Kim had recently replaced a shaft and flange bearing on a machine used to crush canola seed. The shaft had an 8 V, 12 inch pulley, supported by two flange bearings, which kept tension on the 8 V belt drive.
Once this maintenance was complete, the machine was put back on-line and Kim's team continued their scheduled trending of the machine's larger bearings using their Ultraprobe 9000.
While taking a reading, an unusual sound was heard. Without clear indication as to where the sound was coming from, they replaced the contact probe with the scanning module. By using the gross-to-fine technique, the operator narrowed down the potential problem to an area inside the guard. This is where they had just replaced the shaft and flange bearing.
The machine was consequently shutdown, and the guard was removed to allow for a closer inspection. It was subsequently discovered that two course thread bolts, which were used to hold the tensioner assembly to the unit, had become loose. This could have resulted in failure of the machine, in turn causing unplanned and costly downtime.
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