Maintenance Best Practices -- Forward to the Basics with Grease Guns

 By Jeff Shiver, Managing Principal, People and Processes Inc.

It may surprise you to learn that a grease gun is a deadly weapon capable of killing your equipment and in turn, the much-hoped-for reliability. Grease guns can generate significant pressure and if improperly used, ultimately blow out the seals designed to protect the bearings from external contaminants.

Overfilling the bearing cavities can create the same problem. When that occurs, the grease is forced outside the seals (path of least resistance) as the equipment heats up where it is exposed to contaminants and moisture. When the equipment cools, the contaminated grease is drawn back into those same cavities. Overfilling the cavities also creates additional heat.

So how can you overcome these problems? First, you need to understand the amount of grease required to properly lubricate the equipment. One of the best places to start is with the OEM or bearing manufacturer. Many manufacturers will provide you with the proper grease amounts to be applied at specific frequencies on electronic media like CD-ROMs.

Next, understand how much grease each of your grease guns provides per "shot" or pump. Samples from 30 different grease guns produced a range of 0.54 to 2.9 grams per pump. Pull samples to "calibrate" your grease guns and mark the amount of grease dispensed per pump on the gun itself.

To prevent human error in applying the wrong lubricant, color code your grease guns and grease fittings. A number of companies sell clear grease gun barrels or colored sleeves to go over the barrels. For the fittings themselves, use matching paint around or colored plastic rings under the fittings.

As part of your housekeeping process, wipe the gun tip and fitting before and after application. A cap on the fitting can also help prevent contamination.

Using these tips will take your asset management strategy to a more precise and effective level.

The article above was published at www.industyweek.com

Below is an article from Facilitiesnet.com. Make sure you've read the last 2 posts: “What is the Value of Reliable Power?” and "How Unreliable Power Can Affect the Bottom Line".

Show Top Management Options to Win Funding for Power Reliability

By Loren Snyder - October 2011

Investments in power reliability compete for budget dollars that, in today's economic environment, are almost always scarce. To make the case for investment, facility managers should show top management a range of options.

"By hearing out IT personnel who have initiated a request for higher power reliability, the facilities management team can consider a number of workable solutions that are compatible with conditions at a given location and present those options to management for consideration," says Feldhaus. 

Whatever the risk, some items need to continue operating, according to experts:

1. At the minimum, consider life-safety of building occupants by ensuring that lighting is reliable, even if it doesn't run all lamps in the system.
2. Make sure computing, business transaction and automated processes aren't abruptly stopped. Gone are the days when reliability consisted of a small battery system that allowed computer systems to power down safely.
3. If applicable to your organization's mission, maintain temperatures for foods, medicines and other perishables.
4. Consider also the effect across your organization. If your facility provides computing capacity to remote locations and your facility loses power, the remote locations won't have the tools they need to service customers — even if they still have power. 

Because C-suite executives are used to thinking about and considering numbers, quantify the costs of life-safety liabilities, damaged equipment and loss of profits related to outages. It can be hard to quantify, but even educated estimates should cause management to take note of the potential losses. The larger the financial exposure, the harder facility managers should press for power reliability. 

Patel says that in the early to mid-2000s, studies were done in the aftermath of hurricanes and massive, prolonged outages. At that time, he says, 60 to 75 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses did not have appropriate power reliability.

"Power reliability is no longer the niche product it was 20 years ago," he says. "Since those studies were done, things have improved but I'd estimate that perhaps 35 percent small- to medium-sized businesses still are not capable of dealing with prolonged outages." 

Whether new construction or a retrofit, the bottom line, of course, is that power reliability is about the bottom line.

Loren Snyder, a contributing editor for Building Operating Management, is a writer who specializes in facility issues. He was formerly managing editor of Building Operating Management.

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Below is an article from Facilitiesnet.com. Make sure you read the previous blog post: “What is the Value of Reliable Power?” and check back in tomorrow for the final installment!

How Unreliable Power Can Affect the Bottom Line

By Loren Snyder - October 2011   

     

Although it can be difficult to put a price on electrical outages, the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that U.S. economic losses due to power problems reach $100 billion per year. One way to estimate the effect of an outage is to tally the cost of sensitive computer or IT systems that might incur damage during power outages. Of course, the economic impacts of outages can be direct and indirect, including loss of production, loss of clientele, cost of recovery and loss of earnings. 

At the end of the day, deciding to increase or improve power reliability may be a response to experience.

"It becomes a question of interruption," says Mike Kirchner, technical support manager at Generac. "In other words, how much value does an organization assign to reliability? If they've had lots of outages, or lost business, then they've had some pain, and they might be willing to invest more." 

History shows that to be the case. "In many cases the decision to configure higher reliability network power comes in direct response to a major event where the existing power infrastructure was found to be less than fully adequate to meet the business needs of the user," says Rich Feldhaus, Tripp Lite UPS product manager.

Note that for new construction, many decisions about power reliability have already been partially made for facility managers by code requirements. "If an office building has elevators above 12 floors, it must have back-up power," says Bhavesh Patel, marketing director for Emerson's ASCO division. "And if nothing else [life-safety concerns] like a fire require that buildings with an electric fire pump have backup power."

