified on this study are listed below.

 Only one power station has been studies for the purpose of this mini dissertation.
 The power station that is under study only has two types of mills.

3.1.2 Maintenance philosophy and limitations

Each unit at this power station is equipped with six mills, only five mills are required to
run the unit at full load capacity, the extra sixth mill is kept as a working spare for
redundancy to maintain the reliability of the milling plant and make it possible for the
units to always produce at maximum load whenever required.

The critical running path of the mills is the mills internals, trunnion lube oil system and
bearing grease, the mill internals suffer from high abrasive wear, lube oil contamination
and lube oil starvation. The material that is used for the mills has an abrasive resistance
that allows the mills to have up to 4000 hours service intervals depending on the wear
rates measured. The service duration of each mill is about four days.

Mill Classifiers, Mill hot and cold primary air control and isolation dampers internals are
maintained during outage opportunities since they cannot be safely repaired with the
furnace on load. Mill liners together with filler rings are routinely replaced at 8,000 hour
intervals [+‐10% tolerance]. The normal duration required for maintenance work is 5
days.

3.1.3 Maintenance Execution Strategy

All maintenance plans for the mills align with the Maintenance Execution Strategy. The
Maintenance Execution Strategy is the document that serves to formally establish an
optimized maintenance approach based on the analysis of the milling plant equipment by
relevant plant personnel in order to improve the reliability of the plant as a whole.
Maintenance management is based upon the mills operational requirements and

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parameters being managed together with the reliability that is expected from them over
their total lifecycle.
To achieve these objectives, engineering department has developed the inspection and
test strategy as well as a maintenance execution strategy; it also provides direction on
the overall mills maintenance and a component specific periodicities and requirements
together with the overall inspection requirements and criteria that are followed.

Planned Maintenance and Testing are performed to ensure sustainable, reliable and
optimal mills performance at the lowest cost. The defined strategy and plans include all
testing and inspection requirements to obtain reliable information for accurate
assessment of the condition, which in turn is used for decisions on the future lifecycle
management strategy.
The station derived their maintenance strategies from the past experiences and FMECA
and from equipment data and requirements from the original equipment manufacturers.

3.1.4 Maintenance principles

The following three maintenance principles were followed in determining the strategy:

 Preventative maintenance
 Predictive maintenance
 Corrective maintenance

3.1.5 Preventive maintenance

To ensure optimal working conditions of the mills and to conserve the life span of the
equipment, Preventive maintenance is implemented; it has been developed from the
previous experiences and the design data from the equipment manufacturers, failures
modes effects and criticality analysis. This has assisted the station to develop a relevant
maintenance strategy that has inspections that are time based.

The time‐based maintenance that is based on the mill running hours focuses on
components that can be overhauled with the unit on load. Where access to components
is limited and where safety cannot be guaranteed when unit is on load, maintenance is
only executed when the unit is on general overhaul outage, mini general overhaul and
IR’s. This preventive maintenance strategy may change with the change in coal quality
supplied, wear rate and failure modes.

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 3.1.6 Reactive maintenance
Predictive maintenance is performed based on the condition of the plant that has been
picked up during the execution of the PMs, some of the risks could be picked up by the
operators when they are doing weekly or daily visual inspection in the plant, some could
be picked up when the Performance and Testing department do their tests.

3.1.7 Task interval selection

Based on the task type, select a suitable task periodicity.

 For Condition Monitoring tasks, the periodicity is based on the failure development
period. The reliability of the plant is maintained by basing task intervals on the failure
progression period, which is the period between the point at which the potential
failure condition can be detected and the point at which the functional failure would
occurs, the task interval is set at less than half this failure progression period to ensure
that maintenance is performed before an equipment fails.

 For all time directed tasks in the mills, the periodicity is based on the useful life. The
task interval is based on the age at which the component shows a rapid increase in
the conditional probability of failure

 For Failure Finding tasks, the periodicity is based on the risk of the multiple failures.
The task interval is based on an assessment of the reliability of the protected function,
the availability of the protective device and the acceptable level of risk associated
with the multiple failure.

3.1.8 Corrective maintenance

Corrective maintenance is applied to components that are not covered by the preventative and
predictive maintenance principles, the components that are run to failure, thus corrected as and
when they fail, there are no PMs in place for such equipment in this station.

3.1.9 Planning of mill service or outage work

Proper planning of resources is included in the strategy to ensure reliability and proper
maintenance. All the teams and individuals are assigned clear duties and those duties are
effectively communicated.

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 3.2 Roles and responsibilities.
There are different roles and responsibilities that are assigned to departments, sections and
individuals within the power station, this is done to ensure that different skills and specialities in
engineering are brought together to ensure effective maintenance. This subsection covers the
roles and responsibilities for Mill Mechanical Section, Resource Planners for every relevant
section, Maintenance Support, Shift Manager Operating, Engineering Departments, Condition
monitoring, Line Manager Maintenance, Supervisor, Technicians and Artisan.

3.2.1 Mill Mechanical Section

The Mill Mechanical Section Resource Planner in the station is responsible for planning
and scheduling of the mill outages within the Work week management planning process
by using the mill outage forecast program as provided by the Mill System Engineer, the
following rules apply:
 Mill outages to be executed on the scheduled date or as close as possible to it.
 Only one Mill is to be off for planned maintenance at a time when the unit is on
load.
 The Mills on the same unit may not be scheduled for planned maintenance within
3 days between each other. If any mill on a running unit is a production risk, no
other mill on the same unit will be shut down for service, until the risk is mitigated.
Calculated risks may be taken with the approval of the Mill System Engineer if
there is a need.

3.2.2 Resource Planners for every relevant section

Every section has a resource planner that is responsible for:
 Loading orders with the tasks that are relevant for the outage type and purpose.
 Load General Tasks where applicable i.e. Motor or gearbox service, as listed on SAP.
 Resource Planners and Working Technicians are responsible for co‐ordinating the
daily maintenance planning. These include manpower and spares availability,
control of stock levels and outage planning.
 Capture the history, as was written down in shop papers and approved by
Supervisor on SAP as required in every individual task.

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 3.2.3 Line Manager Maintenance, Supervisor, Technicians and Artisan
(Awareness Training)
 They are responsible for providing the required Maintenance input for the
development of the preventive maintenance Task Lists to ensure reliability
management by performing all the required functions ensuring the availability of
these resources and information;
o Tools and equipment required for the tasks to be performed,
o Spares required with stock codes,
o The time required to execute the job.
 Developing thorough step by step Work Instructions for consistent task execution,
with technical input and direction from the System Engineers of the Mills.
 Specifying the required Safety Precautions for safe work execution.
 Identifying all Permit to Work requirements.
 Identifying the number of people and skills levels of each person required.
 Identifying any pre‐defined history requirements
 Performing an independent technical review of the Task List for accuracy.
 Minimising any Maintenance related barriers for site implementation.
 This ensures a good quality of work, excellence and reliability of the Mills after
having worked on them.

 The Supervisor is responsible for making the relevant Task list, Schedules, Working
procedure and Maintenance Strategy available to his team during weekly section
feedback meetings and to ensure that the required training is done. He also ensures
that the Outage Management is updated on a daily basis regarding the progress on the
mill, this is done on the daily basis during the mill outage.

3.3 Scope of work changes

To enhance quality and to ensure the required levels of reliability, no changes to the scope
of work of any mill outage are allowed without the authorisation of the System Engineer.
With any changes the formal Corrective Action process is followed. The completed and
approved Task, Schedule or Procedure is retained by the relevant Supervisor as proof of
the changes and forms part of his copy of the Strategy document and gets captured in the
Strategy by The System Engineer during the yearly review.

