Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance today offers options in three areas. The choice is down to cost, speed of response, available manpower and criticality of equipment. Different techniques themselves - vibration, oil analysis etc. may be inherently only available on one or two of the options, for example vibration must by definition be undertaken On-Line.

ON-LINE: The earliest warning of problems by constant monitoring of a limited parameters set. Permanently installed sensors provide the most immediate results. Be aware of possible problems not readily detectable by means of vibration or other technologies. Can also trigger a nore detailed On-Site or Off-Site sample analysis.
ON-SITE: Less timely but still relatively quick. suitable for localised assets in remote areas such as large mines or where sampling and testing is easily centralised. Testing kits and portable instruments, to quickly vet sensor readings or to trigger an off-site sample to gain clarity for decision-making
OFF-SITE: Standard sample analysis as submitted to a laboratory, most comprehensive test ranges but limited frequency.

Comparison of the main machinery CM techniques

	Acoustic Emission	Vibration Analysis	In-Service Oil Analysis	Infrared Thermography	Wear Debris Analysis
Sensor Position	Not Critical	Critical	Not Critical	Not Critical	Critical
Expertise	Low	High	Medium	Medium	High
Applicability	Wide	Wide	Wide	Wide	Medium
Damage Detection	Early	Early	Early	Low-Med	Medium
Low Speed Sensitivity	High	Low	Low	High	High

Technologies available from the Kittiwake group of companies

Acoustic Emission:		Kittiwake Holroyd Technology
Oil Analysis:		Kittiwake Developments Technology (Analex)
Wear Debris Analysis:		Kittiwake Developments Technology

Parker Kittiwake offer solutions for all options, with particular emphasis on increasing demand for early warning On-Line and On-Site solutions.

Oil analysis services - degradation and contamination
AE & Vibration - early bearing damage, cracking and fatigue, gas and valve leakage.
Wear metals - physical particles in the oil flow
Emissions - process deviation from optimum
Gas and valve leakage - process integrity

Technologies that provide an early warning are getting more sophisticated. Early warning minimises costs when machinery fails and, more critically, when operating revenue is lost due to extended outages for unplanned major repairs. With much improved technology, particularly On-Line, it makes very good sense to consider hybrid CM strategies, wherein more than technology is relied on for best possible outcome.

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