INSPECTION and

CONDITION MONITORING
 CONCEPT OF MAINTENANCE
 
The literal meaning of ‘maintenance’ is – to allow or support to perform. Hence, maintenance of any equipment or
facility means to keep it in the condition of performing.
 
As per the concept of input-process-output system there are three inputs and three main outputs for maintenance
process. The inputs are- i)Manpower (skilled enough to perform the job), ii)Material resources (tools & tackles,
spare parts, consumables) and iii)Machine downtime required to do the maintenance work). The outputs are
machine i)Availability (how much time equipment is ready to be used), ii)Reliability (how confident you are about
the equipment performance) and iii)Maintainability (how fast equipment can be put back into operation after
getting maintained. Since the inception of the concept of maintenance, people are always striving for obtaining
maximum output at minimum input cost.
Material Availability
Resources
Maintenance Reliability
Man Power
Maintainability
Down time

Secondary
Reactive (Break
purpose:
down)
Safety,
Preventive (TBM)
Environment,
Predictive (CBM)
Through put rate,
Proactive (MP)
Life enhancement,
etc.
Over the years as the industries have grown up, there has been gradual improvement in the maintenance system.
The change in the technology has compelled the maintenance crew to bring a change in the attitude as well as the
maintenance practices.
Broadly there are four types of maintenance strategies-
 
REACTIVE (BREAKDOWN) MAINTENANCE,
PREVENTIVE (TIME BASED) MAINTENANCE,
PREDICTIVE (CONDITION BASED) MAINTENANCE and
PROACTIVE (DESIGN-OUT) MAINTENANCE.
BREAKDOWN MAINTENACE:
Break down maintenance comes into action only when there is breakdown or unscheduled stoppage of an
operating plant. Other words it is a “Reactionary Approach”. Breakdown in the system causes not only production
delays but it also results into heavy amount of loss in terms of cost.
 
PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE:
Preventive maintenance is based on the fact that every equipment after certain hours of running needs to be
checked for any kind of abnormalities in order to avoid the breakdown situations in the system. A planned shutdown
is taken after predetermined intervals and scheduled inspections are carried out with the help of inspection check
lists to detect abnormal situations. Such inspections help in spares and other planning.
 
As the preventive maintenance is based on regular fixed interval, determination this fixed interval is of prime
importance. This an extremely difficult task since too large interval of maintenance can lead to frequent failure
causing heavy loss of production as well as cost. At the same time, too less interval may result into unnecessary
maintenance implying low production.
PREDICTIVE (CONDITION BASED) MAINTENANCE:
Predictive maintenance is also known as condition based maintenance (CBM). The CBM makes the use of
condition monitoring techniques to asses the condition of an operating plant or equipment and the maintenance is
carried out only when the condition demands.
 
The need for this kind of maintenance has arisen due to the fact that the modern plants are having more
sophisticated and complex equipments based on state-of-the art technology. Interface of Electrical, Electronics and
Mechanical are widely used to improve the performance of the equipments. As a result the equipments are very
costly and we cannot afford to have any kind of failure in the system at any point of time.
 
Today the maintenance crew requires high level of understanding, awareness of technology and familiarity with the
modern maintenance tools and techniques.
ADVANTAGES OF C.B.M.
Proper implementation of Condition Based Maintenance results in the following advantages :-
 
a) Accurate knowledge of health of the machine helps in maximizing the time between overhauls. As the exact
problem is known, the duration of overhaul can be reduced by proper planning of spares, manpower and
execution strategy.
b) Condition monitoring gives an indication and correction of the same in time. This eliminates catastrophic failures.
c) The initial signature of the newly installed machines captured either in terms of vibration or temperature or
bearing condition as the case may be, will be the base line data to be used as reference for maintenance of
these machines in future.
d) Continuous monitoring of certain parameter of any machine will generate an useful information to be used by
designers to design a better machine which can give trouble free performance.
 
PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE
PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE also known as Design-out maintenanace, is a combination of CBM and Root Cause
Failure Analysis (RCFA). While doing CBM if a problem is of recurring nature, the root cause of the same is found
out and eliminated so that the problem does not recur in future. It leads to maintenance prevention.