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 3.4 Maintenance Support
With regards to the Mills, Maintenance Support function is responsible for:

The planning of work as per work management process by

 Compiling and review of maintenance work procedure.
 Compiling and reviewing of QCP’s
 Compiling and review of Task List and Schedules, ensuring that they are
implemented in SAP with relevant schedule times linked to them.
 Compiling and reviewing of Bills of materials on file and on SAP
 Enhancement of Stock technical purchase descriptions and optimisation of stock.
Maintenance Support performs all the above‐mentioned tasks with inputs and
instructions from the System Engineer and inputs from Maintenance. Tasks and
Schedules are developed, and review continuously based on plant needs.

3.5 Shift Manager Operating

The shift manager ensures that the milling plant is operated in a way that ensures the
reliability of the plant at all times by:

 Providing the necessary operating input and by supporting the development of the
preventive maintenance task lists.
 Developing the task lists for operating activities as required by the approved milling
plant strategy.
 Identifying areas where the check sheets are not in line with strategy requirements.
 Providing any required milling plant specific operating knowledge to the operators.
 Providing input concerning when the preventive maintenance activities can be
performed whether on‐line or during the shutdowns.
 Providing input concerning the required information for safe execution of the task
lists developed.
 Minimising any operating related barriers for site implementation of maintenance on
the mills.
 Identifying any Permit to Work requirements by ensuring reliability of the milling
plant whenever the tasks are performed.

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 3.6 Engineering Departments
Every System Engineer as the custodian of the system is to develop procedures and
approve changes to procedures, work tasks, schedules, technical descriptions and to
provide the strategy for the type of maintenance and frequency required, as well as to
support maintenance with special requests and failures; this ensures reliability in every
task performed.

The following Engineering functions are involved with the milling plant

 Boiler Engineering

 C&I Engineering

 Electrical Engineering

 Performance and Testing

3.7 PF fineness control

These Mills are designed to grind the coal according to these specifications:

 At least 70% of particles should pass through a 200mesh (74 Microns) sieve.

For this purpose, each Mill is fitted with a static classifier at the top of the mill. The
particles get separated by the change of velocity and direction of flow caused by vanes
and vortex finder, the heavier particles fall and gets reground or get rejected into
rejection chamber. The figure below, figure 12 shows the PF flow diagram.

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Figure 12 : PF fineness control [28]

3.8 Operating modes

There are operating procedures and operating instructions in place in the station that
have been developed for the mills to ensure the reliability of the plant, the milling plant
control mode can be selected to Manual, Auto or Cascade control. During normal
operation, the controls are on CAS and only are selected to the other modes of operation
when one or a combination of the following conditions occurs:
 Mill warm up and/or start up
 One mill does not follow load line and requires Manual control
 Mill shutdown.

The air flow dampers are set such that they provide adequate air flow when starting a
mill on manual control to ensure a reliable and adequate air flow. The damper would
close or open more when put on CAS as per the boiler demand for firing.

3.9 Condition monitoring

Condition Monitoring plays a critical role in Condition Based Maintenance, health,
performance and life of the milling plant. It is applied to determine the condition of the
plant and hence specify and carry out required maintenance that ensures reliability.
Condition monitoring is expected to:

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  Improve equipment reliability through effective prediction and prevention of
equipment failures.

 Identify and evade conditions that reduce equipment life, for example
misalignment, lubricant contamination, vibrations, high temperatures, low flows
of lubricants, etc., thereby improving and optimising equipment performance,
reliability and life span.

Condition monitoring provides information that will be used to:

 Determine if Time Based Maintenance or Outage can be delayed or should be
brought forward based on the conditions in the Mills.

 Determine the duration of an outage more precisely as more facts are known
regarding the conditions.

 Determine the areas of focus and work requirements for an outage.

 Determining the spares and material required or likely to be required during the
outage.

An effective Condition Monitoring Program does not necessarily translate into zero
downtime or machinery failures, but it does reduce unforeseen problems and
breakdowns, and contribute to improved reliability.
Condition monitoring relates to other functions such as maintenance, works
management, engineering, operating and planning, that are also involved in maintaining
the health of the plant. Figure 13 shows the closely related processes as applied in the
power station.

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 Maintenance Task Condition Monitoring Works Management

Basic Care PM Inspection measure Work Order

collect data
Condition Monitoring Analyses Determine Fault Job Plan Spares
Procedures
Performance Specify corrective work Plan
Monitoring
Acceptance Testing Schedule
CMMS (Master Data)

Condition Monitoring CM Software and Close out

Technician Instruments
CM Technician, System CMMS
Engineer.
Maintenance Work
Management

‐ Health Management.
‐ Reliability management.
‐ Continuous Management.

System Engineer. System Specifications and RCM

Figure 13: Condition Monitoring Program Diagram

3.9.1 Functions of condition monitoring

The condition monitoring function is responsible for the following:

 Determine the condition of all targeted equipment for reliability

 Report the condition monitoring results to the plant owner (relevant System
Engineer) and all other stake holders.

 Advise on maintenance actions based on the condition results

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  Inform stakeholders of any major developments affecting production, safety, or
environment

 Co‐ordinate the total station Condition Monitoring function

 Keep in touch with Condition Monitoring developments both within and outside
of the station

3.9.2 Condition monitoring process

The general steps in condition monitoring are stated below and they are executed as they
are to ensure reliable analysis. The steps are:
 Plan

 Measure

 Analyse

 Diagnosis and prognosis

 Report

 Recommend

 Acceptance testing

 Record all data and transactions in a database.

The data that is taken or collected gets analysed and compared with the specified limits
to identify the presence of any faults or abnormalities. The operating purpose, limits and
designs are considered to determine and specify the required corrective work to be
undertaken. After the work is done quality assurance testing is conducted to establish if
the fault conditions that had required corrections were successfully cleared and to
confirm or re‐establish a baseline.

3.9.3 Vibration Monitoring

The strategy for vibration condition monitoring on the milling plant is time based and all
mills are monitored at a frequency stipulated on the strategy. The vibration trends are
done and analysed by Condition Monitoring and get communicated to the relevant
System Engineer.

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If there are any abnormalities, they get referred to Maintenance stating the proposed
corrective actions as well as the reasons for the corrective actions proposed. Any
uncertainties regarding the root cause of the vibrations as well as the appropriate
corrective actions get immediately discussed with the relevant Mill System Engineer for
final decision on actions. Detailed vibration trends and history support this discussion.

Further to routine vibration monitoring actions that are stated on the PMs, vibrations
analyses are done during the start‐up of any rotating equipment after some maintenance
work has been done as this could cause vibrations on the system, and vibrations are also
tested on request.

3.9.4 Condition Monitoring of Oils

Oil samples are taken according to the PMs on all the mill lubrication system according to
the strategy that has been developed. Performance and Testing Personnel is responsible
for the oil samples which get sent to the laboratory for analyses and any deviations get
communicated with lubrication section, stating the required corrective action as well as
the reason for the required action. If there are any uncertainties regarding the root cause
of the abnormality or the possible corrective action, the results get communicated and
discussed immediately with the relevant Mill System Engineer.

3.9.5 Mill Performance

Poor maintenance of the mills leads to poor reliability which in turn affects the output of
the whole station in the form of load losses as each Mill provides a full load generator
output of 40MW, when the Mills breakdown unexpectedly the station experience load
losses in the form of Unplanned Capability Loss Factor.

Mill performance problems have been identified on both VSM (Roller Type) and VSM
(Ring and Ball Type) as they are in use in the station. This has also been aggravated by
the dry cooling on some of the units and high condenser back pressures. Some of the
contributing factors are:

 Unavailability of mills that might be caused by breakdowns and unavailability of

spares.
 The Plant condition has also deteriorated which has caused many occurrences of
primary air and leaks of the pulverised fuel.

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The figures below show on the form of graphs the top ten causes of load losses that result
because of the Mills.

