Predictive maintenance as a means to increase the availability of positive displacement pumps at Ekurhuleni Base Metals

M.Phil. (Engineering Management)Abstract: Condition monitoring is a maintenance technique used to monitor parameters like vibration, overheating, overcurrent of the system or machinery at an early stage of failure; to forecast on the need for maintenance before a catastrophic failure; or to estimate system conditions. It can be achieved through visual inspection or the use of a sophisticated intelligent diagnosis system. Predictive maintenance helps the organisation to predict failure before a catastrophic failure. It is a technique to help the user plan the job that needs to be done on the equipment to prevent an unexpected failure. This technique is central to our research question. This study investigated whether predictive maintenance is the best maintenance strategy to minimise maintenance costs. In predictive maintenance, decisions are made based on the data collected through condition monitoring. Condition monitoring has three steps: data acquisition, data processing and maintenance decision-making. Condition monitoring helps to prevent equipment failure. It also helps to avoid unplanned breakdowns and to optimise maintenance resources by planning maintenance or shutdown as required based on the data collected. Peristaltic pumps, such as LPPT 65 (DN65), are commonly used for pumping slurry. Ekurhuleni Base Metals uses it to pump slurry. Due to several failures, the pumps are not operating at their peak efficiency point. Before the implementation of predictive maintenance, the pumps did not receive regular maintenance. In the past, the organisation did reactive maintenance, and maintenance costs were escalating. Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) helps to understand the root cause of equipment failure, and is commonly used to reduce costs, mean time to failure (MTTF) and mean down time (MDT). If implemented successfully, the organisation benefits significantly in terms of cost savings and/or total elimination of failure. Organisations benefit considerably from implementing Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM). It aims to identify routine maintenance that preserves the system in such a way that costs are acceptable. If preventive maintenance costs are higher than those of operational losses and repair, maintenance will not be beneficial, unless it relates to regulatory, safety or environmental requirements..