Plant & Asset Management 2012 to include free CM seminars
06/03/2012
The UK’s dedicated Plant, Maintenance & Asset Management Exhibition, to be held 17-19 April 2012 at the NEC in Birmingham, UK, is organised in association with SOE IPlantE, the Institution of Diagnostic Engineers, RoSPA, the British Compressed Air Society, the British Fluid Power Association, The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing and the Integrated Maintenance Centre at Cranfield University.The event is co-located with Drives & Controls, Air-Tech, IFPEX (the International Fluid Power Exhibition), Electrex, IPEE (the Independent Power Energy & Electricity Exhibition), National Electronics Week and MACH 2012. Together, with a total of over 750 exhibitors, the eight shows provide an integrated networking and exhibition platform for engineering decision makers.
Running alongside the Plant & Asset Management exhibition will be a comprehensive free seminar programme, covering everything from asset management to vibration analysis, accelerometers to thermography, plus much, much more – including industrial case studies from front-line practitioners. The following is a selection from the range of topics featured in the programme.
On Tuesday 17 April, Ian Pledger (Schaeffler UK) and Ian Taylor (PCM) will explain why condition monitoring and predictive maintenance strategies are so important to today’s process and manufacturing industries, and will give visitors an understanding of the main tools and techniques that are available to plant and maintenance engineers. Actual UK case studies will be used to demonstrate just how much money can be saved.
Under the heading: ‘The evolution and use of condition monitoring in UK process industry’, also on Tuesday, Brian Forrest from Prüftechnik will claim that many organisations faced with complex analysis and condition monitoring (CM) systems have resisted the implementation of monitoring on their plant because it meant time-consuming and expensive investment in equipment and specialist operators. This need not be so: modern CM systems can be portable or fixed online (wired or wireless) and very cost effective to implement and, importantly, to run. Brian will be demonstrating the benefits and cost savings that will be returned by operating a CM system.
‘Condition assessment of HV assets’, on Wednesday, is the topic chosen by E A Technology’s Andrew Stevens. Andrew will describe condition assessment techniques for high-voltage assets and explain that, when used in conjunction with the Health & Safety Guidelines, HSG230, they not only make sure legal obligations are met but also ensure the continuous operation of such assets.
And, last but not least, ‘Predictive maintenance and condition monitoring – how to monitor for mechanical, electrical and operational faults simultaneously and cost-effectively’ is the subject of the seminar presented by Geoff Walker from Artesis, also on Wednesday.
On Thursday, ‘Preventive maintenance using thermal imaging and vibration analysis’ is the title of the seminar being presented by Fluke’s Jit Patel, who will be looking at strategies for preventive maintenance as part of a downtime reduction programme. He will be including the latest thermal imaging developments and techniques plus giving an insight into the new generation of portable vibration tools with inbuilt diagnostic reporting.
Paul Sacker, from Crimson Industrial Vision (a Flir Systems distributor) will deliver a session on Tuesday entitled: ‘Using an infrared camera for plant and asset management’. Thermal imaging has been an integral part of mainstream condition monitoring and predictive maintenance programmes for some time, with its ability to deliver high-value information through non-contact temperature measurement. In this seminar, Paul describes some applications that show how the innovative use of thermal imaging can bring added value to plant and asset management strategies.