Top Ten Load‐losses For the station

mill internal inspection
mill stirrup
running in of new mill balls
mill trunnion bearing
mill PF leak
unavailability of mills
mill feeder blocked
mill ram cylinder
mill availability
poor mill performance

0,000 0,020 0,040 0,060 0,080 0,100 0,120 0,140 0,160

UCLF [%]

Figure 14: Top 10 UCLF Load losses

Figure 14 above is a statistical graph depicting ten types of losses that the power station
experiences and their impact on the unplanned capability loss factor (UCLF) which is the
measure of the lost energy due to unplanned energy losses resulting from equipment
failures and other plant conditions. From the graph it is noted that the highest losses were
experienced because of the poor mill performance and the lowest contributor is due to
the mill internal inspections.

Top Ten Load‐losses For the station due to the Mills

mills damper saturated

mill internal inspection
running in of new mill…
unavailability of mills
mill level saturated
mill PF leak
mill feeder tripped
mill feeder blocked
mill availability
poor mill performance

0 20 40 60 80 100
Incidences

Figure 15: Top 10 Incidents

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The figure above is a statistical graph depicting ten types of losses types in The Mills, it
shows the number of incidents that are experienced that are caused by each Mill per
annum and the types of incidents, it is noted again that the highest losses were
experienced because of the poor mill performance and the lowest contributor was due to
the mill damper saturation.

Table 1: Mill load losses.

Load Mill
Loss load Opportunity
Load loss Count losses PCL OCL Maintenance UCL UCLF
Trigger (MWh) (MWh) (MWh) (MWh) (MWh) (MWh) (%)
Poor Mill
Performance 84 12642.1 0 26.33 36.17 12580 0.141
Mill
Availability 32 6949.34 0 0 0 6949.3 0.076
Mill Ram
Cylinder 6 6666 0 0 0 6666 0.075
Mill Feeder
Blocked. 17 5877.65 0 0 0 5877.7 0.064
Unavailability
of Mills 11 3550.87 0 0 0 3550.9 0.039
Mill PF leak. 13 2984.34 0 39.34 0 2945 0.033
Mill
Trunnion/
Bearing. 1 2324 0 0 0 2324 0.025
Running in of
new Mill
Balls. 11 2150.12 0 0 0 2150.1 0.024
Mill Stirrup 4 2026.58 0 0 0 2026.6 0.022
Mill Internal
Inspection. 11 1907.35 0 0 0 1907.4 0.022
TOTAL 190 47078.4 0 65.67 36.17 46977 0.521

Table 1 above gives the detailed account of losses that the station has experience due to
the Mills, the highest number of load loss counts comes from the poor mill performance
and the lowest from the Mill trunnion bearing, it is also noted that the highest percentage
losses come from the poor mill performance and the lowest from the Mill internal
inspections

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Figure 15: Mill and Coal Burner UCLF ‐ Contribution per Unit

The graph on Figure 15 above shows the summary of the UCLF per Mill per annum, from
the figure it is noted that the unit 1 is a highest contributor to the UCLF with unit 2 being
the lowest contributor, unit 3 was not in service for the period. I would like to bring into
attention that only unit 5 VSM (Roller) types of mills, from the graph it is clear that the
contribution to the UCLF of the Mills does not necessarily depend on their types as it can
be noted that unit 5 lies bellow unit 1 and unit 6 but above unit 2 and unit 4.

3.10 Experimental design

This subsection explains how the experimental questionnaire was developed and
designed to collect as much information as possible.

3.11 Questionnaire
A questionnaire was developed with a set of questions with a holistic view to the
maintenance strategy; the questions were designed to acquire sufficient information
regarding the milling plant’s reliability from all the stake holders involved. This
questionnaire was then distributed to the sample group. The actual questionnaire with a
set of questions handed out to the participants can be found in Appendix D.
Some employees were supplied with the soft copies and some with hard copies, those
who were supplied with the soft copied they were asked to complete and e‐mailed back
their filled copies for interpretation. Each participant was given a minimum of two
months to complete the questionnaire; the period of two months was viewed to be

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sufficient for the participants to give responses that are true and realistic. Telephonic
reminders were made to the participants who had not yet completed the questionnaire
by the end of two months.

The questionnaire was designed keeping the following in mind:

 Each participant was given enough time to be honest and objective when
completing the questionnaire.
 The length of the questionnaire was limited to ensure that the participants do not
lose interest while going through the questionnaire.
 The questions were designed such that they would be interesting to the
participants to read, especially. This contributed to the accuracy of the feedback
received.
 The questions were designed to gain as much information as possible concerning
the competency of the personnel, training given, level of formal education and
level of experience on the mills.
 The sequence of the questions was arranged in such a way that they were clear to
specific types of mills. This helped to prevent the participant from confusing
strategies for different types of mills. The participant must in no way be led to give
“expected” answers.

3.12 Questionnaire design

 The questionnaire was designed with the questions that were focusing on the
critical components of both the Vertical Spindle Mill (Ball & Ring) and Vertical
Spindle Mill (Roller type) with specific headings to alert the participant of the mill
type in question.
 The questions were designed to help understand the structure of maintenance
strategies and the maintenance being done.
 The questions were designed to show reliability of the maintenance process
applied.
 They were designed to establish if the personnel have enough training to
maintenance the milling plant.
 The questions were developed to bring an understanding of the quality of the
operating teams and the work that they do.

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  The sample of the questionnaire was submitted to the research supervisors to
read and approve the questions prior to the official handout to the participants.
The feedback from the samples was used to refine the questionnaire content and
quality to ensure a good standard of questions issued to the participants.
As part of the design of the questionnaires, the sample of questionnaire was also sent out
to experienced engineers, and experience maintenance, Operators and experienced P&T
technician for proof reading in order to verify the accuracy of the questionnaire content
and to ensure that content was understandable with no double meanings or grey areas in
the interpretation of the questions.

The design and the formulation of the questionnaire underwent many changes based on
the recommendations of the proof‐readers. When I was satisfied after many changes, the
questionnaire was sent out to the participants. To ensure a statistically sufficient sample,
all the personnel working on the mills was approached to participate in the survey, 27
out of 30 individuals, (90%), returned the survey questionnaire with their responses.

3.13 Participant feedback

The feedback was collected in two methods, through emails and hand collections. Upon
receiving a feedback, the participants were given short interview to verify if the answers
given on the questionnaires were corresponding with the responses given on the
interviews, wherever there was no alignment between the two the participant was asked
to verify the answers if they were a true reflection of what is being done in the plant.

4. Chapter 4: Research findings

Data collected will be discussed in detail in this section. The questionnaires that were
handed out to the participants was collected, verified and interpreted in this section. The
questionnaire was received from 27 participants.

 8 Maintenance personnel, Technicians and Artisans (Mechanical, Electrical)

 7 Managers (Mechanical, Electrical & Operations (Shift managers))
 3 Engineers (Mechanical and Electrical)
 2 Performance and Testing Engineering
 7 Operators

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Table 2: Vertical Spindle Mill (Ball & Ring). 27 participants.
Vertical Spindle Mill (Ball & Ring)
PM Only Visual inspection done Run Component
based repaired and maintenance to replaced after
when planned based on failure certain run hours
broken findings
Maintenance on Hollow 27
Grinding Balls
Grinding Rings 27
Mill Yoke (Table) 25 25 2
Grinding Elements Loading 25 25 2
System
Loading System with 25 25 2
Pneumatic Cylinders

Table 2 above shows the feedback information that was received regarding the Vertical
Spindle Mill (Ball & Ring) maintenance done. All the participants agree that the grinding
rings and the hollow grinding balls maintenance is done based on the number running
hours as shown on Table 20 in appendix B, the assessment gets executed according to the
procedure as discussed above on table 9 of section 12, the replacements are done based
on the findings during the inspections. All the participants agree that this is the process
that is followed for the purpose reliable maintenance.

