Fulfillment of Maintenance and Reliability Key Performance Indicators of Offshore Sites During Covid-19 Pandemic

This paper addresses the challenging situation that was faced by Maintenance Teams in Offshore Sites to maintain and ensure the optimal conditions of the plants, conducting Routine Preventative Maintenance (RPM) as planned, achieving Company and Operational Excellence KPIs in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. A brief description of how the sites defined a new normal given the circumstances to ensure all work was met while tackling the numerous obstacles in order to keep operations running smoothly is iterated below.

Community-based wheelchair caster failures call for improvements in quality and increased frequency of preventative maintenance

Study design Secondary data analysis of wheelchair failures and service repair logs from a network of wheelchair suppliers. Objective To determine the frequency of wheelchair caster failures and service repairs across wheelchair manufacturers and models and investigate the relationships between them. Setting Wheelchair caster failures and service repairs occurred in the community. Methods Reported caster failure types were classified based on the risk they pose for user injuries and wheelchair damage. Caster failures experienced by users of tilt-in-space and ultralightweight manual wheelchair models and Group 2, 3 and 4 power wheelchair models between January 2017 and October 2019 were analyzed using Chi-Square tests for independence. Correlational analysis of failures and service repairs was performed. Results A total of 6470 failures and 151 service repairs reported across four manufacturers and five models were analyzed. Failure types were significantly associated with manufacturers and models, respectively. Users of tilt-in-space wheelchairs, who require greater seating support, experienced twice the proportion of high-risk caster failures than the ultralightweight manual wheelchair users. Similarly, Group 3 and 4 power wheelchair users, who have complex rehabilitation needs, experienced 15-36% more high-risk failures than Group 2 users. Service repairs negatively correlated with high-risk manual wheelchair caster failures. Conclusions Wheelchair users who have greater seating and complex rehabilitation needs are at a higher risk for sustaining injuries and secondary health complications due to frequent caster failures. The study findings call for significant reforms in product quality and preventative maintenance practices that can reduce wheelchair failures and user consequences.

Steam Inlet Expansion Joint Design & Case Study: Surface Condenser Application

This paper is comprised of three sections and outlines the outcome achieved from instituting an effective preventative maintenance program; specifically, highlighting a steam surface condenser application that was originally equipped with a stainless-steel metal bellows type expansion joint system. In the first section of the paper, a general overview of steam inlet type expansion joint systems will be presented to provide an understanding of the specific application, typical design parameters and conditions, system components, varying expansion joint designs, configurations, and installation methodologies. The second section will outline types of inspections that typically support preventative maintenance programs within the power generation industry. Lastly, the case study will examine the account of an actual project and the practice of implementing a preventative maintenance program; outlining inspection types, how those measures supported a root cause analysis, and ultimately developing a unique solution to address the issues identified during subsequent inspections and analyses. The case study focuses on developing a retrofitted rubber ‘dog bone’ expansion joint system to replace the failed metal bellows expansion joint. Various points within the overall project life cycle will be reviewed; from the point of initial inspection that identified the root cause and defined loss in performance, evaluation and engineering to support the replacement design, onsite execution and installation methodology, and post-maintenance testing and operation.

Behaviors and Trends toward Routine Maintenance and Major Repairs of Afridev Handpumps in Rural Malawi

Service provision for Afridev handpumps through community management in Malawi is a notable challenge. Essential preventative maintenance is often neglected, and repairs are undertaken on a reactive basis. The costs of major repairs are not recognized at community level and are typically neglected across the lifecycle of infrastructure or left to external stakeholders. The aim of this study was to investigate preventative maintenance and capital maintenance expenditure over the 15-year design lifecycle of 21,997 Afridev handpumps in Malawi, and how costs change based on different local tariff collection scenarios. A total of four tariff collection scenarios were investigated, for assets both subject and not subject to rehabilitation. The findings highlight poor initial capacity building into appropriate cost recovery and maintenance approaches. Major repair costs increase over the pump lifecycle when service consists of the replacement of low-cost, fast-wearing parts. Rehabilitation/major repair costs increase as a result but tend to be focused on simple longer-life components, such as pump rods. In both cases, a reliance on external support was highlighted, as larger costs are primarily covered by donors and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). Proactive tariff scenarios may provide a greater capability of replacement throughout the lifecycle of major items when compared to reactive tariff scenarios. It is recommended that policy and practitioners should focus on capacity building of sustainable maintenance models that consider the full lifecycle costs of assets.

Estimating highwall miner technical condition using vibration diagnostics methods

Based on the results of Highwall Miner diagnostic testing, reference spectral masks for every component and assembly were built. They standardize vibration intensity level in different frequency domains of spectra and previously were used for estimating their technical conditions. Two-year period of monitoring proved the effectiveness of the approach for shifting to the system of preventative maintenance.