www.plantservices.com
Best
Friend?
february 2010
Remote services solve problems
with reliability, staffing,
and skills
PS1002_01_Cover.indd 3
DC Motors:
Why Are They Still Used?
p.28
Green Industrial Roofing
p.33
The Business Case for a CMMS
p.19
Energy: Politics vs. Common Sense
p.42
On-Site Nitrogen Generation
p.15
1/28/10 2:47 PM
NITRA™ Pneumatic Stainless
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PS1002_FPA.indd 2
1/27/10 1:34 PM
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PS1002_FPA.indd 3
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PS1002_FPA.indd 4
1/27/10 1:37 PM
table of contents
february 2010 / Vol. 31, No. 2
features
22 / COVER STORY
Best Friend?
Remote services solve problems with reliability, staffing,
and skills
28 / Motors
DC Motors: Why Are They Still Used?
The reasons come from the user base, R&D,
and the application
33 / Roofing
Green Industrial Roofing
Evolution is yielding effective technology
specialists
17 / Your Space
Exclusives
Lighten up!
Tom Moriarty, P.E., CMRP, pens a note
to senior managers on data drag and its
effects on your staff.
21 / Technology Toolbox
A Wise Use of Time
Get Pumped
Adopting an informationcentric approach to MRO
and retrofitting
Don’t let inefficient and
inappropriate pumping systems
degrade the bottom line
19 / Asset Manager
42 / Energy Expert
The Growing Value
of a CMMS
Politics vs. Common
Sense
How to build the business
case for better asset
management
The U.S. Army’s master planning goes beyond geographic
or political constraints
columns and departments
www.PlantServices.com/
articles/2010/02HumanCapital.html
7 / FROM THE EDITOR
15 / WHAT WORKS
Your Space
Thinking high-speed doors?
A place for your experience,
wisdom, or perspective
Generating Nitrogen
On-Site Cuts Costs
Follow these 10 tips to guide the decision-making process.
www.PlantServices.com/articles/2010/01High-SpeedDoors.html
9 / UP AND RUNNING
A new standard in steam measurement
See which operational areas
are most in need of
improvement
Rising energy costs and pending regulations call for a
better way.
www.PlantServices.com/articles/2010/01SteamMeasure
ment.html
Economical artistry
Efficient electric furnaces help glass blowers save on utilities.
www.PlantServices.com/articles/2009/222.html
SMRP Offers
Benchmarking Service
12 / CRISIS CORNER
New Challenges Call
for New Traditions
We have better ways to teach
new and unskilled workers
The system was installed with
zero capital investment
36 / IN THE TRENCHES
The Case of the Missing
Office Manager
Acme learns the downside of expecting people to be on the job
38 / PRODUCT EXCLUSIVE
The Devil Is in the Details
New compressor line raises the
bar on reliability, efficiency, and
productivity
40 / CLASSIFIEDS/AD INDEX
www.PLANTSERVICES.com february 2010 5
PS1002_05_TOC.indd 5
1/28/10 3:53 PM
Great for Business — Great for the Environment
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Copyright © 2010 Atlas Copco Compressors LLC
All rights reserved
PS1002_FPA.indd 6
1/27/10 1:38 PM
from the editor
Putman media, inc.
555 W. Pierce Rd., Ste.
301, Itasca, IL 60143
Phone: (630) 467-1300,
Fax: (630) 467-1120
mike brenner
Group Publisher
mbrenner@putman.net
editorial staff
paul studebaker, cmrp
Your Space
paul studebaker, cmrp
Editor in Chief
pstudebaker@putman.net
A place for your experience, wisdom, or perspective
russell l. kratowicz, p.e. cmrp
Executive Editor
russk@putman.net
Back in the 1970s, when the accelerator
stuck on my Studebaker Lark wagon, I’d
just catch the edge of my boot sole under
the pedal and pull it up. The connection to
the carburetor was a couple of rods and a
bellcrank. It pushed the throttle closed as
easily as it pulled it open. If I was wearing
sneakers, I might have to reach down and
pull it up with my hand.
In the 1980s, my Honda 600 and Civics
had cables, so when they’d stick, I’d try
tapping the pedal a bit to see if it would
come back. When it wouldn’t, I’d hold the
car’s speed down with the brake – not a
challenge with less than 125 hp – until I
could pull over and free it up. The problem
was usually ice in the cable or the carb.
I suppose if I had a sticky fly-by-wire gas
pedal on a 300-hp Camry or Tundra, I’d
turn off the ignition (if the machine had a
key and doing so wouldn’t lock the steering), or shift it to neutral and let the engine
hit the rev limiter while I pulled over to the
side – about as exciting as a flat tire.
But, apparently unlike the vast majority
of Toyota drivers, I know how an accelerator pedal is connected to a throttle body,
and I have some experience dealing with
malfunctions, as, I’m sure, do you.
What I don’t have is your experience and
perspective on industrial maintenance,
reliability, and asset management. Every
month, my fellow editors, regular contributors, and I have the opportunity to try
to write something interesting and relevant
for you with, as I’m sure you’ve noticed,
varying degrees of success.
More than likely, you’ve occasionally
realized that you could do better. Maybe
you’ve found an important truth about the
maintenance profession that you’d like to
share. Perhaps you’ve had an experience
that, if they knew of it, might save others
money, time, trouble, or risk. Or, you have
an idea or opinion that you’d like to air.
Alexis Gajewski
Associate Editor, Digital Media
agajewski@putman.net
stephen c. herner
V.P., Creative Services
sherner@putman.net
jennifer dakas
Art Director
jdakas@putman.net
david berger, p.eng.
Contributing Editor
peter garforth
Contributing Editor
sheila kennedy
Contributing Editor
joel leonard
Contributing Editor
bob sperber
Editor at Large
publication services
carmela kappel
Assistant to the Publisher
ckappel@putman.net
jerry clark
V.P., Circulation
jclark@putman.net
jack jones
Circulation Director
jjones@putman.net
rita fitzgerald
Production Manager
rfitzgerald@putman.net
Jill Kaletha
Reprints Marketing Manager
Foster Reprints
(866) 879-9144 ext.168
jillk@fosterprinting.com
administrative staff
john m. cappelletti
President/CEO
julie cappelletti-lange
Vice President
keith larson
V.P., Content
rose southard
IT Director
PS1002_07_Editorial.indd 7
Now you have the opportunity to see
your words on the pages of Plant Services
and www.PlantServices.com. Allow me to
introduce you to “Your Space,” our new
guest column where you can have the same
exposure and audience as me and our
regular contributors. We kicked off “Your
Space” in January with the first installment
of “Road to Reliability,” a series of Web
articles on operational excellence we’re collecting under our home page “Voices” tab.
Shoot for about 800
words, slam it down, and
shovel it on over to me.
This month, it’s a discussion about how to
deal with the economic times, on page 17.
Both are great columns, but don’t let
them constrain your thinking about appropriate topics. The key is value to your
fellow plant professionals, and that might
come in any form, including information,
perspective, experience – even humor.
And please don’t be held back by any
concerns about your ability to write. We
have a great deal of experience editing and
polishing, and we won’t let you look bad.
Shoot for about 800 words, slam it down,
and shovel it on over to me at pstudebaker@putman.net – you’ll be glad you did.
To open a place for “Your Space,” we’re
occasionally publishing the monthly columns “Human Capital,” by Tom Moriarty,
P.E., CMRP, or “Crisis Corner,” by Joel
Leonard, only in digital form. You’ll find
them under that “Voices” tab on www.