On the Mill Yoke Table, Grinding Elements Loading System and Loading System with
Pneumatic Cylinders there was a split on feedbacks, where 25 participants say that the
Visual inspections are done and maintenance planned based on findings, they agree that
these inspections are PM based, the inspections are done according to Table 22 in
Appendix C. Only two participants from maintenance indicated that these components
are run to failure. The interviews were conducted to understand the feedback from all
the components, and it was established that the two participants that chose run to failure
are new in the milling plant and they actually thought since these components don’t get
replaced based on running hours were therefore run to failure.

58 | P a g e
Table 3 : Vertical Spindle Mill (Roller type). 27 participants.
Vertical Spindle Mill (Roller type)
PM Only Visual inspection done Run Component
based repaired and maintenance to replaced after
when planned based on failure certain run
broken findings hours
Grinding Tyre 27 27
Grinding Roller 27 27
Grinding Tyre/Roller 27 27
Mounting and Securing
Grinding Tracks 27 27
Tyre/Roller Hub And 27 18
Bearing Assemblies
Tyre/Roller Assembly 27 18
Main Body
Loading System With 27
Hydraulic Cylinders

These mills get inspected internally on the monthly bases, all the 27 participants agree
that the Grinding Tyre, Grinding Roller, Grinding Tyre/Roller Mounting and Securing, and
Grinding Tracks have visual inspections done on them and maintenance gets planned
based on findings, this correctly aligns with the maintenance strategy for these
components as stipulated on subsection 13.2, table 11 which states that each of these
Mills gets routinely stopped and opened to perform monthly inspections. All the
components are checked by suitably qualified personnel, the results get recorded and get
compared to the standard to enable the responsible persons to take appropriate actions,
the responsible engineer also checks the results and give direction.

The split in feedback was observed amongst the participants on Tyre/Roller Hub and
Bearing Assemblies and Tyre/Roller Assembly Main Body. It is noted that 18 of the
participants say that visual inspections are done as per PMs and maintenance gets
planned based on findings, the remaining 9 participants state that the maintenance is PM
based which is also correct, the strategy is depicted in the tabular form on Table 22 in
Appendix C. The interviews were conducted, and it was found that the participants are all
in agreement that there are monthly PMs that get released, the inspections are then done
based on the strategy that is stipulated in the PMs.

All the participants are in agreement that the Loading System With Hydraulic Cylinders
are maintained based on the PMs, this is in accordance to the strategy on Table 22 in
Appendix C.

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Table 4: Reliability maintenance VSM (Ball & Ring) and VSM (Roller). 27 participants.
Reliability maintenance management of the Critical components that are common to
[VSM (Ball & Ring) and VSM (Roller)]
PM Only repaired Visual inspection Run Component
based when broken done and to replaced after
maintenance failure certain run
planned based on hours
findings
Mill Main 27 27
Gearbox
Mill Main Motor 27 27
Mill Motor 27 27
Couplings
Seal Air Flow 27 27
Measurement
Seal Air Fan 27 27
Motors
Feeder Table 27 27
Drive Gearbox
Feeder 27 27
Discharge
Blocked Chute
Detection
Feeder 27 27
Lubrication
Piping
Plenum 27 27
Chamber
Pyrites 27

Table 14 shows the Critical components that are common to VSM (Ball & Ring) and VSM
(Roller), the participants made two choices on this section, they all agreed that the
maintenance of all these components is PM based, and the PM states that Visual
inspection should be done, and maintenance planned based on findings, the details of the
maintenance strategy are discussed in section 6 and section 7.

To ensure reliability at all times, the mill gearbox is monitored on the daily basis, the
specific parameters that are monitored daily on the field are gearbox temperature and
gearbox oil, these parameters are specifically checked daily because the higher
temperatures of the gearbox affects its life span, it may also mean that there is no enough
flow of the lubrication and cooling oil, this interferes with its reliability. Oil leaks, feeder
lubrication, feeder blockages, plenum chamber and pyrites are also inspected on the daily
based and the inspection results inform actions to be taken.

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Table 5 : Qualifications and Training of Operating and Maintenance personnel. 27
participants.
Qualifications and Training of Operating and Maintenance
personnel.
Grade Certificate Diploma Bachelors None
12 to Higher to Degree
Certificate BTech or higher

Highest 8 19
qualification

Table 6 : On job training done. 27 participants.

YES NO
On job 27
training
done?

Table 7: Maintenance or operating courses. 27 participants.

Never Only when Once Once Only when
there is a new every 6 every 18 requested or
maintenance months months deemed required
plan or to a year. to 3 years by management.
operating
instruction.
Maintenance or 5 22
operating
courses done

All the participants have qualifications beyond Grade 12, most of them have Diplomas to
BTech degrees. This is a good indication that the personnel working on the Mills is
suitably qualified for the work that they are doing, this has a direct contribution to the
quality of execution.

Table 16 also gives an indication that on job training is done for improvement purposes;
this covers the refresher training as well, these kinds of training as conducted by subject
matter professionals that have a vast experience and in‐depth knowledge of the Mills and
their maintenance strategies and philosophies.

On Table 17 the frequency of these on job training interventions is indicated by the

participants, 22 of the participants indicate that the trainings are provided in every 18
Months to 3 years intervals, however 5 of the participants indicate that the trainings are
only conducted when there is a new maintenance plan or operating instruction. The

61 | P a g e
interviews were conducted, and it was established that for some of the procedures the
personnel has had to make a request before the training was arranged for them. It is also
a standard procedure to conduct training every time there is a new procedure or strategy
and whenever there are changes being made to a procedure, strategy or/and operating
instruction; this improves the quality of the mills operations and maintenance, it there
ensure the reliability and availability of the plant.

Table 8: Experience in the Mill. 27 participants.

Below 1 year More than More than 3 More than
1 year to 3 years to 5 5 years
years years
For how long 3 9 15
you have been
working on the
mills?

Table 18 shows that the number of employees operating and maintaining the Mills have
more than 5 years of experience; there is currently no employee that has less than a year
of experience. Upon the interviews, the participants indicated that five of them have more
than 10 years of experience and they work as senior staff in the Mills and that allows them
to share knowledge with the newer members of the staff.
However it should be noted that about 9 members are just above 3 year of experience,
they also indicated that they also still need some support as they are still learning as well.
Quality checks are performed according to the standard check sheets, this is done to
ensure that acceptable standard of work is being executed.

Table 9: Training adequacy. 27 participants.

Yes No Not
sure
Do you think that the 27
training that you are
getting is enough to
adequately equip you?

All the participants agree that the training interventions done are enough to assist them
to perform their required tasks, the results are shown on table 19 above.

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Table 10: Management support 27 participants.
YES NO
Does the management give you 27
enough support to assist you to
execute your maintenance duties?

All the participants indicate that the management does give them all the support they
need to execute their different tasks as shown on table 20 above. The management
ensures that the plant is made available as required by the philosophy; it also ensures
that the spares are available as much as possible; the relevant tools are also provided to
enable the personnel to work as comfortable as possible. The management also assists
with expertise as some of the managers have vast knowledge of the Mills and their
maintenance.

Table 11: Support from the Engineer. 27 participants.

YES NO SOMETIMES
Do you receive a required support 27
from the System Engineer?

The Engineers are the technical owners of the plant and hence they are always available
to assist the team and give solutions to the problems arising, they are also responsible for
the development of strategies and philosophies. The participants have all indicated that
the Engineers are always committed to assist and give direction; the interviews revealed
the Engineers are also available after hours to assist telephonically and by physically
going to the plant solve the problems that arise.
The engineers are also responsible for development, implementation and signing off of
the quality check document, this allows them to be fully involved in the Mills and to
continuously support the teams.

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Table 12 : Operations and maintenance. 27 participants.