CONDITION MONITORING
Condition Monitoring is the practice of obtaining measurement of basic parameters from an operating plant for
assessment of their state of health and prediction of reliability.
 
The objective of Condition monitoring of equipment are:
a) To provide knowledge of the health of machine with the help of a set of measurable parameters and their
meaningful interpretations.
b) To provide knowledge about the rate of change of health of machine.
c) Assess the changing trend of the measured parameters giving the indication of impending failures.

The following techniques are widely popular for conditioning Monitoring:

 
Temperature measurement for all rotating machines. It is a good primary symptom of anything going wrong in the
equipment.
Vibration Measurement and Analysis for assessment of conditions of rotating machines.
Oil analysis for assessing the health condition of equipment through oil analysis.
 
Thermography, Ferrography and Shock Pulse method are some more advanced techniques that are used for
health assessment of equipments.
 VIBRATION
Vibration is the periodic motion of a machine or machine part back and forth from its position of rest as the response
of a system to some internal or external excitation (stimulus) or force applied to the system.

The characteristics of vibration

The cause of vibration, regardless of the type must be a force which is changing in either its direction or its amount;
and the resulting characteristics will be determined by the manner in which forces are generated. This is why each
cause of vibration has its own individual characteristics.

A machine's condition and mechanical problems are determined by measuring its vibration characteristics. The
important characteristics of vibration are :-

Displacement Micron

Velocity mm/sec

Acceleration m/sec2

Frequency Hz/CPM
 Referring to the weight suspended on a spring we can study the detailed characteristics of vibration by plotting the
movement of the weight against time.

The motion of weight from its neutral position, to the top limit of travel back through the neutral position to the bottom
limit of travel and its return to the neutral position represents one cycle or motion, and has all the characteristics
needed to measure the vibration. Continued motion of the weight will simply be repeating these characteristics.
displacement is expressed in microns.

Vibration velocity- Since the vibratory weight is moving, it must be moving at some speed. However, the speed
of the weight is constantly changing. At the top limit of the motion the speed is zero since the weight must come to
a stop before it can go in the opposite direction. The speed or velocity is greatest as the weight passes through the
neutral position .The velocity of the motion is definitely a characteristic of vibration, but since it is constantly
changing throughout the cycle, the highest "peak" velocity is selected. In terms of Metric units, vibration velocity is
expressed in millimeters per second peak.

Vibration acceleration-In discussing vibration velocity, we pointed out that the velocity of the part approaches
zero at the extreme limits of travel. Of course, each time the part comes to a stop at the limit of travel, it must
"accelerate" to pick up speed as it travels towards the other extreme limit of travel. Vibration acceleration is another
important characteristic of vibration. Technically, acceleration is the rate of change of velocity.

Vibration acceleration is normally expressed in "g s" peak, where one "g" is acceleration produced by a force of
gravity at the surface of the earth. By international agreement, the value of 980.665 cm/sec/sec has been chosen
as the standard acceleration due to gravity.
Vibration frequency-The amount of time required to complete one full cycle of a vibration pattern is called the
period of vibration. If a machine completes one full cycle of vibration in 1/60th of a second, its period is 1/60 seconds
orSignificance
60 cycles in one second (60characteristics
of different Hz). The period of vibration is a simple and meaningful characteristic that is often
used in vibration detection and analysis. A characteristic of equal simplicity and more meaningful is frequency:
Information provided by frequency:-When analyzing a machine's vibration to pinpoint a particular problem, it is
The frequency
essential of vibration
to know is usually
the vibration expressed
frequency. as the
Knowing thenumber of cycles
frequency helps that occur
identify theeach minute.
problem andThis is the
which partorigin of
is at fault.
the term cycles per minute, or CPM.
Information provided by Amplitude (Displacement, Velocity and Acceleration):- The displacement, velocity and
Aacceleration
third way to characteristics
specify it is in of
terms of theare
vibration number of cycles
measured pertosecond,
in order or hertz
determine (Hz named
the severity after Heinrich
of a vibration. TheseHertz,
the German scientist.
characteristics Given
are often a frequency
referred specified
to as the in Hz,
amplitude of one can convert it to CPM: Hertz = CPM x 60 & CPM =
vibration.
Hertz / 60
In terms of the operation of the machine, the vibration amplitude is a primary indicator of a machine’s condition. The
greater the amplitude, the more severe the vibration.
 Particle counting
This technology determines the number of wear particles and contaminants in different size categories like 1 to 5
microns, 6 to 10 microns, 11 to 25 microns, 26 to 50 microns, 50 to 100 microns, and greater than 100 microns.