How Do You Secure Reliability?

Once facility managers have established rough cost estimates on revenue loss due to outages, they should begin planning how to combat those losses and retain power reliability. As with any situation in which there are liabilities — safety, revenue loss and more — facility managers should first hypothesize outage operating scenarios and then determine critical power needs. 

One factor to examine in an analysis of risks is the practices of the local utility.

"Some utilities spend more to make sure distribution lines are reliable —trimming tree branches and such so that there aren't interruptions after a storm," Kirchner says. "But when the utility invests less on reliability, sometimes there's a greater need for reliability on a business' part." 

After assessing the impact of outages, facility managers should compare it to the cost of reliability-enhancing equipment, a cost that should include considerations — and expenses — of operating those systems. 

"Choosing the type of generation technology or application should start with a feasibility study," Cavallaro says, "and usually requires assistance from a professional engineer."

Below is an article from Facilitiesnet.com. Don't miss the next 2 related articles!

What is the Value of Reliable Power? 

By Loren Snyder - October 2011

Everyone knows mission-critical facilities have outsized power quality and reliability requirements. But our world is becoming more power hungry, increasingly digitalized and threatened by the prospect of even momentary grid failure. It's therefore sensible that facility managers examine lessons learned from mission-critical facility planners when addressing power reliability for other parts of the organization.

Even for facilities without mission-critical status, loss of power has serious ramifications, particularly at a time when brand loyalty among consumers is eroding. When power reliability problems cause customers to go elsewhere, a teporary outage can cause a permanent shift in clienteles' purchasing decisions. 

Increasingly, all kinds of organizations are requiring what Mark Cavallaro, principal of Current Solutions, calls "premium power" — a combination of power quality and reliability. 

"In an era of both increasing power outages and rising demand for premium power, many businesses may install [back-up] units to protect against the risk and cost of power outages," he says. 

The bottom line, in the case of power reliability, is that facility managers have to measure both the direct and indirect costs of outages. By assessing the effects of an outage, planning for additional reliability, and then making the case with an organization's executives, facility managers can minimize revenue loss. 

What Are the Ramifications?

Facility managers often have a difficult time quantifying the value of power reliability — and for good reason. The extent of problems incurred by outages depends on business requirements and organizational mission.

"I think that higher reliability in non-mission-critical facilities is driven mostly by a desire to ensure profitability and provide quality services in a very tough market," says Mark Hoskins, electrical engineering manager at Cogdell Spencer Erdman. "Of course it depends upon the nature of the business and the operations within the facility, but the facility manager must address and analyze the impacts of reliability as it relates to safety, information systems and business results."

Irrespective of an organization's choice for backup power, the value of having a backup system should be estimated. To that end, the Environmental Protection Agency's Combined Heat and Power initiative offers an approach to estimate the value of reliability. Power outages or service interruptions can impose direct costs on customers in many ways:

• Damaged equipment (think of the effects that surges, swells, spikes and sudden outages can have on sensitive equipment).
• Spoiled or off-spec product (think of any institution or business that has to freeze or refrigerate food, insulin or other temperature-sensitive products).
• Loss of computerized documents, artwork and other intellectual property.
• Extra maintenance costs.
• Cost for replacement or repair of failed components.
• Loss of revenue due to downtime that cannot be made up.
• Costs for idle labor.
• Liability for safety/health.

According to EPA, some customers can determine the direct costs of outages by reviewing recent outage history and estimating an annualized cost of outages to their operations. One approach is to quantify the direct cost impacts of momentary outages (less than 10 seconds) on either a dollars-per-incident or dollars-per-minute basis. Estimates of typical annual values for the number of momentary outages and total time of extended outages can be determined by reviewing utility bills or facility records. 

Estimating is Tricky

Experience shows that developing cost estimates can be difficult. "In some cases a cost analysis can be accomplished," Hoskins says. "In others, it may be a bit subjective and require input from business owners and building occupants to properly address. Additional reliability costs must be weighed against potential losses due to power unreliability."

Backup Systems Require Vigilance

Let's say Katrina scared your organization into purchasing backup power supplies. Or the 2003 blackout in the Northeastern United States convinced executives to take a closer look at power reliability.

They did the right thing: They invested in a backup system. 

Facility managers can't simply rest assured a diesel generator will fire up when the lights go out. Or that a UPS system is ready to go at a moment's notice. Like all other mechanical things, backup power systems require vigilance and regular maintenance to operate on demand and at peak potential. 

Even though code requires testing of backup power systems, not every organization abides by code. And between testing cycles, the batteries that provide uninterrupted power until the generator starts, can die. 

Recent code changes also require some organizations to keep enough fuel on hand to run a genset for 72 hours. For an organization like a hospital, that can be an enormous amount of fuel. But filling the generator tanks isn't enough, warns Bhavesh Patel, marketing director for Emerson's ASCO division. Without additives, fuel degrades to the point of being unusable, which requires draining the tanks and refilling them with fresh fuel. 

Despite the hardships of backup system maintenance, guaranteeing power reliability is about maintaining an organization's mission profile, ensuring life-safety, and promising profitability, even when the rest of the neighborhood goes dark.