PlantServices.com.
PAUL STUDEBAKER, CMRP, Editor in Chief
pstudebaker@putman.net, (630) 467-1300 x433
www.PLANTSERVICES.com february 2010 7
1/28/10 4:07 PM
GE Energy
Efficient Operators Manage
Asset Conditions to Reduce Costs.
You know your equation for success...Bently Nevada™ service and expertise can help.
Gaining deeper insight into the condition of your assets saves you money through
more efficient plant operations. With over 150,000 installations worldwide,
our Bently Nevada technology — including the System 1® optimization software
platform — and our renown machinery diagnostic services make the difference in
managing operators’ bottom lines.
We’ll help you find the perfect equation to help you achieve more efficiency
in your plant operations.
Visit our website at www.ge-energy.com/bently.
PS1002_FPA.indd 8
1/27/10 1:38 PM
up & Running
SMRP Offers Benchmarking Service
See which operational areas are most in need of improvement
Maintenance and reliability (M&R) organizations that
take advantage of the Society of Maintenance and Reliability
Professionals (SMRP) Benchmarking Survey will see how their
company’s performance rates against competitors and identify
the most effective areas for improving operations. The survey
will help companies answer critical questions including:
•W
here are the gaps in the company’s efficiency and
performance?
•W
hich improvements would result in a swift increase to
the bottom line?
•C
ompared to the competition, does the organization fall
behind in some areas, yet excel in others?
•W
hat are the characteristics of the top-performing M&R
companies in the survey database?
SMRP says the information is compiled confidentially by a
third party recognized worldwide for its benchmarking expertise, and the information generated from the Benchmarking
Honeywell Acquires
Rights to OTTER
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) announced it
has acquired rights to Shell’s operational and technical task
for efficient rounds (OTTER) technology for gathering field
data and helping industrial plants safely increase production
while reducing maintenance and operating costs.
The acquisition strengthens Honeywell’s reliability and
operational excellence offerings and delivers an integrated
solution for the mobile field worker. In combination with
Honeywell’s OneWireless network and Dolphin mobile
computer devices, this technology will allow manufacturers
to optimize communication, coordination, execution, and
tracking of critical field tasks and activities in real time.
OTTER technology is currently used in more than 25 sites
to help guide field operators as they execute key field surveillance tasks that keep assets running within safe operating
limits and at optimum performance. It also delivers best practices to all field operators; provides decision support capabilities; improves regulatory reporting; and facilitates communication between groups to address problems immediately.
Survey gives a report of accurate and reliable research data that
would normally be cost-prohibitive to create on your own. As
more companies take part and the database grows, you’ll also
have the opportunity to create robust benchmarking reports as
generalized or customized as your company requires.
An M&R organization can use this tool to generate rigorous,
quantitative, and qualitative data about how its plants stack up
within the industry. This in turn reveals areas in which there is
a compelling need for the organization to improve.
Fees for the Benchmarking Survey are graduated based on
membership status, and the first 100 companies to participate
before the survey cutoff date of March 31, 2010, can do so at a
deep discount.
For more information or to get started, visit the online store at
www.smrp.org or contact Al Poling, technical director, SMRP, at
apoling@smrp.org.
resources
Interact with Fire Protection
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has
launched new high-resolution digital catalogs to allow
users to access information in a new interactive format.
Items related to specific topics or codes and standards
are presented together. The first two releases center
around NFPA 70E, Standard for Electrical Safety in the
Workplace and NFPA 70, National Electrical Code. See
a video demonstration of the new interactive format
on YouTube (search NFPA tutorial), or dive right in at
www.nfpa.org/Catalog/RequestPrintCatalog.asp.
Update Your HVAC Principles
ASHRAE’s new textbook, “Principles of Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning,” includes new values for climatic design information; heating, wind, and cooling and
dehumidifying design conditions; and thermal conductivity and resistance for common building and insulating
materials. The chapters on system design and equipment
have been significantly revised to reflect current heating
and air-conditioning system practices. For more information or to order, visit the bookstore at www.ashrae.org.
Continued on p.10
www.PLANTSERVICES.com February 2010 9
PS1002_09_10_UpRun.indd 9
1/28/10 11:14 AM
up & Running
Continued from p.9
Shell, for example, uses OTTER
technology along with Honeywell’s
Operations Management Pro (OM
Pro) solution as part of its Ensure Safe
Production (ESP) program. The ESP
program has significantly reduced
Shell’s unplanned downtime and
process safety incidents and is being
rolled out to its facilities globally.
“By providing timely and convenient access to relevant data in the
field and improving communication between teams, OTTER gives
operators the information they need
to make the best decisions, which
can ultimately improve plant and
business performance,” says Mark
Stevens, vice president, downstream
technology services, Shell Global
Solutions.
FMA AWARDED FOR SUPPORTING HIGH-TECH HIGH SCHOOL
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley (left)
thanked Jim Warren of the Fabricators
and Manufacturers Association (FMA),
which received a Platinum Partner
Award to honor its commitment and
contributions to Austin Polytechnical
Academy (APA), a manufacturing and
engineering high school in the Chicago
Public Schools. FMA funded a $20,000
grant request from the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council (CMRC) to support APA’s FIRST Robotics Team, a
summer manufacturing camp for youth, and the school’s new Manufacturing
Technology Center (MTC).
“The APA provides students with a rigorous college- and career-prep education, industry-recognized credentials, and meaningful work experience so they
can find employment in manufacturing or engineering directly after high school,”
says Warren. “We believe this vocational fast-track will inspire more young people
to consider manufacturing as a career option, help fill much-needed skilled
labor positions, and help revitalize Chicago’s manufacturing community.”
One location - Worldwide motor knowledge
Networked Automated Analysis
The success of any predictive maintenance program is in the details. Getting those details in a usuable format involves a great deal
of hard work. Baker/SKF takes some of this hard work and makes it easier. Finally, by utilizing the new SKF Online Motor Analysis
System-NetEP, automatically analyze real time data from anywhere an Internet connection exists. Understand the condition
of your rotating equipment through preset alarms. Get immediate notification upon an event. Keep your machinery working at an
optimal level while minimizing the costly occurance of motor failure.
To learn more on how Baker/SKF can help maintain your assets and improve your bottom line, talk to your Baker/SKF
representative or visit us at www.bakerinst.com.
10
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_09_10_UpRun.indd 10
1/28/10 11:16 AM
The Industrial Choice
®
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®
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transmission products and drives, no other manufacturer
offers more than Baldor...that is why Baldor is The Industrial
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When your next project demands the most reliable and
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baldor.com
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©2009 Baldor Electric Company
PS1002_FPA.indd 11
1/27/10 1:46 PM
Crisis corner
Joel Leonard
New Challenges Call for New Traditions
We have better ways to teach new and unskilled workers
Are you concerned that the over-gifting at Christmas is
giving us desensitized, ungrateful kids? Has the tradition of
giving our kids presents given us spoiled, entitled brats? Is it
time for a new tradition? My family shares that concern, so in
2008, after my nieces and nephews played with their new toys
from Santa Claus and were getting tired of prancing around in
new cowboy boots that lit up when they walked, my brothers
and I donned cowboy hats and strapped neckerchiefs around
Several Ph.D.s are studying
electronic gaming and how games
can be leveraged to provide a
stimulating educational experience.
our faces. We burst into the room, fired off our cap pistols, and
told the kids that we were taking their presents and new boots.
