How to Improve Maintenance Inspection Accuracy with Affordable Technology

by | Articles, Current Issue, Preventative Maintenance

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A saying warns, “There are none so blind as those who do not see.” That adage has both literal and metaphoric meanings regarding maintenance inspections. It’s no secret that visual acuity deteriorates as we get older. According to the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), once a person reaches the age of 65, they will require twice the illumination that a 25-year-old routinely needs.

There was a time when regular owner inspection was an integral and expected part of vehicle ownership and the operator experience. Automotive companies often provided owners with portable 6V or 12V inspection lamps as part of their onboard tool kits. Now, modern cars and trucks perform their own onboard diagnostics and tell their owners/operators when to take them in for professional inspections.

Machine inspection is the most basic of all preventive maintenance work. Inspection compares the machine’s current state condition against a known “normal” or “as new or designed” condition state to determine if deterioration that requires repair has occurred.

The Role of Lighting in Maintenance Inspections

Although inspection can be diagnostic-based, using specific tools, it remains a visual act that is often best performed while a machine is running under full design load.

Because equipment is designed and built, bearing points or moving linkages are often poorly lit or inaccessible in running machines. In such cases, an expensive Lock-Out/Tag-Out production shutdown is required to perform a full inspection PM. If production access isn’t granted, the PM will often be closed incomplete.

A quality asset inspection relies on access and good-quality lighting in all cases.

A quality asset inspection relies on access and good-quality lighting in all cases. For maintenance departments with open minds, modern consumer technology now provides a very bright and inexpensive perspective for maintenance inspections of running equipment.

Affordable Technologies for Enhanced Inspections

We’ve come a long way from the old car flashlight. Today’s hand-held and head-band-mounted super bright LED lights with focusable beams can provide extremely high illumination of machine dark spots from greater distances than ever before. For inspection of machines with inaccessible, hidden areas, inexpensive, switchable LED strip lighting can be permanently installed to provide illumination, allowing the use of miniature Wi-Fi-actuated security cameras (such as those in today’s doorbells) that can be turned on with a smartphone (refer to my column, “Why Your Smartphone is the Most Powerful Tool in Your Maintenance Kit“).

Wi-Fi cameras can be permanently installed and monitored in high, out-of-reach areas.

Wi-Fi cameras can be permanently installed and monitored in high, out-of-reach areas, such as cranes, gantries, and rooftop HVAC equipment. When Wi-Fi isn’t available, initial inspection can be done with a high-magnification monocular/binocular coupled to a smartphone camera. For out-of-visual-sight equipment, maintainers can be trained to use inexpensive drones.

As for controlled or confined space areas that require shutdown, consider using a small Remote Control (RC) robot with a mounted Wi-Fi or smartphone camera. Many hobby shops sell excellent RC cars with cameras or RC chassis kits that can be converted to carry small cameras or smartphones.

If an inspection finds a potential problem, a permit can be sought for further physical inspection/repair. Internal inspections behind walls or engine- and gearbox-cavity inspections can be done using inexpensive camera-inspection tools purchased from a hardware store.

Given their capabilities, the technologies described here can all provide irrefutable permanent records of inspection that can be both time and date-stamped for proof and state of repair. Bottom line: All of them can open our eyes and allow us to see our machinery in a new light.

Author

  • Ken Bannister has 40+ years of experience in the lubrication industry. For the past 30, he’s been a Managing Partner and Principal Asset Management Consultant with Engtech Industries Inc., where he has specialized in helping clients implement best-practice asset-management programs worldwide. Ken is currently on the ICML Board of Directors and is a founding member and past director of the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada. He has written several books about lubrication, predictive maintenance, and energy reduction strategies.

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