March 2012 Issue Preview

Ad Closing: February 14, 2012 | Material Closing: February 21, 2012

Cover Story
ENGINEERING AND MAINTENANCE
Reliability comes before maintenance. Engineering reliability into plant equipment means getting maintenance personnel involved during the design process to ensure higher reliability, more safety, sustainability, and more efficient maintenance. Because operations and maintenance account for 60-80% of actual life cycle costs, this article explains why it's important to integrate predictive maintenance (PdM) technology considerations, safety and quality policies, and process disciplines and standardization into the design phase.

Compressed Air
PIPING
Which is better — a classical centralized air system or a departmental compressed air system? Reports suggest that neither system is better. Quite often, the right choice is a combination or variation of both. This technical article explains how to size and configure compressed air piping for the right fit.

Motors & Drives
WORM GEAR REDUCERS
When a piece of equipment needs slow input speed and high torque, it is common to use an electric motor coupled to an industrial gear reducer to provide the desired speed and torque. The gear reducer multiplies the output torque coming from the motor and reduces the motor output speed by the same ratio. Internally, those gear reducers may use worm gears, helical gears, or bevel gears to increase the torque and reduce the output speed. This article explains one of the most commonly used reducers, based upon worm gears.

What Works
SUSTAINABILITY
Volkswagen Plastics Technology in Braunschweig, Germany, has started using a single-layer painting system for a new interior component. The process reduces the consumption of resources and pollutant emissions. However, the painting system demands an absolutely clean, residue-free surface, achieved with the aid of a dry CO2 snow jet cleaning technique.

Heating & Cooling
PRODUCT ROUNDUP
This issue's Product Roundup focus is on predictive maintenance technology. Email us a 100-word description of your most recent, most important product offering in this category (one product only, please). Indicate "Plant Services March 2012 Roundup – [Company Name]" and attach a 300-dpi (at minimum 2x2 inches) JPG, EPS or TIF graphic. Send it to psroundup@putman.net.

Technology Toolbox
LUBRICATION
Lubricants are the life blood of plant equipment. It's one of the most critical aspects of maintenance and reliability, and yet often one of the most overlooked. In this month's Technology Toolbox, Sheila Kennedy tells what's on the leading edge of machinery lubrication.

Asset Manager
IS THERE LIFE AFTER ASSET MANAGEMENT?
Whether you're using CMMS or EAM or even ERP to manage your assets and your maintenance activities, life cycle costs play an important role. In this installment of Asset Manager, David Berger reveals how the technology can track the health of physical assets.

Energy Expert
CHANGING WORLD VIEW
In this month's Energy Expert column, Peter Garforth guides plants through the changing picture of the worlds' view on industrial energy consumption.

Human Capital
MONEYBALL MAINTENANCE
As with plant reliability, the long-time practice of being quick to fix broken equipment and rewarding that practice is an out-of-date strategy that should be abandoned. Getting on base, or avoiding outs in the first place, is like having reliable equipment. In this month's Human Capital, Tom Moriarty explains why the strategy of how to get from the vision of high on-base percentages or high equipment reliability needs to be enacted by people, through focused and consistent leadership.

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Beyond March: April's featured topics include:

• Cover Story: CMMS Review
• Predictive Maintenance: Vibration Analysis
• Optimization: Electrical Systems
• Reliability: Industrial Networks
• Energy Efficiency: Compressed Air
• Product Roundup: Control Systems

Along with our regular columnists on EAM/CMMS, Energy, and Workforce Development, April’s focal points include Safety, Reliability, and Sustainability.

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Advertising Information

For advertising information contact your district manager or our Production Manager at 630/467-1300 ext. 468. Send insertion orders to her at Plant Services, 555 W. Pierce Rd., Suite 301, Itasca, IL 60143; fax 630/467-0197; e-mail rfitzgerald@putman.net.