INSPECTION
Inspection is an assessment / measurement of symptoms of anticipated or foreseeable abnormalities (distress) in
equipment or process using our sense organs, some hand hold gadgets and checklist before hand to avoid
breakdown of machine by certain timely and logical action.
 
An organised examination or formal evaluation exercise. Involving: measurements, tests, and gauges applied to
certain characteristics in regard to an object or activity. The results are compared to specified requirements and
standards for determining its health .
 
Inspections are non-destructive.
 
Why inspection?
• To avoid breakdown maintenance
• To improve time based maintenance
• To assess the gradual deterioration in equipment
• To get the equipment’s designed life
• To run the machine efficiently
• To improve the reliability
• To improve the availability of machine for production
How to inspect?
 
Instrument Based Inspection
Visual Inspection
Checklist & Inspection Schedule
 
EFFECTIVE INSPECTION
 
Answer the following questions in view of effective inspection
 
1. WHO SHOULD INSPECT?
The responsibility of inspecting various equipment should be clearly defined. This can be designation wise, with the
name preferably of the supervisor who will inspect the equipment
 
2. WHEN TO INSPECT?
The frequency of inspection is decided by the importance of the equipment in the production line, past experience and
manufacturer’s instructions. There are some units which require more frequent inspection than others.
 
3. WHAT TO INSPECT?
Each unit of an equipment is divided into its components and listed out in the inspection report or check list
 
4. HOW TO INSPECT?
It is necessary to train the staff. The inspecting personnel should also know what is the normal condition of an
equipment is and should be able to differentiate an abnormal condition and report matters accordingly
INSPECTION SCHEDULE:
For maintaining the health of a equipment in good condition, the following steps to be followed and to be reviewed
time to time:
 
• The schedule of inspection during running
• The schedule of inspection during Shut down
• The schedule of Condition monitoring
• After opening inspection cover during MSD
• Strip down inspection after removing all internals
• The frequency schedule of oil sampling
 

VISUAL INSPECTION
The Principle of ‘visual inspection’ means inspection by means of eye-sight. In practice it has broader meaning
which uses one or more of the five senses.
Five sense organs:
• Skin – Touch & Feel vibration, Temperature
• Ear - Hear Noise
• Eye- See Looseness, Leakage Float, breathing etc
• Nose – Smell Gas leakage, leakage of some pressurized oil, burning insulation etc.
• Tongue – Taste but not advisable for safety reason
“With Practical Experience the senses are put to better use”.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR A GOOD INSPECTOR
• Keep reference
• Prepare check list
• Imagination and through understanding of relevant
degradation processes
• Past experience
• Knowledge & Skill
• Know about Function of Machine
EQUIPMENTS TO BE INSPECTED:
• Gear box- External and internals
• Bearing
• Couplings
• Brakes
• Fans- External and Internal
• Belts and pulleys
• Conveyor belts and idler
• Hydraulic system
• Chain drives
• Compressor 

WHAT TO INSPECT?
• Bearing clearance
• Inspection of cleanliness • Vibration and noise
• Checking of corrosion and deformity • Temperature
• Checking for rupture crack and Wear • Leakage / Seepage
• Monitoring of Manometers, Pressure gauges • Any Missing parts
and temperatures gauges • Erosion / Wear in blades and vanes etc
• Monitoring of the oil level, Greasing and greasing apparatus • Condition of lubricant and level
• Monitoring of operational condition of machines or system • Visible misalignment
• Checking of any looseness or any abnormal behavior • Visible float
• Looseness/Slackness of Foundation or cap bolts • Wobbling of rotating parts
• Coupling bush and bolts