Including Thermography within a Reliability Program
We should appreciate that Reliability may be defined in several ways:
Reliability is the idea that something, an asset, a process or a component, is fit to perform its function at a given time; that is, it will remain in operation without a functional failure for the duration of a specified period in which it is required to perform said function.
Reliability may be the capacity of a device or system to perform as designed; therefore, if a given pump is designed to pump 100 GPM, it continues to do so at that design capacity within the specified period.
Reliability is the resistance to failure of a device or system; therefore, the described asset, process or component has a quantified resistive failure factor. This could include aspects of the physical strength of the component, horse power, insulation factor for a motor, or size and wall thickness for pipes.
Reliability is the ability of a device or system to perform a required function, under stated conditions, for a specified period of time and the probability that a functional unit will perform its required function for a specified interval under stated conditions.
Reliability engineers rely heavily on statistics, probability theory, and Reliability theory. Many engineering techniques are used in Reliability engineering, such as Reliability prediction, Weibull analysis, thermal management, Reliability testing and accelerated life testing. Because of the large number of Reliability techniques, their relative expense, and the varying degrees of Reliability required for different situations, most projects develop a specific Reliability program to be performed on an intended system.
The function of reliability engineering is to develop the reliability requirements for the equipment, output, or system. A Reliability Engineer establishes adequate reliability programs, by performing appropriate analyses and tasks to ensure the equipment, output or system will meet its requirements. Reliability engineering is closely associated with maintainability engineering and logistics engineering. As you can see by this description of Reliability engineering, the thermography component of your PdM program aligns with a number of areas within the overall Reliability objectives of your organization.
The thermogram, Example A, below provides a technician with a significant amount of information. The second set of standard photographs, Examples B and C, gives the operations department of a facility even more information. However, this thermal image and the photographs alone do not tell the whole story. How and where this information fits into your Reliability program should be considered in order to align this information with all other thermographic and PdM data that will be reviewed and analyzed as part of your overall Reliability program. Once the data and information is integrated, translated, analyzed and the results applied will it become meaningful and valuable to, not only the Reliability initiative(s), but across the entire organization.
Example A: Thermal image of a hot spot located on the back wall of a power generation boiler.
Example B: Standard photo matching above thermal image after burn through of hot spot
Example C: Close up standard photo showing actual burn through area seen in thermal image
No comments:
Post a Comment