We met strong resistance. My 6-ft. 4-in. frame ran into
the outstretched lower jaw of my 24-in. tall niece who, with
her hands on her hips, proclaimed that those were her boots
and that we were not taking them. Then my five-year-old
nephew found his new rifle cap gun and lisped to his cousins
that he would protect them against those “wobbers.” He and
the others chased after us. When they fired their cap pistols,
my brothers and I acted as if we were struck by cannon balls
and collapsed to floor. The kids were victorious at vanquishing the evil-doers and saving their presents. They really
hung onto them and seemed to appreciate the presents more.
We dressed up as pirates this year – pictures are on my
Facebook page if you dare to look. But, what does this have
to do with the maintenance crisis?
Traditional views of education are being challenged and
revamped. The traditional education model of teachers
standing in front of room lecturing, requiring dry reading
assessments, expecting kids to memorize massive amounts
of information just to be tested later simply doesn’t work.
Education needs a serious upgrade.
Several Ph.D.s are studying electronic gaming and how
games can be leveraged to provide a stimulating educational
experience. The goal is to motivate future workers and
engage them by making dry content exciting. The idea is to
integrate history, language, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to expose students to possibilities in
12
the real and virtual world so they’ll understand the purpose
and relevance of education.
Gayla S. Keesee, MEd, curriculum designer for Fayetteville
Technical Community College, not only gets it but is working passionately to reduce educational dropout rates. She is
researching new approaches and implementing her findings
with teams of others to build more effective tools that complement the educational experience. She shares her insights and
programs on her blog at http://edtechlady.blogspot.com.
As an example of the new educational experience future
students will receive, Dimension M (www.dimensionm.com)
is an immersive video game world that engages students in
learning mathematics. Pre-algebra and algebra objectives
are covered through a series of missions that bring math
into a world that today’s students understand. The games are
research-based and linked to specific objectives. Download a
demo to try out this new approach.
How is that going to foster better manufacturing, facilities, and fleet maintenance and management? Employers
constantly complain that candidates don’t have prerequisite
math skills necessary to program, develop, operate, and
manage equipment.
Our educational system is getting upgraded with immersive, educational experiences. Interactive 3-D programs are
being developed to manage, operate, and repair robotics,
PLCs, CNC equipment, and even educating workers on the
fluid dynamics of hydraulics and pneumatics.
The traditional training program where younger workers follow older workers around doesn’t generate effective
results either. The older worker probably never was taught
how to train and probably is conflicted about confiding his
undocumented knowledge and losing job security.
By adding virtual games to expose gamers to the nuances
of manufacturing the way ABB does (www.abb.com/reliabilitychallenge), we’ll develop a talent pool with appreciation
for the finer details that drive our economy. As other countries take our manufacturing and service jobs, our academic
systems finally are beginning to appreciate the jobs they
used to ridicule, and providing not just the presents that we
need, but presence of leadership to guide us forward. I hope
that more step up to add new traditions to complement, if
not replace, antiquated, worn out practices.
E-mail Contributing Editor Joel Leonard at joel@skilltv.net.
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_12_Crisis.indd 12
1/28/10 11:16 AM
New from WD-40 Company: BLUE WORKS™ Industrial Grade, specialty maintenance
products. Ask your distributor for details on how you can experience outstanding
performance from a line that meets your rigorous technical requirements.
For a free sample,* visit BlueWorksBrand.com/sample and enter Offer Code PSP
*While supplies last.
PS1002_FPA.indd 13
©2010 WD-40 Company
50-State VOC compliant
1/27/10 2:06 PM
R-Series_FullPage_PlantServices2.pdf
1
1/26/10
9:48 AM
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
PS1002_FPA.indd 14
1/27/10 2:21 PM
what works
Generating Nitrogen on Site Cuts Costs
The system was installed with zero capital investment
By Trey Donze
When a world leader in adhesive manufacturing wanted
to reduce its monthly nitrogen costs without having to make
an upfront capital investment, it contacted Air Technologies
(www.aircompressors.com), a leader in providing compressed air and nitrogen as a utility service.
The manufacturer uses nitrogen to blanket the production tanks, keeping oxygen from reacting with the product.
Nitrogen also is used in the packaging process to keep the
product from hardening in the package. The facility is fed
from a nitrogen pipeline running along the back of the
property. The nitrogen enters the building at a pressure of
115 psig with a purity of 99.99%. The gas is then regulated
down to a maximum pressure of 55 psig, with the majority
of the users requiring 40 psig.
A nitrogen generation system that could provide 106 cfm
would be adequate to handle the plant’s nitrogen base load.
Any additional nitrogen load could be supplied from the
facility’s existing nitrogen pipeline. The plant’s engineers
determined that a purity of 99% was adequate for blanketing
and packaging purposes.
The Utilities Service group at Air Technologies developed
the nitrogen system. Air Technologies’ DirectAIR Compressed Air Utility Service has been providing “over the
fence” compressed air to more industrial customers than
anyone else in the United States. These unmanned compressed air generation sites are owned, operated, monitored,
and maintained by Air Technologies to provide a continuous supply of 100% reliable clean dry air. With more than
150 years of combined operation without a single continuous hour of low air pressure at its DirectAIR sites, Air
Technologies knew that providing nitrogen would be an
easy transition. It engineered a complete system to provide
the required 99% pure nitrogen at 80 psig to the plant, which
will never see a maintenance or rental bill. Also, the Air
Technologies system is more energy efficient than the previous nitrogen system. The monthly bill is based only on the
measured nitrogen consumption.
An exclusive ManagAIR control system monitors and
controls the onboard equipment as well as compressed air
pressure, flow, dew point and nitrogen pressure, flow and
purity. Should any equipment or performance abnormality occur, ManagAIR contacts the DirectAIR operations
team for immediate response. The system can be accessed
remotely and corrective action taken.
The nitrogen system was delivered completely assembled and ready
to run in a custom-engineered modular facility, which is erected
just outside the plant’s battery limits.
“We received quotes from five companies,” says the company’s Lean Manufacturing Engineer. “Air Technologies offered
the best value. Additionally, we’ve dealt with them in the past,
as they maintain our plant air compressors. And, we found
them to be professional and responsive to any issues we might
encounter. Also, the ManagAIR software provided savings in
our compressor operation as well as insight into how our compressors are running. We hoped to have the same insight into
how the new nitrogen system is running.”
The system was delivered completely assembled and ready to
run in a custom-engineered modular facility, which is erected
just outside the plant’s battery limits. The module secures the
equipment from tampering and is engineered to provide a suitable operating environment for the equipment year round.
The electrical, foundation, rigging, and piping installation
was included in the DirectAIR nitrogen monthly fee to keep
the plant’s capital outlay at $0. The system can grow with additional capacity that might be added in the future. Another
module can be installed at any time.
The total operating cost, including the monthly DirectAIR
fee and electrical operating costs, is lower than the previous
nitrogen cost. In the end, the plant got the latest technology and
reduced monthly operating costs without spending a nickel. The
manufacturing engineer says, “In a recession year, any opportunity to save money with no capital costs is very attractive.”
For more information, contact Steve Schoeny, utility services
group manager at Air Technologies in Cincinnati, Ohio, at (513)
539-6747, (513) 200-7089, and sschoeny@aircompressors.com.
www.PLANTSERVICES.com February 2010 15
PS1002_15_Works.indd 15
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PS1002_FPA.indd 16
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your space
A Wise Use of Time
Adopting an information-centric approach to MRO and retrofitting
The sluggish economy forced most manufacturing
companies to hunker down and plan very diligently. Underdemand has led to overcapacity that is resulting in a mentality of “rob Peter to keep Paul running.” In other words,
when (not if) demand increases with economic recovery and
plants’ full capacity is again required, significant challenges
could suddenly arise.