AGREE MORE OFTEN LESS OFTEN DISAGREE

There is a maintenance strategy in 27
place for every Mill component.

The maintenance strategy is 27

effective.
It is always clear what needs to be 27
done.
The PMs are executed as required. 14 13
The teams always understand the 23 4
contents of the PMs.
The Management and the working 27
teams are always in good
understanding.
Faulty components get repaired or 27
replaced in the soonest
opportunity.
New staff members received proper 27
training before working on the
Mills.
A complete overhaul of Mills is 27
executed when required.
There are excessive load losses due 3 20 4
to the Mills.
The standby Mills are well‐ 12 15
maintained and ready for
operation when needed.
The operating teams perform all 23 3 1
required operations according to
the strategy.
There is a check sheet for every 27
inspection.
Every operator at the Milling Plant 27
knows what to do all the time.

The Shift Managers support the 27

Operators all the time.

Every single component of the Mill has maintenance strategy in place to allow for proper
maintenance, every participant has agreed to that, all the maintenance strategy are
effective when applied as desired and they are clear and easy to follow, as a result every
single employee is always clear on what needs to be done. The engineers and
management are available to bring clarity whenever there is doubt.

With regards to the quality execution of the PMs there is almost a 50/50 split in opinions,
where the majority, 14, agrees that the PMs are executed as required and 13 says that it
is more often. It is clear that though the teams follow the PMs every day, weekly and
monthly, there are times where they don’t totally execute it as required, upon

64 | P a g e
interviewing the participants it established that sometimes the employees are pressed
for time and they end up omitting or partially executing some of the tasks; the other
reason is shortage of staff in some days which causes work to be more that what the teams
normally do in the given space of time.

The teams are well trained to always understand the contents of the PMs, all the
participants agree to that fact with the exception of the 4 that are still learning, they
themselves they most often understand the contents. The Management and the working
teams are always in good understanding concerning what need to be done, all the
participants do agree that the management is avail for assistance whenever they are
needed, and they are there for support.

The faulty components get repaired or replaced in the soonest opportunity; the spares
are made available for any form of breakdowns in the Mills. It is easy to pick any risky
components as the inspections are done on the regular bases.
All new staff members received proper training before working on the Mills, it is a
requirement for everyone working on the Mills to get proper training and continuous on
job training to improve the quality of work execution and to ensure reliability.

A complete overhaul of the Mills is executed when required, the Mills go on outage to be
fully overhauled when the running hours demand that and when there need has been
identified during the inspections.

There are different views when it comes to the losses that are incurred due to the Mill, 20
of the participants indicate that there are less often losses due to the mill, only 3
participants believe that there are high losses due to the Mill, figure 14 above give the
actual statistical data of how much the Mills contribute to the unplanned capability loss
factor of the whole station, it is clear from this information that they contribute less than
1% of the total UCLF.

According to the majority, 15 participants, the standby Mills are well maintained and
always ready for operation when needed, 12 participants communicate that they are
more often ready but not necessarily always. Upon conducting the interviews, it was

65 | P a g e
established that they are more often available than always, this is due to the fact that
sometimes the Mill breakdown would take place while the standby is being fixed,
sometimes the spares in place malfunction and delay the readiness of the standby Mill.
The 15 participants responded with an understanding that the standby Mill is always
brought back to readiness as soon as possible, and it is only few isolated cases where it is
affected by spares and delayed execution on maintenance.

All the participants say that operating teams do perform all required operations
according to the strategy, 23 participants say that this is always the case, 3 say that they
more often do while one participant says that they do it less often. There is an argument
that sometimes the operating team call maintenance without having done their own first
line investigations, this is the reason why other team members are unable to say that
operating always perform all required operations according to the strategy. There was,
however, an agreement amongst the participants that the operating team always operate
the plant according to the strategy.

There is a check sheets in place for every inspection that needs to be done in the Milling
plant, this gives a clear direction to both the operating and maintenance teams, this
ensures consistent quality of work all the time. Every operator at the Milling Plant knows
what to do all the time because of the training given and the support of documents like
the check sheets. The Shift Managers are always available to support the Operators all the
time.

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5. Chapter 5 : Conclusion
This section draws a conclusion to the study that was undertaken on the effective
technical management of a milling plant in coal‐fired power stations through optimized
reliability management strategies for a maximum life, results and process reliability.

The conclusion is drawn from the analysis of results that were obtained through the
questionnaire that was distributed to the technical teams and the management of the
mills. It is also based on the interviews that were conducted on the teams and the paper
trail data that was collected from the station database and the teams. The maintenance
data from the check sheets and strategies are shown on appendix A to appendix C.

The station has check sheets in place for all the critical components that were covered in
this study. Some of the check sheets are visual inspections that are executed on the daily
basis by the operating department. The RCM that is followed is the combination of
Reactive Maintenance, Preventive Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance and Proactive
Maintenance which Soni, Naik [14] says it forms an optimum combination for system
reliability. The station integrates these strategies to make the most of their individual
strengths in order to maximize the reliability of the Mills. The RCM in this station is used
as a process or a procedure to establish what must be performed to ensure that every
component of the mills continues to perform what it is needed to perform in its present
operating environment as Muyengwa, Marowa [20] views it. There are also QCPs in place
to ensure that the level of expected quality can be tested after every task has been
performed.

There are formal training programs that the station implements, where all the personnel
that works in the Milling plant has to be properly trained, the training is used as an
effective instrument of informing and educating every team member to ensure that each
member understands the importance of the plant, as well as the importance of their roles
as Deepak, Jagath [16] suggests. The management is also fully involved with the team in
ensuring that the team understands what to do, and to ensure that the team is fully
supported with the required equipment, spares and tools.
The station has also ensured that the team has a required level of technical education to
understand the core fundamentals of engineering.

67 | P a g e
From the findings of this study, the technical management of a milling plant in this coal‐
fired power station, through optimized reliability management strategies for a maximum
life, results and process reliability is effective. The effectiveness of this technical
management through the RCM process is witnessed on the performance of the mills;
which is measured by their contribution on the UCLF of the station. Figure 14, as
extracted from the monitoring system, shows that 0.14% is the highest contribution that
the mills have to the total UCLF per year; which translates to only 28MW per year as every
unit is rated at 200MW. This figure compared to Figure 15, which shows the number of
incidents (failures) per year which shows just above 80 occurrences show that the
performance of the mills is not bad, however, there is a room for improvement on the mill
performance parameter.

The mill performance remains area that needs improvement, Figure 14, 15 and 16 show
that the mill performance remains the biggest culprit in the total UCLF caused by the
Mills. The station needs to improve on the accurate implementation of Failure Mode
Effect and Criticality Analysis, it needs to cautiously take into cognisance all the output
measurements of this system, the system would be more effective if fully used to detect a
number of failure modes, reasons for failures, effects of failure and the level of criticality
of each failure and overall impact on production as described by [1] and [29]. The order
crucial point to be noted by the station is that FMECA results are extremely important in
the maintenance task assessment [30]. It was noted that there was no data that was
available in the station to prove the full and accurate implementation of this process,
there is also no process in place for allocating a Risk Priority Number of every failure
mode as Suryono [31] suggests. The full implementation of FMECA including the RPN
would assist the station to prioritize the most problematic areas and target them
effectively.

6. Recommendations
The recommendations from the findings are that the station needs to employ dedicated
individuals that will monitor the reliability process of the mills entirely as this is currently
not the case; these individuals should be well qualified people who specialise in
reliability, and with a technical ability to effectively improve and implement the process

68 | P a g e
to sufficiently improve the performance of the mills. It should be specialists who
comprehensively understand all the tools that are used in Reliability management.

7. References

[1] N. K. Srivastava and M. Sandeep , "Predictive Maintenance of Coal Pulverizing Mill Using
FMECA Method," in Tenth AIMS International Conference on Management, Dhanbad India,
2013.

