Blog - Post List

  • Improving Reliability in Power Generation: A Competitive Advantage

    Jim Cahill
    Douglas Morris Director of Marketing, Mining & Power Industries Author: Douglas Morris Recently, the consulting arm of Black & Veatch published its annual strategic directions report for the US utility industry. In 2014 “reliability” was again identified...

  • Hearing Machinery Reliability Issues

    Jim Cahill
    Mark Granger Business Development Manager Sometimes your ears can identify problems with rotating machinery before investigate any further. In this 5:11 YouTube video, Audio with Parameter Alarms and Trends , Emerson’s Mark Granger shows how, in addition...

  • Running Bump Test Helps Spot Machinery Resonance

    Jim Cahill
    Drew Mackley Product Line Manager Operating rotating equipment at resonant frequencies can damage or destroy the equipment and create dangerous situations for nearby personnel. Understanding where these frequencies may exist is critical to safe and reliable...

  • Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design Tool

    Jim Cahill
    If you use Foundation fieldbus technology with your smart instrumentation in your plant or perhaps may in the future, I want to share that an updated Segment Design Tool is now available for you to download. This tool is specifically designed to verify...

  • Proactive Maintenance and Award-Winning Performance

    Jim Cahill
    You may have seen the news of the 2013 HART Plant of the Year noting: HART technology has helped reduce production downtime related to control valve failures… We use the HART signal to monitor real time valve conditions which has helped with identifying...

  • Diagnostics to Detect Rotating Machinery Misalignment

    Jim Cahill
    Let’s continue our route-based maintenance video series with a look at diagnostics to detect misalignment issues on rotating machinery. In this 5:53 YouTube video, Misalignment Detection: Cross Channel Phase and Fault Frequencies, Emerson’s Drew Mackley...

  • Monitoring Turbomachinery Sleeve Bearings

    Jim Cahill
    Let’s end this U.S. 4th of July Independence day holiday-shortened workweek with a 3:27 YouTube video on Sleeve Bearing Monitoring with Dual Orbits. Emerson’s Drew Mackley explains how this type of bearing is mostly found in turbomachinery and involves...

  • Detecting and Analyzing Mass Speed, Force, and Impact

    Jim Cahill
    When performing vibration measurements during route-based maintenance activities, different vibration measurements uncover different issues with plant machinery. In this 4:20 YouTube video, PeakVue Analysis, Emerson’s Mark Granger demonstrates some of...

  • Detecting and Analyzing Impact Energy on Rotating Equipment

    Jim Cahill
    Let’s end this very busy week with a video which may be of interest if reliability and the management of plant assets falls within your set of responsibilities. In this 3:45 YouTube video, Impact Analysis with PeakVue and Autocorrelation, Emerson’s Mark...

  • Avoid Pumps Causing Unplanned Shutdowns

    Jim Cahill
    An unplanned shutdown can ruin your whole day, or two, or three… Not only do these unplanned shutdowns have impact on the people getting the process up and running again, they can impact promised delivery dates, financial performance, overall efficiency...

  • Improving Safety and Efficiency in Route-Based Maintenance

    Jim Cahill
    When it comes to manually collecting vibration data on rotating equipment in your facility, getting it safely and efficiently is important—especially if there is a large number of assets. In this 3:54 YouTube video, CSI 2140 Speed Test, Emerson’s Mark...

  • What is Damaging Your Plant Machinery?

    Jim Cahill
    “Why do some machines fail early, while others operate for many additional years?” Emerson’s Ray Garvey and Spectro‘s Pat Henning open with this great question in a Machinery Lubrication article, Identifying Root Causes of Machinery Damage with Condition...

  • Challenges in Processing Opportunity Crudes

    Jim Cahill
    Additional sources of oil, such as shale oil, coming into the market can pose challenges for refiners. The challenge comes from mixing these “opportunity crudes” with other types of crude oil that may have very different physical properties. As a Digital...

  • Connecting Remote Reliability Experts with Plant Maintenance Technicians

    Jim Cahill
    It’s been a whirlwind two weeks circling the globe—first last week in Stuttgart, Germany for the Emerson Exchange conference and then this week at our office in Manila, the Philippines. I’m back now in Austin blogging and catching up. Let’s close the...

  • Condition Monitoring of Hydroelectric Plants

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Douglas MorrisThings are not getting easier for the power industry as it experiences increasing complexity with dispatching generating units. Because dispatching is determined by a host of factors including cost, demand, transmission, environmental...

  • Rotating Equipment Bearings and Potholes

    Jim Cahill
    Concerning yesterday’s post, Avoiding Bearing Failures with the Rule of Tens PeakVue Measurement Methodology, I received an email with a great analogy about pits in ball bearings and potholes. Driving your car on a freshly paved circular track is like...

  • Avoiding Bearing Failures with the Rule of Tens PeakVue Measurement Methodology

    Jim Cahill
    Few things wreck a good day at the plant, mill, platform, wellpad, or other process like a bearing failure on an important pump, compressor, fan, or other piece of rotating machinery. Identifying the problem early before it leads to an unplanned shutdown...

  • How Durable is Your Portable Vibration Analyzer?

    Jim Cahill
    In a post last summer, Portable Vibration Analyzer-Human Centered Design Style, we highlighted the latest advancements in handheld vibration analyzers. Since that time, Emerson’s Drew Mackley has been showing the device to reliability professionals around...

  • Field Device Integration for Smart Field Devices

    Jim Cahill
    Smart field devices based on HART, Foundation fieldbus, and Profibus had standards-based files to integrate them with control and asset management systems. The file types, EDD and DTM were not compatible with one another causing process manufacturers...

  • Mobile Device Task-Based Procedures for Vibration Analyzers

    Jim Cahill
    The growing impact of smart phones and tablet technology continue to impact our everyday lives, including our world of process automation. I heard from some friends on Emerson’s Machinery Health Management team of a new mobile site, the CSI 2140 Mobile...

  • As Simple as a Fuel Gauge

    Jim Cahill
    Emerson’s Craig Abbott provides the analogy of your car’s fuel gauge to think about how to manage your plant assets. If you asked a large group of people “How often do you refuel your car?” almost certainly the response would not be as simple as “every...

  • Users Discussing Portable Vibration Analyzer Experiences Webinar Series

    Jim Cahill
    If you’re a maintenance professional or have responsibility for the reliability of your plant assets, I want to share that the Asset Optimization team is conducting a series of “Ask the Expert” webinars on the CSI 2140 vibration analyzer. The neat part...

  • Listening In For Machinery Equipment Issues

    Jim Cahill
    In the same way an experienced mechanic can identify car troubles by listening to it when it’s running, a plant maintenance professional often listens to rotating equipment to identify problems. I caught up with Emerson’s Drew Mackley, a member of the...

  • Optimizing Steam Usage in Oil and Gas Processing Complexes

    Jim Cahill
    Utility management is a large part of the oil and gas industry and boiler management and steam balancing is often an overlooked factor for upstream and downstream processing. Steam optimization helps to reduce boiler loads, streamlines process efficiency...

  • Fieldbus Attributes Supporting Operator Confidence and Performance

    Jim Cahill
    I hope the live blog posts from last week’s Emerson Exchange conference in Texas gave you a flavor for some of the happenings. In one of the posts, 7 Ways Fieldbus Improves Operator Confidence and Performance, I received a great comment back from Emerson...

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