Lines that have been used sparingly during the past year
will require upgrading before they can be used for production, and those upgrades will need to address a company’s
sustainability goals, as well as the needs of a workforce featuring a good percentage of personnel with vast experience
but nearing retirement.
How can facility owners and managers best manage
this situation? By continuing to spend their time wisely,
and devoting resources now to address capital investment
and operating expenses that broaden functional improvements and add capability, so their plants will be ready when
demand picks up. Lagging strategies will open the door to
competition, both for individual manufacturers and for the
U.S. manufacturing sector as a whole.
As you address this issue, it’s crucially important to
keep a keen eye on both the power and ease of use of
information. Information gathered from the plant floor
can be analyzed and incite actions that can reduce costs
by increasing efficiencies, predicting maintenance measures, and maximizing energy efficiency. The technologies
necessary to enable the enhanced information acquisition
and management that produces faster, real-time decisionmaking are currently available, and they’re easier than ever
to operate and maintain.
That means line operators and maintenance personnel
of all ages – from the experienced technician to the new
hires – can be productive faster, instead of spending valuable time learning the nuances of new components. Key
offers in this “shop floor to top floor” approach include
programmable logic controllers (PLCs), HMI/SCADA,
and I/O with more embedded intelligence, whether in the
form of programmable automation controllers (PACs) or
simply devices like AC drives with embedded controllers.
These components can be part of an enhanced communications network that can funnel real-time information to
key decision-markers to maximize productivity and meet
sustainability goals.
But the availability of these solutions - and the talents
of system integrators and electrical contractors to install
them – is only half of the equation. The rest is more
subjective – the choice manufacturers have right now to
investigate, identify, and implement the solutions before
demand leads to production ramp-up, taking into account the opinions of those who will operate the equipment, and those who will use the information that will be
generated.
Lagging strategies will open
the door to competition.
It’s also important to note that there is currently a shift
from concern over plug-and-play to increased interest in
how to handle the myriad data coming from the plant floor.
Bolstered by the shift to standard communication (i.e., Ethernet), this means manufacturers now depend on suppliers
to help solve problems and provide integrated systems with
data management and reporting that is well-thought-out
and easy to use. Taking advantage of these factors today can
accrue the benefits listed above, along with better energy
management, which can help reach a manufacturer’s sustainability goals.
So, as the U.S. economy grows, so also does the opportunity to broaden functional improvements and
add capability, particularly in the area of information
facilitation. Conversely, choosing to “wait and see” will
incur complications later by placing manufacturers in a
less-competitive position.
Of course, making a decision to invest and actually
spending the funds can be two different things. That’s why
Schneider Electric advocates a comprehensive plan based on
evidence gained through research before the first purchase
order is written. Such a plan will include everything from an
acceptable projected payback period to intangibles like an
internal champion. The result can be a tremendous competitive advantage.
Andy Gravitt, senior vice president, industry business,
Schneider Electric North America, may be reached at
a.gravitt@us.schneider-electric.com.
www.PLANTSERVICES.com february 2010 17
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1/28/10 11:18 AM
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asset manager
david berger, P.Eng.
The Growing Value of a CMMS
How to build the business case for better asset management
Now more than ever before, building a business case for
upgrading or purchasing a new CMMS has become much
easier, or so it should be. With an uncertain economy, rising
regulatory pressures, growing global competition, and an
aging infrastructure, companies are looking to technology and smarter assets to become more competitive. These
trends translate into increased value of a CMMS that can be
used to maximize asset availability, reliability, and performance while minimizing total cost of ownership for every
asset class across your enterprise.
The move to smart assets: One of the most significant
trends of the new century is the transformation of physical assets such as plant equipment, facilities, and vehicles,
to smart assets. By adding a computer chip, RFID tag, GPS
device, or a sophisticated onboard computer, assets can be
monitored and tracked from virtually anywhere. The digitization of assets has increased their value to the organization,
and in turn, the need to better maintain them using tools
such as the CMMS.
But with the proliferation of smart assets comes increased
cost and complexity, as well as the need for greater integration. This adds tremendous strength to the business case for
upgrading or implementing a new CMMS capable of better
integrating the many silos of technology and lowering your
asset lifecycle costs. In some cases, smart assets have become
mission-critical, such as automated safety systems, thereby
increasing our reliance on tools such as the CMMS to minimize catastrophic failure.
The rising importance of sustainability: Another changing dynamic resulting from smarter assets is the increase in
energy consumption experienced worldwide. For example,
depending on whose survey results you believe, data center
costs are at least two to three times what they were five
years ago due to increased computerization. This is despite
advances made by computer manufacturers with green technology that consumes less energy.
Rising energy consumption and associated costs threaten
our environmental sustainability. Modern CMMS packages
can play a huge role in monitoring energy consumption of
assets to ensure costs are properly managed. The following
CMMS features can assist in identifying opportunities to
reduce your energy footprint:
•C
ondition-based monitoring to track energy consumption for a given asset, including user-definable upper and
lower control limits, trend analysis, and the triggering
of preventive maintenance work orders when energy
consumption meets established condition criteria.
• Ability to correlate energy consumption with variables
such as environmental conditions, operational output,
equipment manufacturer, age of equipment, PM history,
and so on, in order to determine factors that minimize
energy consumption.
Companies have seen productivity
gains of 5% to 30%.
• Repair/replace and lifecycle management decisionmaking that incorporates energy consumption (e.g.,
determining if it is cost-effective to replace an asset with
a new one that consumes less energy).
The emphasis on measurement: Another factor driving
companies to upgrade or buy a new CMMS is the increased
focus on measurement. Shareholders are looking for more
detailed information about a company before investing.
Consumers are becoming more concerned about the company that manufactures and sells a given product. Senior
managers have an insatiable desire to measure and benchmark against their competitors. These and other pressures to
get better at measurement have resulted in improvements to
the CMMS such as:
• Predefined key performance indicators such as PM
compliance, mean-time-between-failure, and asset
availability.
• Business intelligence including dashboards, graphics,
standard reports and queries, etc.
• Balanced scorecard capability.
• Data analysis and decision-support tools, e.g. Pareto
analysis to identify recurring problems, root cause
analysis, and lifecycle analysis.
Increased regulatory pressures: Regulators have intensified their demand for better controls and detailed reporting
from companies to protect employees and the public from
the catastrophic failure of assets. CMMS vendors have reacted with an ever-increasing array of features and functions
that help satisfy the needs of regulatory bodies from every
industry. These include:
• Flexible reporting tools that allow users to easily create
www.PLANTSERVICES.com February 2010 19
PS1002_19_20_Asset.indd 19
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asset manager
reports in a format and level of detail suitable to relevant
regulatory requirements.
• Advanced approval capability to ensure adequate control
over expenditures, work initiation, deferral of work
orders, re-opening a closed work order, configuration of
the CMMS, etc.
• Security features such as log-in password, digital signatures, and read/write access down to the field level for
roles or individual users
• Error-checking capability for format, range and logic
(e.g., preventing a planner from reserving an undersized
part for a given asset).
• An audit trail function that records all changes to the
database (e.g., changing key data in the equipment,
parts, vendor or employee master file).
• Notification and alarming capability that alerts the appropriate user or manager when a user-defined condition is met, such as a process is out of control, a PM is
long overdue, or suspicious data has been entered.