[2] R. Pilch, "DETERMINATION OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE TIME FOR MILL ING ASSEMBLIES
USED IN COAL MILL S," Journal of Machine Construction and Maintenance, no. 104, p. 81–86,
January 2017.

[3] P. Rani and B. Roy, "Effect of TQM on the Maintenance of Pulverizer and Raw Coal Feeder in a
Coal Based Thermal Power Plant," International Journal of Engineering and Management
Research, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 234‐240, February 2014.

[4] A. Govender, "DEVELOPMENT OF A CONDITION MONITORING PHILOSOPHY FOR A PULVERISED

FUEL VERTICAL SPINDLE MILL," Johannesburg, 2016.

[5] Hamresin Archary, Walter Schmitz and Louis Jestin, "MASS FLOW AND PARTICLE SIZE
MONITORING OF PULVERISED FUEL VERTICAL SPINDLE MILLS," Chemical and Process
Engineering, vol. 37 , no. 2, pp. 175‐197, 2016.

[6] D. K.‐D. Tigges and M. Khan, "Refurbishment, repowering and life extension of power plants in
SA," April 2014.

[7] . K. Toni, S. Fengnian and B. Matthew , "Modelling of vertical spindle mills. Part 2: Integrated
models for E‐mill, MPS and CKP mills," 4 November 2014.

[8] Q. Lin and C. Penterson, "COAL PULVERIZER DESIGN UPGRADES TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF
LOW NOx BURNERS," Riley Power Inc., Worcester, Massachusetts 01606, 2004.

[9] Babcock and Wilcox, "B&W Roll Wheel® Pulverizer Modifications Improve Performance and
Reliability," Babcock & Wilcox Company., Barberton, Ohio 44203 USA, 2006.

[10] V. Sangeetha and P. Saravanan, "An innovated method using Failure mode and effects analysis
for improving quality of the software," International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer
and Communication Engineering, vol. 5, no. 1, January 2016.

[11] K. F. Tee, "RELIABILITY PAPER Reliability‐based preventive maintenance strategies of road

junction systems," International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 36, no. 5,
2019.

69 | P a g e
[12] K. F. Tee, "RELIABILITY PAPER Reliability‐based preventive maintenance strategies of road
junction systems," International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 36, no. 5, pp.
752‐781, 2019.

[13] e. a. Mohamed, Handbook of Maintenance Management and Engineering, B. Mohamed , S. O.

Duffuaa, R. Abdul , K. Jezdimir and A. Daoud , Eds., London: Watchdog Agent, 2009.

[14] . K. P. Soni and . D. B. Naik, "Research Review on Reliability Centred Maintenance,"

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, vol. 5, no.
6, pp. 9605‐9612, June 2016.

[15] R. Khasanah, "The Reliability‐Centered Maintenance (RCM) effect on plant availability and
downtime loss in the process industry.," Materials Science and Engineering, 2021.

[16] P. P. Deepak and D. R. V. Jagathy , "CBM, TPM, RCM and A‐RCM ‐ A Qualitative Comparison of
Maintenance Management Strategies," International Journal of Management & Business
Studies, vol. Vol. 4, no. Issue 3, pp. 49‐56, July ‐ Sept 2014.

[17] G.Gupta, "Identification of Critical Components using ANP for Implementation of Reliability
Centered Maintenance.," in 25th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference., Copenhagen,
Denmark, 2018.

[18] K. Tadpon and B. Suthep , "Integrating Reliability‐Centered Maintenance with Cost

Optimization and Application in Plant of Hard Chrome Plating," International Journal of
Industrial Engineering and Management (IJIEM), vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 85‐92, 2015.

[19] M. A. Tarar, "Study Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) of Rotating Equipment through
Predictive Maintenance," 2nd International Conference on Research in Science, Engineering
and Technology, pp. 216‐221, 21‐22 March 2014.

[20] G. Muyengwa and Y. N. Marowa, "ANALYZING ADOPTION OF MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES IN

MANUFACTURING COMPANIES," 2015.

[21] M. Braglia, "A novel operational approach to equipment maintenance: TPM and RCM jointly at
work.," Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, vol. 25, no. 4, 2019.

[22] A. Kleyner and D. P. O'Connor, Practical Reliability Engineering, 5 ed., West Sussex, United
Kingdom: A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication, 2012.

[23] D. Mungani and J. Visser, "MAINTENANCE APPROACHES FOR DIFFERENT PRODUCTION

METHODS," South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, vol. Vol 24, no. 3, pp. 1‐13,
November 2013 .

[24] . K. Robson, J. MacIntyre and R. Trimble, "Towards a Simpler Selection Process for
Maintenance Strategies," International Journal of Business and Management;, vol. 8, no. 6, 14
January 2013.

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[25] L. Pattanayak and R. Paul, "Performance Improvement of Pulverized Coal Fired Thermal Power
Plant: A Retrofitting Option," International Journal of Engineering And Science, vol. 4, no. 9, pp.
05‐13, September 2014.

[26] Z. Sajaradj, "The Application of Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) Methods to Design
Maintenance System in Manufacturing.," 2019.

[27] P. P. Deepak and R. V. P. Dr. Jagathy , "A New Model For Reliability Centered Maintenance In
Petroleum Refineries," INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH,
vol. 2, no. 5, MAY 2013.

[28] O. Brown and A. McClellan, "Combustion, Reliability, and Heat Rate Improvements through
Mill Performance and Applying the Essentials.," Storm Technologies, Inc., 2017.

[29] D. Priyanta, "Implementation of Reliability Centered Maintenance Method for the Main Engine
of Tugboat X to Select the Maintenance Task and Schedule," International Journal of Marine
Engineering Innovation and Research, vol. 5, no. 2, 29 June 2020.

[30] M. Catelani, "TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT," Monitoring.,

Optimizing Maintenance Policies for a Yaw System Using Reliability‐Centered Maintenance and
Data‐Driven Condition, vol. 69, no. 9, pp. 6241‐6248, September 2020.

[31] M. A. E. Suryono, "Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) Analysis of Laser Machine in Filling
Lithos at PT X.," 2018.

[32] G. MUYENGWA and Y. N. MAROWA, "ANALYZING ADOPTION OF MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES

IN MANUFACTURING COMPANIES," 2015 .

[33] N. S. Omar , B. I. Fabe , . A. O. Niasse, D. Fatou , N. Mbengue, B. Ba and C. Sene, "Analysis of

Failure Modes Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA): A Stand‐Alone Photovoltaic System,"
Science Journal of Energy Engineering, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 40‐47, 27 March 2017.

71 | P a g e
APPENDIX A : Practical Reliability Management

a. Practical Reliability Management.

This subsection looks at both types of Mills with an aim of addressing the maintenance
that is applied to both types, although these types of Mills are different they do have
components that are common to both types, the maintenance philosophies applied to
those components are the same, those components include the gearbox, flanges, reject
box and Instrumentation.

To ensure reliability at all times the mill gearbox is monitored on the daily basis, the
specific parameters that are monitored daily on the field are gearbox temperature and
gearbox oil, these parameters are specifically checked daily because the higher
temperatures of the gearbox affects its life span, it may also mean that there is no enough
flow of the lubrication and cooling oil, this interferes with its reliability. The oil level is
also very important because it provides enough lubrication; it is therefore directly linked
to reliability as poor lubrication could cause unexpected failures, the oil levels are
checked by the operator on the daily basis as well as shown on table 1 below.

