Chris Tindell

Alcoa Point Comfort Operations

“I’m not claiming expertise in the subject of ultrasound. I am only sharing what we are doing and I am here to learn and improve our process.”

Why are we here?Learn how to implement an

ultrasound program to reduce costs. We have a program

but we are not getting the results

we expected

Benchmarking and Best practice

We want to expand our

program

Clearwater Beach

Learn how to align ultrasound with my other

CBM technologies

Audience Poll Condition Based Maintenance?

Ultrasonic Vibration Infrared Electrical Signature Oil Analysis

Asset basic care inspections? Operational Checks Precision Operational Procedures

Precision Maintenance Procedures? Assembly Procedures/Checklists Installation Procedures/Checklists Defined quality control process with acceptance testing

What makes up the HUMP

Resources

Complete Repairs

Generate Follow up Work

Training

Qualification Experience

Certification

Purchasing Equipment

Define Goals

Awareness Training

Getting Buy in

Aligning Vision

Defining Metrics

Budget

What not to do

Our Current Ultrasound ProgramPersonnel

Equipment

10 Level 1 Technicians

2 Power House Supervisors

8 Machinery Lubrication Techs

11 Level 2 Technicians

4 Operator PdM Techs

6 Mechanical PdM Techs

1 Electrical PdM Tech

1 Ultraprobe 550

4 Ultraprobe 9000

8 Lube Caddy’s

1 Ultraprobe 15000

Steam Trap Inspection

Air Leak Survey

Ultrasonic Greasing

Bearing dB Trending

Slow Speed Equipment Analysis

Diagnostics

Electrical Survey

Vacuum Pump Packing Inspection

Conveyor Inspection

Air slide conveyors

Dust collector bag inspection

Base Line Acceptance Testing

Applications

Our Journey with Ultrasound 2003 compressed air study

Purchased UE 550 and utilized summer intern to survey plant (not much focus)

2005 Conference

2006 Steam Trap Survey (Tags didn’t fix our problems)

2007 Steam Trap Survey (Most traps failed CLOSED)

Challenges with Steam Trap Program

Lack of standardization with steam traps

Vendor surveys & repairs added a variety of trap types

Scaled Accumulators (Pockets)

Installation errors

Insulation over traps

Piping issues

Master trapping

Traps installed backwards

Process traps (system issues)

Our Journey with Ultrasound Cont…

2007 Introduced Air leak Survey wkly routine

Small 2hr routes

Limited pathway to control chasing rabbits

2008

Focused making Air and Steam programs evergreen

Trained three technicians

Added one UE 9000

Scheduled instrument use

Air leak Program Challenges Creating Route maps

It is hard to stay on a focused route because of the tendency to chase air leaks off path.

Routes were inefficient due to off route losses (chasing rabbits)

Training We originally skipped on a formal training class and opted for some

hands on instruction.

Scheduling work We tagged all leaks that were found and generated a list sighting tag

locations. We originally scheduled repairs on one work order that referenced the list of repairs to be made.

We determined that repairs that could not be made during the survey would require some advance planning to coordinate scheduled shutdown or isolation. Now we generate an individual work request for each leak to be scheduled and we can track repairs in our maintenance system.

Example Air Leak Route

Our Journey with Ultrasound Cont…

2008 Focused lubrication initiative

Engineering study to calculate a lube strategy for all assets

2009 Introduced Ultrasonic Greasing

Purchased a ultraprobe 201 Grease Caddy

Ultrasonic greasing trial

2010 expanded program

Purchase 8 UP 201 units

Our Journey with Ultrasound Cont… 2010 Added three additional UP 9000’s

Assigned 4 Operator PdM techs to perform Air and steam inspections.

The operator techs also use handheld computers to document weekly trends of the dB levels for several rotating assets.

Evaluating use of these trends for condition based bearing greasing

Trending Waveform Crest Factor

Our Journey with Ultrasound Cont…

2011 Added one UP 15000 and Parabolic dish

Implemented ultrasound as part of our electrical distribution system inspections

Introduced ultrasonic scans for precursor to IR

Summary Invest in continuous training and development Align program goals to organizational goals Keep it Simple…Use the simplest most cost effective means to

achieve your goalRules: Ensure that activities at the task level are clearly defined and are

repeatable Content, sequence, timing and outcome

Customer and supplier communication is direct, binary and paced

Pathways are simple and pre specified Outcomes are measured and problems are easy to identify and

resolve at the activity level