Greater savings and benefits: Another reason why the
value of a new or upgraded CMMS has been growing is that
the potential savings and benefits have become more sub-
stantial for many companies. That value stems from moving
to a modern, more automated CMMS. For example, companies have seen productivity gains of 5% to 30% when deploying handheld mobile devices for maintainers to download
their work orders, input parts and labor, view equipment
history and diagnostic data, refer to a graphic parts book or
map, scan a barcode label, and other useful functions.
Modern CMMS packages have sophisticated features that
assist in moving your company to a more planned environment. These include condition-based monitoring functionality, strategic and long-term planning capability, and
reliability-centered maintenance features. Unplanned work
can cost anywhere from 1.5 to 3 times more than properly
planned work, so companies currently saddled with a firefighting mentality can achieve significant savings.
The strength of your business case will depend on when
you last replaced your current version of CMMS. Typically,
the longer it has been, the better the payback, especially if
your starting point is a manual or semi-automated system.
E-mail Contributing Editor David Berger, P.Eng., partner, Western
Management Consultants, at david@wmc.on.ca.
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PS1002_19_20_Asset.indd 20
1/28/10 11:20 AM
Technology Toolbox
Sheila Kennedy
Get Pumped
Don’t let inefficient and inappropriate pumping systems degrade the bottom line
Incorrectly applied pumps lead to higher maintenance
and energy costs, more CO2 emissions and shorter life
cycles. New materials, designs, and technologies let pumps
operate more efficiently and reliably for more applications.
Energy: This controls the total cost of owning a pump.
Technology that increases the efficiency of air-operated
double-diaphragm pumps could prove beneficial. Warren
Rupp’s Sandpiper EST pumps have an On-Board PowerGen
system that runs completely on compressed air. It modulates air flow to optimize energy usage. Automated controls
self-adapt to changing process conditions. This reduces air
use, maintains flow, increases overall air capacity, and reduces
energy use. Sandpiper EST pumps reportedly perform from
26% to 51% better than four other brands in flow-per-unit of
compressed air. The technology is available on Sandpiper 2-in.
and 3-in. standard-duty metallic pumps.
Certified green: A variable-speed pump controller that
reduces energy and water consumption might qualify users for
green incentives, rebates, and LEED certification. ITT’s Bell &
Gossett Technologic 502 variable-speed pump controller, which
controls four pumps in parallel, reduces electric and water costs
and reduces wear in HVAC and pressure-boosting applications.
The pump controller and adjustable-frequency drive, housed
in one enclosure, uses custom algorithms to support a complete
range of pumping applications. The Technologic 502 is expandable, allowing three follower drives of equal size to be added as
needed. Alternation of multiple pumps is in both manual and
automatic modes to provide even wear, and lag pumps start
automatically if the lead pump fails. The system supports local
and remote start and contains four analog sensor inputs. It protects against motor overload, out-of-range operation, high-pressure conditions, insufficient suction pressure, thermal build-up
in pressure-boosting applications, and accidental data loss.
Chemical resistance: Corrosive fluids and harsh environments can wreak havoc on chemical pumps. A unit that
combines the chemical resistance of perfluoroalkoxy (Teflon-PFA) linings and the strength and corrosion resistance
of stainless steel handles it all safely and effectively.
With Liquiflo’s Poly-Guard Series gear pumps, corrosive
liquids never come in contact with metal. The PFA lining is
bonded to the stainless steel surface. Other internal components are available in Teflon, silicon carbide, PEEK, Kynar
PVDF, TTZ and other non-metallic materials. A sealless
magnetic-drive prevents fluids from leaking and chemicals
from escaping. The pump is suited to high-purity services
because its wetted parts are non-metallic, and to metering
and transfer applications because of smooth, pulseless flow.
Expanded stability: Diaphragms made of Teflon AF
(amorphous fluoropolymers) enable microfluidic pumps and
A variable-speed pump controller
that reduces energy and water
consumption might qualify users
for green incentives or rebates.
valves to operate stably in a wider range of temperatures
than their silicone-rubber counterparts, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkley, for NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Pumps and valves with diaphragms made of silicone rubber, or PDMS, are stable from
41ºF to 176ºF. The somewhat porous PDMS membranes
retain water, and applications below 0ºC are unsuitable. By
comparison, pumps and valves with Teflon AF pneumatically-actuated diaphragms are stable from -193ºF to 248ºF. In
addition to greater thermal stability, the polymer material is
less permeable and more resistant to chemical attack.
Micro scale: Researchers at Caltech developed a technique
for making miniature scroll pumps. These serve as low-vacuum roughing pumps for miniature scientific instruments
such as portable mass spectrometers and gas analyzers.
The design and fabrication differs from conventional
scroll pump machining. They would be micro-fabricated
using a German lithography, electroforming, and molding
process that gives the required tolerances at large aspect
ratios. The pumps contain two scrolls; one on a stationary
baseplate and the other on a flexure stage. The circular orbit
of the flexure stage produces the pumping effect.
E-mail Contributing Editor Sheila Kennedy, managing director of
Additive Communications, at Sheila@addcomm.com.
Reference Web sites:
www.warrenrupp.com
www.bellgossett.com
www.liquiflo.com
www.jpl.nasa.gov
www.berkeley.edu
www.caltech.edu
www.PLANTSERVICES.com February 2010 21
PS1002_21_TechTool.indd 21
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Management / Services
Recent years have seen a steady increase in the demand
for remote asset management services, and both the number
and scope of service offerings is growing. While historically,
companies have been slow to relinquish operational control to
outsiders, convergence of business and technology challenges
and improvements in information technology (IT) security
are alleviating their concerns. Those that manage to overcome
any initial degree of wariness quickly realize the rewards of
strategically outsourcing surveillance, analysis, diagnostic, and
maintenance activities to remote service providers.
Driven by the economy
When the recent global recession wreaked havoc on the
demand for manufactured goods, drastic measures were
taken. “Plants have scaled back their operating time,” says
Steve Carlson, global product manager of InSite Services for
Rockwell Automation (www.ra.rockwell.com). “Many that
once ran 24/7 are now one shift only, so the production in
that shift must be flawless.”
It’s not just in discrete manufacturing. “Equipment uptime
and production levels are especially important in process plants,”
adds Vlad Bacalu, product manager for Advanced Technology
Services (ATS), www.advancedtech.com. “Very few customers
have redundant equipment and, therefore, they can’t shift production to other equipment. This makes uptime essential.”
Consequently, the methods chosen to ensure reliable uptime
increasingly involve third-party expertise. “Because there is
increased pressure on manufacturers to do more with less, they
are turning to solutions that maximize maintenance timeliness
and effectiveness,” says John Schroeder, business development
manager, Remote Services, ABB (www.abb.com). “Remote access typically provides significantly improved technical support
response times. Having these services available 24/7 is hugely
beneficial to manufacturers.”
Reducing downtime by even 10 minutes can generate significant cost savings. Some downtime incidents will be elim-
inated completely as a result of remote predictive maintenance services. Cost efficiencies are further amplified when
remote monitoring equipment and software is bundled with
a service contract, because it allows the customer to avoid
the capital expense of purchasing the technology while also
reducing associated labor and training costs.