Table 13: Main Mill Gearbox Reliability

Main Mill Gearbox

Task Equipment Maintenance Frequency Comments
number Description
1 Gearbox Check Gearbox Daily High Temperature
Temperature temperature shorten life of the
on the gearbox oil in the gearbox
2 Gearbox Oil level Check the Daily Low oil or no oil
gearbox oil level damages
level while the gearbox earing
gearbox is in
operation

The operators are also tasked to perform daily rounds for visual checks on the mill body.
When the mill runs there is a possibility of PF leaks that can be witnessed on the flanges,
it is also crucial to monitor the rejection box daily to avoid mill fires that could start from
there, fires could start and cause equipment damage, human injuries or fatalities and
production loss; so to avoid such there are operators that monitor that and clean the

72 | P a g e
rejection box as and when required. These operators also ensure that the
instrumentation does not get compromised and affect reliability, this instrumentation
gets cleaned daily as and when required, one of the biggest risks is that the PF can clog
the solenoids on the hydraulic cabinet. Table 2 below gives details of the inspections.

Table 14: Mill Body Reliability

Mill Body
Task Equipment Maintenance Frequency Comments
number Description
1 Flanges Check all flange Daily Check PF leaks
connection for PF when the mill
leaks is running
2 Reject Box Clean reject box
Daily – local To avoid reject
regularly procedure box fires and
developed – mill fires
30minutes
3 Instrumentation Check that , all Daily PF can clog the
instrumentation are solenoid on
clear , clean and free the hydraulic
of dirt cabinet

As part of daily inspections the lubrication system inspections the lubrication system
inspections are also performed to assist with an early identification of abnormalities, the
operators are trained to identify leaks, strange noises and dirt on the equipment, the early
identification ensures reliability enforcement as the abnormalities could be attended and
corrected before causing catastrophic failures that would cause losses in production.
Table 3 below gives details of the inspections.

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Table 15: Lubrication Unit

Lubrication Unit
Task Equipment Maintenance Frequency Comments
number Description
1 Coolers Filters to be changed Daily
upon instruction from the
Senior Shift Supervisor.
2 Lubrication Check for external leaks, Daily External leaks,
system – dirt and noise on the dirt and noise
Cooler system.
3 Piping Check oil leaks on Daily Oil leaks
lubricating piping reduces
pressure on
the lubrication
and hydraulic

b. Mill Maintenance
Some components of the mills are monitors on the weekly basis to ensure reliability;
some of these components are rocker arm and spring assembly.
The critical components of the rocker arm that are monitored weekly are the bearings
and packing, the bearing are attended by maintenance team to grease them as it is crucial
for operation to keep them greased to ensure lubrication, otherwise they would not be
reliable and could cause unexpected failures and unplanned downtime. Packing gets
visually inspected for leaks. Table 4 below gives details of the inspections

Table 16: Rocker Arm

Rocker Arm
Task Equipment Maintenance Frequency Comments
number Description
1 Bearings Grease Bearings Weekly
2 Packing Check for leaks on the Weekly Visual check
shaft seal and repair if
necessary

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Table 17: The spring assembly

Spring Assembly
3 Cylinder Grease all bearings on the Weekly
cylinder and spring rods
4 HSLM Open cabinet and check for Weekly
leaks
5 HSLM – Oil Check oil level via the visual Weekly Minimum oil
Tank oil indicator level should be
above 50%
6 Buffer Stop Check buffer stop for Weekly
damage and movement and
also check if the buffer stop
pins are both seated
correctly on the buffer
stops

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APPENDIX B : VSM (Ball & Ring)

The station is fitted with 8.5E VSD (Ball and Ring) mills that are designed for 25t/h
throughput at full load. This throughput is based on the maximum coal size grading of
about 25mm which allows an effective raw coal flow in raw coal pipes, it is also based on
efficient grading that is, 70%PF size grading passing through the 200mesh sieves. Each
mill supplies its output (the PF) to four burners that are located on the front and rear
sides of the boiler.

The air flow through the mill is efficiently regulated by controlling the louvre fitted with
a rotating throat to provide for an adequately high primary air speed damper situated on
the suction side of the Primary Air Fan, each mill is through the mill to effectively convey
the PF through the PF pipes. The throat is welded to the bottom grinding ring and
therefore rotates at the speed of 40rpm like the ring.

Table 6 below shows the properties of these Mills

Table 18: Properties of these Mills

Item Pulverized Fuel Mill

Number
1 Manufacturer Babcock & Wilcox
2 Type 8.5E pulverizing mill
3 Speed 40rpm
4 Mill Classifier
5 Bottom flange outside diameter 3467mm
6 Top plate outside diameter 2908mm
7 Overall height 1305mm
8 Classifier inner cone dimensions
9 Top of cone diameter 1943mm
10 Return skirt diameter 952,5mm
11 Overall height 1353mm
12 Mill housing and wear plates.
13 Total weight of mill housing support 8 Ton

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 14 Total weight of mill housing support‐ 10 Ton
including mill housing
15 Weight of relief gate 8kg
16 Weight of pyrites door assembly 51kg
17 Weight of air seal casting 305kg
18 Weight of lower seal ring 60kg
19 Weight of upper seal ring 62kg

a. Reliability base maintenance

Maintenance, operating and engineering departments collectively work on the mills to
ensure their reliability. Inspections are executed as explained on this document, this
section will give some of the reliability measures that the station takes to ensure the
reliability of the plant, and the examples will be given of real‐life scenarios per
department.

b. Reliability cantered maintenance

RCM based procedures and strategies have been developed to ensure online inspections
and maintenance, all the components of the mill have been assigned a PM as stated above,
reliability maintenance is a priority for the health of the mills and it ensures the reliable
output of the units. Since the reliability of the mills is such a priority, there have been
works instructions and scopes that have been developed for the PMs that are to be
executed at different time intervals, these intervals range from as frequently as daily.

The procedure is such that the size measurements are done in every opportunity that
arises to ensure reliability.

Table 7 below outlines the procedure that is followed when balls inspections are being
performed; it details the tasks to be performed and the responsible person for the task.

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Table 19: balls inspections procedure

Activity Description Responsible person (RP)

1 Run the mill empty Operating
2 Obtain a permit to work RP (contractor)
3 Obtain a gas test certificate RP (contractor)
4 All personal carrying out work to sign the RP (contractor)
worker’s register
5 Open the mill inspection doors
6 Measure the mill ball sizes accessible through RP (contractor)
inspection door using a special calliper and
record the measured size.
7 Visually check for any damages on the top and RP (contractor)
bottom rings.
8 Close the inspection doors and seal properly RP (contractor)
9 Clean the area. RP (contractor)
10 Clear the mill permit RP (contractor)

c. Ball replacement procedure

The table 8 below gives a step‐by‐step procedure for replacing the balls, the procedure
has been broken down in sequential steps that can be easily understood by the
responsible person executing the work, in this way it is easy to achieve a required
standard of reliability.

Table 20: Balls replacement procedure

Activity Description Responsible person (RP)

1 Run the mill empty Operating
2 Obtain a permit to work RP (contractor)
3 Obtain a gas test certificate RP (contractor)
4 Make sure damper is open to boiler and that RP (contractor)
there is a draft flowing to the boiler.
5 Remove coal and PF from the reject box.
6 Open main access door, support with a chain RP (contractor)
block when lowering door and fit support.
7 Depressurize the hydro‐pneumatic loading RP (contractor)
system.
8 Remove to pins and lower the hydraulic rams RP (contractor)
with special crane and rest on special stand.
9 Slack the silent block bushes support brackets RP (contractor)
10 With a lever hoist pull the loading unit lever RP (contractor)
until the knuckles disengage from the
stirrups.

