News Archive

A large Paper mill has reported unprecedented production figures using CPM as their asset maintenance partner.

(15/04/2005)
In recent months production at Kruger Disley Mill has increased its uptime by over 7% compared to last year.

This is a significant increase in production efficiency resulting from a close working relationship and tailored plant maintenance programme.

CPM were contacted by Kruger to assist, identify and target problem areas. CPM’s dedicated Site Services Team identified problem areas, prioritised them and formulated a schedule of action utilising modern maintenance and condition based monitoring techniques.

Rotational equipment catastrophic failures have now been eliminated and have enabled Kruger and CPM staff to schedule machine overhauls.

Chris Wickham - Mill Manager commented “We are delighted with the improvements made over the last 12 months and we look forward to working closely with CPM to drive the programme forward

Problematic Cooling Tower holds no water for CPM at Easter...

(05/04/2005)
A large industrial customer recently contacted CPM with an urgent problem. A Cooling Tower supplying the plant with water operates 24 hours a day and without it production would be severely affected.

The only times that maintenance could be carried out was at Easter and Christmas. CPM carried out a full assessment of the tower which revealed high vibration diagnosed to wear in the fan shafts. A full report was quickly drawn up and a decision was taken to perform a full overhaul of the Cooling Tower during the 3 days of Easter.

The equipment, a BAC VXT1200 is manufactured by the Baltimore Aircoil Company in the United States and dates back to 1996. The overhaul commenced late on Good Friday and was completed on Easter Monday and included full cleaning, replacement bearings, pulleys, belts, greasing facilities, overhaul of the motors, modification of components from metric to imperial and balancing.

This was another example of a 'turnkey' project using electrical, mechanical and logistic skills including method statements and risk assessments. As a result the customer's production was unaffected and the job was completed on time and to budget.

What is the Root Cause of Failure?

(22/03/2005)
Do you want to reduce maintenance costs and maximise production output? CPM can now offer its customers a new service designed to reduce downtime, increase production, remove cost - hassle free !

Avoiding machine failure is key to achieving this objective and with it avoids unplanned downtime.For many years CPM have helped customers to achieve this by offering a 24 hour a day manned service offering PPM programmes, CBM techniques, Site improvement programmes, all backed up by a fast and reliable repair service.

But clearly understanding the reason for a failure is critical to avoid reoccurrence and so some 12 months ago CPM introduced an itemised quotation and invoice which gave its customers feedback on failures, this included:

· The reason for failure
· The remedial work required
· What actions were required to avoid reoccurrence

Continuing further investment CPM have now introduced a formal system of Root Cause Failure Analysis for investigating the ultimate cause followed by sound engineering solutions to avoid reoccurrence. This system developed by our Trade Association the ‘Electrical Apparatus Service Association’ (EASA) is a tried and tested procedure for which our engineers have been trained.

What this means to you is less downtime, more production, less cost and less hassle !!!

Proposed Changes in Hazardous Area Motor Repairs

(22/03/2005)
The proposed changes in the IEC 60079-19 Standard need not be an administrative burden to users. The likely changes are designed to improve the Health & Safety of repairs to ‘Ex’ motors used in Hazardous Areas. CPM can guide you through the process...

Specific changes under consideration are:

· Increased training for repairers
· Information from Original Equipment Manufacturers
· Record Keeping by user and repairer
· Specific changes with regard to Exd gas group IIC

CPM continue to advise its customers to maintain 'Ex' equipment on a periodic basis dependent upon the gas groups, environment and service factor of the machines. We can advise further on this and remind you when your equipment is next due for service.

As a service partner we recommend:

· Survey all Ex equipment on site
· Produce inventory of all plant and spare equipment
· Agree service intervals
· Contact OEM/Certification body for certificates
· State to which ‘Standard’ or ‘Certificate’ equipment is to be maintained to
· Web based or hard copy format of service records

For more information on this contact us, we will be happy to advise you and create a hassle free solution !

Why do AC Motors Fail?

(22/03/2005)
A crucial part of reducing costs and improving plant efficiency is to avoid equipment failure and one such area is electric motors. CPM can help you in this process...

Whilst specifying, environment, application may vary, a survey by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) across various industries shows that the largest single reason for AC squirrel cage motor failure is due to bearings. The survey does not detail the root cause for this failure it simply states the component. The root cause maybe lack of lubrications, misalignment, vibration, contamination etc. There is clearly a sizable minority of failures where the cause was 'unknown'.

Motor failures are caused by a combination of various stresses acting on the bearings, stator, rotor, shaft and frame. The type of stresses include Thermal, Electric/dielectric, Mechanical, Dynamic, Residual, Electromagnetic and Environmental. Conducting a Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) of the complete system can determine Root Cause and with it feed back into the Plant Preventative Maintenance (PPM) programmes which in turn will reduce repetitive failures and with it reduce costs and improve plant efficiency.

Failure
Rotor bar - 5%
Shaft/Coupling - 2%
Bearings - 51%
Stator Windings 16%
External reasons ie environment/load 16%
Unknown - 10%