Ease workforce constraints
Skills gaps in the employee base are widening because of
high attrition and low replacement rates, and employers
are challenged to keep up. “I think we will come out of the
recession with the skills shortage more acute. Many companies cut personnel during the last 12 to 18 months, and
those people are generally not going to come back,” predicts
Jonathan Hakim, president, Azima DLI (www.azimadli.
com). “Additionally, we’ve found that when companies
launch reliability programs, they often are defunct in two or
three years because it is very hard to develop and sustain the
expertise internally.”
Remote services can support a move to the next level. “All
of our predictive work is outsourced because we don’t have
reliability experts or trained people in the field who can
make the call on a unit’s overall mechanical status,” says
Rasmus Dorrington, rotating equipment engineer for Colonial Pipeline Company (www.colpipe.com). “Some of our
pumping units were installed in the early 1960s. We used
to rely on preventive practices, but two years ago we began
some basic predictive maintenance, including overall vibration readings, oil sampling, and analysis on the mainline
piping unit.” The Atlanta, Ga., facility recently added fullspectrum vibration analysis with help from Azima DLI.
“Greater skill sets and knowledge are required to support
open technology, and it is difficult to maintain an adequate
level of expertise at every site,” says Shawn Gold, remote
services global program manager for Open Systems Services at
Honeywell (www.honeywell.com). “For example, a distributed
Remote services solve problems with reliability, staffing, and skil
By Sheila Kennedy, Contributing Editor
22
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_22_27_CvrStry.indd 22
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Management / Services
control system itself is not generally complex, but running it on
top of a Windows environment increases the workload.”
Remote service providers fill the labor gap with a supplemental workforce. “We are keenly aware of our customers’
requirements to use their technology investments in the most
cost effective way,” says Bruce Oyler, manager of Global Asset
Reliability Services for Emerson Process Management (www.
emersonprocess.com). “We augment plants that have complicated equipment, but lack in-house expertise, and we provide
second-opinion services, which are good for resolving disputes
about whether an OEM or the plant owns a problem. Our intent is to give our customers service capability where they lack
the skill sets or funding to build a program internally.”
Support sophisticated technology
Keeping up with constantly changing and highly sophisticated information systems is an ongoing effort. “The
technology in the plant is not getting any easier to support,”
says Carlson. “Customers are increasingly installing control,
manufacturing execution, and process systems that are integrated together over the network and supply chain, which
increases the complexity of the systems.”
Modern process control systems are built to
gather a lot more data than in the past, and companies are drowning in data. “In addition, device costs are going down, particularly wireless
technology, which leads to a greater percentage
of plants being monitored,” says Hakim. “This
increases the premium on the ability to make
sense of the data and makes remote monitoring
services like ours more valuable.”
In general, corporate IT system administrators are
concerned about protecting the data, while the process
IT personnel are more concerned with protecting plant
processes and consider a little data loss acceptable, ac-
cording to Gold. “Our customers need someone who understands and appreciates the process considerations.”
Companies are trying to get more juice out of their assets,
Hakim adds. “They want to harvest and centralize data to
make better sense of it, and have the data visible to the operating side of the plant rather than siloed in a maintenance
department computer.”
Overcome security concerns
Although the benefits of the remote service model are easy
to recognize, the primary sales and implementation barrier
for remote online systems concerns IT policies and firewalls.
They are, however, being overcome. “It is an urban legend
that plants won’t allow remote connections. The IT space
has been accessing enterprise business systems like SAP and
Oracle remotely for years,” says Carlson.
“Data concerns are arguably more imaginary than real,”
Hakim agrees. “What would someone do with a bunch of
vibration data if they could get their hands on it?”
and skills
PS1002_22_27_CvrStry.indd 23
1/28/10 1:31 PM
Management / Services
Like online banking, a cultural shift
is underway, but security remains an
issue for some. “We find our customers
are cautious,” adds Gold. “They want to
improve their maintenance and systems,
but worry about security, tarade secrets,
and relinquishing control. A minority
immediately sees the value of remote
services, but the majority is guarded,
particularly if there is potential for a
safety incident to occur or when critical
distributed control systems are involved.”
To ensure the safety and integrity of
customer information, remote service
providers are taking active measures
at multiple levels (Figure 1).
For instance, ABB’s secure remote access process is documented
and shared with the customer. Key
security measures include registered
users with limited privileges, strong
authentication, encrypted outboundonly communications, and logs of all
remote activities. Secure control room
environments are offered, and the
customer maintains complete control
over when an ABB engineer is allowed
remote access and what data is allowed
to be viewed and transferred. The customer can monitor the entire remote
session and end it at any time.
This approach is similar to the others
Six Services
• Surveillance – Remote monitoring and proactive notification
• Diagnostics – Remote system analysis and troubleshooting
• Administration – Life-cycle application and system management
• Knowledge – Technical support and system information database
• Optimization – System performance improvement and development
• Visualization – Web-based machine, process and production intelligence
(Source: Rockwell Automation)
but some customers still need convincing. “There remain issues with getting
on the customer’s network to fully and
automatically monitor their systems,”
says Bacalu. He explains that conditionmonitoring data is read-only and
variables limit the data ATS receives.
In most cases, the customer moves its
own data into an ATS-specific data
table, which is then transferred to the
ATS network. In other instances, the
customer’s control networks are separate
from the IT networks and ATS ties directly into its control data. ATS does not
send data to controllers or machines.
Remote offerings are robust
The scope of available remote services
has never been larger. From providing IT support and disaster recovery
services to troubleshooting faulty
Ethernet modules, the possibilities for
Security blankets
Figure 1. Honeywell’s security protocol is very restrictive with two-factor authentication,
and all appropriate security standards are applied. The customer completely controls all
data going in and out, and the information is segmented in a secure, isolated environment,
even within Honeywell.
24
remote service abound. The services
might might fill niche skills gaps, as
when electrical technicians lack expertise in batch management, historians,
and MES systems, or they might might
encompass the entire operation.
Some providers deliver across-theboard managed services for plant and IT
assets, while others are dedicated to specific equipment condition-monitoring
techniques. Depending on the customer,
services might might be provided at
the corporate level via the corporate
intranet, or one-off at individual sites.
Service contracts are most commonly
for a term of one year or more.
Most remote service vendors provide
some degree of monitoring, analysis,
and diagnostic services, and automatically notify the customer when corrective actions are required. If the customer
needs assistance with a work task or
repair, the vendors might provide phone
or on-site support. At a few very large
facilities, the vendor might staff service
personnel on site.
“In automation systems, anything
an engineer can do from a laptop in
the plant, we can do remotely,” says
Carlson. “If a screwdriver or wrench
is needed, we’ll reach out to the plant
floor technicians and guide them
through the appropriate action. If they
don’t have the necessary skills, we’ll
dispatch field engineers with the right
knowledge and parts so they can get in
and out of the customer site quickly.”
Like Rockwell, Emerson personnel
don’t normally do wrench turning,
although they can oversee repairs or
assist with certain types of repairs, such
as manually realigning and balancing
equipment. “As long as the customer can
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_22_27_CvrStry.indd 24
1/28/10 1:32 PM
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Management / Services
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Remote stress analysis “Crack Troubleshooters Work Over Web”
“The Power of Decentralization”
Distributed monitoring The rise of remote monitoring “Remote Machine Monitoring:
A Developing Industry”
Economic pressures “Protect Your Condition Monitoring”
Security “How Much Is U.S. Critical Infrastructure Worth”
For more, search www.PlantServices.com using the keywords remote,
condition monitoring, and Web-based.
transfer data and we can read it, then we
can analyze it,” says Oyler. “We watch for
bearing condition faults, misalignments,
imbalances, excessive temperatures,
compressor or turbine efficiencies, motor
condition, and other key indicators.”