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 11 Lift the spider and the top ring from the RP (contractor)
grinding ball with a 5ton lever hoist and
special chain slings.
12 Removes the balls from the mill with special RP (contractor)
pins and slings with forklift and special boom
fitted to forks of the forklift.
13 Install correct size balls into the mill (verify RP (contractor)
the side with the supervisor)
14 Lower the top ring onto the balls. RP (contractor)
15 Remove the lifting equipment. RP (contractor)
16 Torque stirrups to 5703NM RP (contractor)
17 Change the stirrups and knuckles to match the RP (contractor)
ball size (rotate the mill by hand to provide
access for the forklift to position the stirrups.)
18 Align the stirrups with the loading levers by RP (contractor)
rotating the mill hand.
19 Engage the loading levers with the stirrups.
20 Connect the hydraulic cylinders to the loading RP (contractor)
levers. Fit new plastic sleeves to the pins if
required.
21 Recharge the cylinders gas pressure (check RP (contractor)
for gas and oil leaks).
22 Close the mill door with an airtight seal RP (contractor)
23 Clear permit. RP (contractor)

d. Balls maintenance philosophy

The philosophy outlined below on table 9 is followed to ensure the required standard of
reliability, the table shows what needs to be measured and at what time does it have to
be measured. The balls sizes are checked in an eight cycles intervals which are counted
by means of measuring the running hours of the Mills. The balls sizes measured informs
a decision of whether to increase the number of balls from nine balls to ten balls. At the
end of cycle number eight all the old balls are replaced with nine new balls of 730mm, the
rings also get replaced

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Table 21: Balls maintenance philosophy

Table 10 below details the responsibilities and the descriptions of tasks that are to be
performed every time the Mill is opened for maintenance, it is important to note that
Performance and Testing (P&T) section does mill clean air curves before the mill is put
back in service after every major Mill repair activity and issue the report to the System
Engineer, they also perform Mill load lines calibration every three monthly and during a
major repair or overhaul.

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Table 22: Mill maintenance responsibilities.

Activity Description Responsibility

1 The grinding elements, balls and rings, shall be inspected Maintenance
and measured whenever an opportunity arises.
2 The maintenance supervisor shall issue the System Maintenance
Engineer with the report of the ball sizes and condition
of the ring.
3 The System Engineer shall calculate the ball wear rate Maintenance
and advise maintenance on the next ball change or and
cycle.
4 Grinding balls shall be replaced according to the outlined Maintenance
procedure.
5 Whenever the balls are replaced with new set, the mill Engineering and
must be operated at a minimum load for 100 hours to Operating
allow ball run in.
6 A major mill service should be carried out after every Maintenance
10 000 to 15 000 of mill continuous operation depending
on the condition of the internals.
7 Performance and Testing (P&T) section shall do mill P&T
clean air curves before the mill can be put back in service
after every major mill repair activity and issue the report
to the System Engineer.
8 Mill load lines shall be calibrated every three monthly P&T
and during a major repair or overhaul.

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APPENDIX C : VSM (Roller/Tyre)

a. Grinding equipment

The mill‐grinding table is enclosed in the mill housing and it is fitted to the vertical output
shaft of the gear unit and is provided with a renewable segmented grinding ring. A throat
is fitted to the periphery of the table.

Each mill is fitted with three spring loaded grinding roller assemblies that are placed
above the grinding table. These assemblies are fitted with replaceable grinding rollers
mounted on housing; the grinding rollers rotate on double row spherical roller bearings.
These bearings are mounted on a non‐rotating shaft.
Surrounding the mill table and integral with the mill base is a cast iron air casing, through
which hot air for coal drying and transport is supplied from the PA Fan.

Lubrication of roll and trunnion bearings is by oil bath, drip feed supply to these points.
All other lubrication points on the mill are external and may be lubricated by standard
grease gun equipment.

b. Maintenance strategy
These types of Mills are only fitted on one of six units; because of their unique design
which is different from that of the Ball Mills, they have a slightly different maintenance
approach even though the philosophy is the same, reliability centred maintenance still
applies to them equally.

Table 11 below shows that each of these Mills gets routinely stopped and opened to
perform monthly inspections, all the components are checked by suitably qualified
personnel, the components that get check are, grinding plates, armour ring, dam ring,
scraper, table liners, table gap setting, tyre and oil level, the results get recorded and get
compared to the standard to enable the responsible persons to take appropriate actions.

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Table 23: Mills stoppage routine.
Grinding Table , Tyre and Roller assembly
Task Equipment Maintenance Description Frequency
number
1 Grinding Inspect for wear Monthly
plates
2 Armour Ring Check for wear , of segment are worn Monthly
out , they need to be replaced
3 Dam Ring Check dam ring for unevenness and Monthly
wear
4 Scraper Check for steadiness , if scrapper’s are Monthly
worn , must be replaced
5 Table Liners Check table liners for wear Monthly
6 Table gap Check gap between table and tyre Monthly
setting
7 Tyre Check the tyre for wear Monthly
8 Oil level Check oil level – Top up if necessary Monthly
Lubrication System
1 Cooler Check inlet and outlet cooling water Monthly
temperature

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 Appendix D: Research questionnaire.
Questionnaire to establish the reliability management applied to the Mills.

Vertical Spindle Mill (Ball & Ring)

Visual
inspection
Component
done and
Only repaired Run to replaced
PM based maintenance
when broken failure after certain
planned
run hours
based on
findings
Vertical Spindle
Mill (Ball & Ring)
Maintenance on
Hollow Grinding
Balls
Grinding Rings
Mill Yoke (Table)
Grinding Elements
Loading System
Loading System with
Pneumatic Cylinders

Vertical Spindle Mill (Roller type)

Visual
inspection done Component
PM Only repaired and Run to replaced after
based when broken maintenance failure certain run
planned based hours
on findings
Grinding Tyre
Grinding Roller
Grinding
Tyre/Roller
Mounting and
Securing
Grinding Tracks
Tyre/Roller Hub
And Bearing
Assemblies
Tyre/Roller
Assembly Main
Body
Loading System
With Hydraulic
Cylinders

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 Reliability maintenance management of the Critical components that are common to [VSM
(Ball & Ring) and VSM (Roller)]
Visual
inspection
Component
done and
Only repaired Run to replaced
PM based maintenance
when broken failure after certain
planned
run hours
based on
findings
Mill Main Gearbox
Mill Main Motor
Mill Motor
Couplings
Seal Air Flow
Measurement
Seal Air Fan
Motors
Feeder Table
Drive Gearbox
Feeder Discharge
Blocked Chute
Detection
Feeder
Lubrication Piping
Plenum Chamber
Pyrites

Qualifications and Training of Operating and Maintenance personnel.

Certificate to Diploma to Bachelors

Grade 12 Degree or None
Higher Certificate BTech
higher
Highest
qualification

YES NO
On job training done?

Only when there Only when

Once
is a new Once every requested or
every 18
Never maintenance 6 months to deemed
months
plan or operating a year. required by
to 3 years
instruction. management.
Maintenance or
operating courses
done

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 More
More More
than 3
than 1 than
Below 1 year years
year to 3 5
to 5
years years
years
For how long have you been working on the
mills?

Yes No Not sure

Do you think that the training that you are getting is

enough to adequately equip you?

YES NO

Does the management give you

enough support to assist you to
execute your maintenance
duties?

YES NO SOMETIMES
Do you receive a required
support from the System
Engineer?

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 AGREE MORE OFTEN LESS OFTEN DISAGREE
There is a
maintenance strategy
in place for every Mill
component.
The maintenance
strategy us effective.
It is always clear what
needs to be done.
The PMs are executed
as required.
The teams always
understand the
contents of the PMs.
The Management and
the working teams are
always in good
understanding.
Faulty components get
repaired or replaced
in the soonest
opportunity.
New staff members
received proper
training before
working on the Mills.
A complete overhauls
of Mills is executed
when required.
There are exessive
load losses due to the
Mills.
The standby Mills are
well maintained
andready for
operation when
needed.
The operating teams
perform all required
operations according
to the strategy.
There is a checksheet
for every inspection.
Every operator at the
Milling Plant knows
what to do all the time.
The Shift Managers
support the Operators
all the time.

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