Streamline Your Yard Period Using Vibration Analysis

When it comes to boat maintenance, we often find that the biggest source of lost time and money is the lack of pre-planning. All machinery operators are looking out for their companies and owners to help them save money, but, what they often don’t realize is that a reactive maintenance approach does quite the opposite. The “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” mentality almost always costs more since machinery problems aren’t registered or addressed until they become a severe issue or cause a failure.

Although it can seem like a daunting task to remember and keep up the preventative and predictive maintenance schedules, some qualified third-party companies, like AME, specialize and focus on this type of maintenance for you by using condition monitoring (CM). The result? Saved time, money, and headaches.

One condition monitoring practice that is a modest investment is performing a vibration analysis/VA. Performing a VA way before maintenance is performed will help streamline your yard period by prioritizing your maintenance needs and goals by spotting issues such as:

-Misalignment of couplings, bearings and gears
-Unbalance of rotating components
-Looseness
-Deterioration of rolling-element bearings
-Gear wear
-Rubbing
-Aerodynamic/hydraulic problems in fans, blowers and pumps
-Electrical problems (unbalanced magnetic forces in motors)
-Resonance
-Machinery soft-foot conditions
-Eccentricity of rotating components, such as “V” belt pulleys or gears

A good vibration monitoring program can provide substantial savings in consumed energy, and minimize spare parts used and lost production. With your report, you will be able to lay out the needs and goals of your project to ensure your machinery is ready when you need it to be. Captains and chief engineers may also want to consider doing periodic vibration monitoring of machinery. Monitoring machinery over time provides data that makes any deviation from the baseline noticeable. This allows you to spot trends through consistent measurement and detect faults before they become serious.

Adding predictive and preventative maintenance helps prevent failures by predicting the future
condition of your machinery through in-depth analysis. It’s essential to have your vessel regularly surveyed for signs of wear and tear – before an unwelcome surprise.

The more preventative maintenance performed,the more significant your ROI will be for the investments you make into your machinery.

Do you need to perform a vibration analysis or Sea Trial? Call Advanced Mechanical Enterprises/AME in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We’re ready to help.