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Rockwell Automation’s foundation for
remote services is TechConnect Support,
a network of customer support centers
offering real-time phone support for software and technology, product updates,
and electronic tools. Remote monitoring
and diagnostic services for process and
drive systems were added, and by April
2009, a full line of managed services was
launched under the InSite Services brand.
InSite Services takes a holistic, siteor system-wide approach, with capabilities for remote and on-site surveillance,
diagnostics, administration, knowledge
management, and optimization.
Most InSite Services contracts include
the diagnostics, knowledge, and surveillance services. Most customers add scope
over the life of a contract, such as disaster
recovery, system performance management, and patch management. “We
literally become a virtual extension of the
organization,” explains Carlson. “With
our global incident management system,
global phone system, global knowledge
base, and remote technology, there is
always a Rockwell resource available for
any situation at any time.”
ABB likewise offers remote services for virtually all aspects of a plant,
including automation, equipment
health and performance, mechanics,
26
PS1002_22_27_CvrStry.indd 26
electrification, electronics, production,
and quality. ABB’s Remote Diagnostic
Services (RDS) solution consists of condition monitoring, diagnostics, troubleshooting, and predictive and preventive
maintenance services. Remote optimization services for systems, processes,
and machines also are offered.
“ABB’s remote diagnostic services
provide our customers with a costeffective and efficient way to automate
data collection, conduct network analysis or system health checks, evaluate
and optimize control systems, and webenable the analysis and troubleshooting
of plant equipment,” says Schroeder.
ABB has integrated its SupportLine
help desk and Remote Connectivity
infrastructure to provide customers a
single point to call. The same escalation
process is used for both customer calls
and automatic notifications.
“Honeywell has been using the
Internet and dial-up capabilities for at
least 10 years in a very structured way,”
says Gold. The company’s Open Systems
Services includes both onsite and remote
system performance-monitoring activities. Honeywell also offers Loop Scout,
which remotely monitors and reports
on control system loop performance;
Benefits Guardianship Maximum,
which optimizes advanced process control (APC) performance remotely; and
the Technical Assistance Center, which
provides remote software and hardware
support and troubleshooting.
The remote services generating the
most interest include system performance monitoring and management,
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
1/28/10 1:32 PM
Management / Services
along with backup, antivirus, patch,
and release management services. “It
doesn’t make sense for companies to do
these tasks themselves if they lack the
expertise to conduct complex analysis
of multiple parameters,” explains Gold.
Honeywell’s unique expertise with its
control systems enables them to develop
very accurate and robust models to
determine how a system is performing,
its chance of failure, and how to prevent
problems from occurring.
Emerson supports rotating equipment,
including turbines, compressors, HVAC,
pumps, motors, boilers, heat exchangers, and cooling towers. The company’s
Global Asset Reliability Services include
remote predictive diagnostics of mechanical equipment, electrical equipment,
instrumentation, and control valves.
It performs remote machinery health
monitoring using data from portable
vibration, infrared, and ultrasound
devices, as well as online prediction
and performance technologies. “For
customers lacking adequate reliability
engineers, vibration analysts, or other
skilled resources in house, we’ll teach
them how to collect the data and analyze it for them,” says Oyler.
Specialists handle niches
Azima DLI believes it is the largest independent condition monitoring service
supplier in North America. Its Watchman
Reliability Services organization monitors, gathers and interprets data on vibration, temperature, and oil quality, and
provides information on how to manage
maintenance most efficiently.
“The condition monitoring industry is
evolving with the separation of diagnostics from information gathering,”
says Hakim. “Traditionally, condition
monitoring in industrial plants involved
internal activities performed by qualified analysts who would collect, analyze,
interpret, screen, and report information.
Today, collection is increasingly separate
from analysis because it is more efficient
to bring the data to an analyst rather than
vice versa, but also because skills shortages inside industrial plants limit their
Monster mash-up
& Geometric
Measurement
Figure 2. Web-based maps provide clients
and Azima DLI analysts quick overviews
of automated online machinery condition
monitoring systems along a petroleum
pipeline in the Southeast United States.
(Imagery by TerraMetrics, map data by
Google/INEGI, machine data by Azima DLI.)
ability to interpret and analyze the data.”
Azima DLI offers both online and
handheld data collection, and most
customers choose a combination of the
two services. Online systems enable the
most critical assets to be automatically
monitored (Figure 2). For less critical
equipment, data is gathered on handheld
devices and uploaded for analysis and
interpretation by Azima.
For customers with a high level of automation, especially those in the process
industry with elaborate integrated control
systems, ATS is able to tie into the control
systems to monitor machine performance
and condition and make maintenance
decisions based on its status and process
variables. The company also is getting
into diagnostics. “All the modern motor
drives, PLC controllers, etc., have built in
diagnostics codes,” says Bacalu. “The information is readily available in the drives
but the customers rarely look at it. They
just want the machine to run.”
Production information is also provided. “Once there is visibility into the number of products produced on a machine,
the operator knows someone is watching
and will try to produce more products,
more efficiently,” explains Bacalu. The
company’s long-term goal is to add product quality data to the mix and have the
capability to measure overall equipment
effectiveness (OEE) from afar.
www.PLANTSERVICES.com February 2010 27
PS1002_22_27_CvrStry.indd 27
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THE
R
FRO EASON
M
S
BAS THE U COME
E
S
THE , R&D, ER
A
APP
By B
LICA ND
ob S
TION
imon
M.
Sc.,
P.E
28
.
DC motors were first developed in the
early 19th century and continue to be used
today. Ányos Jedlik is credited as being the
first to experiment with DC motors in 1827.
William Sturgeon (1832) and Thomas Davenport (1837) are credited with taking Jedlik’s laboratory instrument and trying to
commercialize it. It wasn’t until 1871 when
Zénobe Gramme’s design of a dynamo was
accidentally connected to a second dynamo
that was producing a voltage that the DC
motor we think of today start to turn and
do work.
The DC motor reigned alone in the factory for only 11 years. In 1888, Nicola Tesla
stepped into the factory with today’s well
known three-phase electric system and the
AC induction motor has been taking work
away from the DC motor ever since.
So, the question remains – why has the
DC motor continued to be used from 1888
until today? A primary reason is the motor’s variable speed characteristic. When
the voltage to a DC motor is increased
from zero to some base voltage, the motor’s
speed increases from zero to a corresponding base speed. An induction motor, on
the other hand, always runs at full speed.
If a speed other then this is desired, it must
be achieved via belts and pulleys, hydraulic pumps and motors, or gear boxes and
clutches. These devices provide for rotation
at a speed something less (or greater) then
the design speed, but adds mechanical
complexity.
A DC motor can develop full torque within
the operational speed range from zero to base
speed (Figure 1). This allows the DC motor
to be used on constant-torque loads such as
conveyor belts, elevators, cranes, ski lifts,
extruders, and mixers. These applications can
be stopped when fully loaded and will require
full torque to get them moving again.
Getting a variable DC voltage to a DC
motor was done in several ways. The easiest
was with a large carbon rheostat that either
increased or decreased the voltage supplied
to the motor. It also was done with motorgenerator (MG) sets, which used a constantspeed AC motor directly coupled to a DC
generator. The generator’s field was then
increased or decreased. This resulted in an
increase or decrease in the generator’s termi-
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ENERGY / MOTORS
nal voltage. As terminal voltage increases
or decreases, the speed of the connected
DC motor also increases or decreases.
