FEATURE SPONSOR
CONDITION MONITORING
CONDITION MONITORING OR CONDITION MANAGEMENT?
I have a friend, let’s call him Brian. Or should I say I had a friend. Brian was tall fit and strong, there was almost nothing he couldn’t do and nothing he was scared of. When he was young Brian was like so many of us men, invincible. The abuse of his body was both impressive and scary at the same time. Brian drove himself at a rate that other mortals could not even contemplate.
LIFESTYLE CHOICES
As time wore on however the rubbish he fed himself, the drink, other substances and lack of self-care started to take its toll. Brian however would ignore any illness, any symptom and medical advice of any sort was out of the question. Whether Brian was scared of what he might find out will never be known. As he always said “What I don’t know won’t hurt me” Brian was thought by many of us and by himself as an unstoppable force of nature. He burned brighter than most until his untimely death two years ago at the age of 50.
Then there was Ken. Ken knew everything about every part of his body, both inside and out. Ken had pulse monitors, blood pressure monitors, thermometers both analogue and digital, both rectal and oral. His bathroom cabinet would have made Lance Armstrong jealous. Some called Ken a hypochondriac, but Ken never thought he was ill, he was just obsessed with his own well-being in a misguided way.
Ken tested his urine regularly, took colonic irrigations and his daily diet of supplements, vitamins and bodily purges, cost him a small fortune. Ken however was not getting his information from any trained medical source but from health magazines and off the internet. What he was putting into his body to do him good, in the end made him very ill. Ken tried to self-diagnose and treat, only to make things worse. Eventually Ken became so ill he crashed and his system took several years to recover.
FALLIBILITY
As human beings we are fallible and we are prone to diseases that can affect us no matter how well we look after ourselves. It is however true that the better our living environment and the better our access to regular and preventative expert healthcare the longer we live.
On one occasion I was actually told, “I don’t want to know, because what I don’t know won’t hurt me.”
These are the same words as Brian used. The Brians of this world are dinosaurs, but unlike dinosaurs they still exist and in our industry.
Then there are the Kens. A myriad of systems that are not in synergy with each other, providing information that is misleading and often provided by those not experts in their field. The mis-diagnosis of problems leads to un-necessary work and or causes greater problems.
As men we are more reckless and liable to take risks. We men get ourselves killed younger lowering our average life span compared to the more sensible half of the population women. The average life expectancy of a Northern European male is however now over eighty years. Contrast this with second world countries at 65-75 and third world countries 45-55 the link between environment and access to preventative health care is clear.
Machines are also fallible, but not in the same way as humans. Machines are therefore much easier to understand, predict and protect. If we understand their environment, monitor it, manage and control it we can prolong the life of the machine, substantially increase the mean time between failure and ensure that if failure occurs it is minor and not critical.
WIND POWER GENERATION – HEALTH CHOICES
In the wind power generation industry the run to destruction philosophy is still prevalent with some owner operators. I have been told by more than one asset manager “I don’t need condition monitoring, it wasn’t fitted by the turbine manufacturer so it can’t be necessary.”
PREVENTION IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN CURE
Just the act of Condition Monitoring is not the whole answer. Expert analysis, correctly managing the monitored data and taking the right corrective action is. We should therefore not just talk about Condition Monitoring but instead we should be implementing Condition Management. In machines as in humans “Prevention is always Better than Cure”. In wind as in every other power generation or process industry Condition Management is a proven concept so why do so many in wind still bury their heads in the sand.
Dave Moss Moventas
Click to view more info = Click to view video 1 = Click to view video 2
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
45
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116