Static inverters were developed later
and the rectification of AC to DC was
done using vacuum tubes. Semiconductors were developed and the analog
converter replaced the rectifiers. Finally,
the microprocessor was developed and
the converter went digital. That’s where
the technology stands today with respect
to providing an AC-to-DC conversion.
As the development of semiconductors
continued, the development of the digital
DC converter also continued. More importantly, this lead to the development of
the AC inverter. The AC inverter is the bit
of engineering technology that was going
to push the DC motor down the same
path as the Pickett slide rule and the Post
draftsman’s compass. The AC inverter
allows a standard induction motor to be
operated at any speed, just like the DC
motor. And, it does this without brushes.
Brushes are the primary maintenance
headache when using a DC motor.
SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
Figure 1. Torque comparison of DC and AC motors. Motor speed in per unit values is located
on the horizontal and torque developed by the motor in per unit values on the vertical axis (1 =
100%). The green line is the nominal developed DC motor torque and shows that a DC motor
can develop 100% torque from 0-100% speed. Neither the AC self-ventilated nor the forced
ventilated motors can match the torque development at very low rotational speeds.
THE THREE REGIONS
PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS
DC motors have three operating regions
(Figure 1). The first is from zero to the
base speed and is called the called the
constant-torque range. As motor voltage
is increased from zero to base voltage,
the ability to develop full torque remains
constant. Motor power increases from
zero to rated power as the voltage changes. Often, this region is labeled VP/CT
for variable power/constant torque. This
characteristic of a DC motor lent itself
well to applications that had to operate at
various speeds while fully loaded.
The second region is called the fieldweakening (FW) operational range, or
constant-power range (Figure 2). This operating range normally ranges from the
base speed to a speed that is about two or
three times the base speed. When at base
speed (full voltage) and the field current is
reduced, the motor increases in speed. In
this region, the power remains constant
as speed increases. The increase in speed
comes at the expense of a reduction in the
torque available to turn the load. Often
Figure 2. Power developed by a DC motor. In the B region the DC motor develops constant
torque and the power varies with speed. In the F1 region power remains constant and
torque varies. In the F2 region both power and torque varies.
this region is labeled CP/VT for constant
power/variable torque.
The take up rolls at the end of a paper
machine operate using this field-weakening range. Paper comes off the machine at
a fixed speed. When a new roll is started,
the load on the spindle is the lightest (no
paper), but must rotate fastest because it
is at its smallest diameter. At this point,
the DC motor is in its full field-weakened
mode - torque is at a minimum but speed
is at its greatest. As the roll fills with
paper, it requires more torque to turn the
spindle - the load is increasing. The paper
comes off the machine at a fixed speed as the paper roll builds, the roll diameter
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Energy / Motors
increases, and the spindle needs to turn slower to keep the roll’s
linear surface speed the same as the paper machine. When operating in the field-weakening range, the field is strengthened
as the roll builds, which increases torque and decreases spindle
speed. In the paper industry, DC motors were used on more or
less all of the machines that did some type of work with paper
rolls. It was the field-weakening characteristic that allowed this
to be the case.
The third operating range is an extension of the field-weakening range. This extended field-weakening range ranges from
about four to five times the base speed. As the field is further
weakened for even greater speed, it gets more difficult for the
current to move between the brush and the commutator. If too
much current is flowing, there’s an excess of sparking at the
bush-commutator junction, which damages both components.
Damage can be prevented at these higher speeds by limiting the
current flowing to the brushes. This region is defined as a third
area because now both power and torque are dependent on
speed. Often, this region is labeled VP/VT for variable power/
variable torque.
The application to which this third operating range is applied is a harbor crane that unloads containers from a ship. As
anyone that was in the Navy knows, ships are built to be at sea.
A cargo vessel tied to a pier isn’t making money. As the harbor
crane is picking up the container and lifting it out of the hold,
the DC motor is operating in the first region, which allows full
torque from zero to base speed. Once the container is placed
on the pier and off the hook, the torque needed to lift and get
For a given power,
a DC motor is smaller than
an AC induction motor.
the hook back into the hold for the next lift is a fraction of the
lifting torque. During this time, the DC motor operates in the
third region, cutting the cycle time between lifts to a minimum.
The quicker the hook returns to the hold, the more containers
that can be unloaded (or loaded) in a given time period and the
quicker the ship gets back to making money.
Traditionally, DC motors have had a smaller power density
then the conventional induction motor. That is to say, for a
given power, the physical size of the DC motor is smaller than
the physical size of an equivalent AC induction motor. Smaller
is better, and when thinking about footprint, traditionally DC
has a smaller one. This also is true for the DC converter as
compared to an AC inverter. An AC inverter normally needs
two bridges - one to perform a rectification and another to do
the inversion to the needed frequency. The DC converter needs
only a rectification bridge and is, therefore, smaller in size, has
less heat losses, and is less complex.
A smaller motor will have a smaller rotor. A smaller rotor
means less inertia. DC motors are used in applications with
30
more resources at www.plantservices.com
TOPICSEARCH
Brush life “Brush life in DC motors”
“Speed and torque control for
DC speed/torque DC motors”
Dynamic balancing “Does your machinery have
the shakes?”
Motors 101 “Back to basics”
“Health care for a motor-drive system”
Motor PdM Rewinds “Rethink motor repair/replace
decisions”
Refurbished motors “Bring them back”
For more, search www.PlantServices.com using
the keywords commutator, inverter and torque.
an operating cycle that includes acceleration and deceleration.
With less rotor inertia, it takes less time and power to accelerate or decelerate. This allows for quicker reversals, shorter cycle
times, and faster production.
Because of the potential to have a high power density, DC
motors can push well into the 2,000 hp, 3,000 hp, 4,000 hp, and
greater ranges. Standard low-voltage induction motor power
ranges end around 800 hp, 1,000 hp, or 1,200 hp. If an application requires both more power and an AC induction motor, the
voltage jumps into the medium-voltage ranges of 2,300 V or
4,160 V, and even in the high-voltage range of 11 kV. Having a
facility with these voltages requires a different level of equipment capabilities and a knowledge and skill level not found in
the average trade electrician.
Current state of the technology
Getting back to the original question: DC motors, why
are they still used? There are two reasons. The first can be
summed up in two words: installed base. Let’s remember
that the DC motor was the primary variable-speed shaftturning device since 1888. When AC inverters and AC
motors started to replace DC in machines can be debated,
so let’s put a stake in the ground and call it 1987. For almost
100 years, the industry was using one electrical technology to get a variable-speed shaft. It takes a good number of
acres of ocean to get an aircraft carrier running at a full bell
turned around and headed in the other direction.
Engineers, machine builders, and maintenance staffs had
and have knowledge of DC. DC converters are simpler in
design than AC inverters, lower in cost, and easier to repair.
DC motors can be repaired repeatedly. If a piece of machinery
is powered by a DC converter and motor, and if either one
should fail, it’s easier (and cheaper) to replace the failed item
then to convert the machine to AC. If a plant has 10 machines
using DC and wants to order an 11th, there’ll be a strong bias to
purchase what has worked before.
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_28_32_Motor.indd 30
1/28/10 11:53 AM
Scrap Your Energy-Hogging Motors
Did you know that a motor’s initial purchase price
represents only 2% of its total lifetime cost?
A motor’s power usage represents almost 98% of its total lifetime cost. And as energy costs continue
to rise, energy-hogging motors will cost you more and more. The solution? Invest in a NEMA Premium®
motor. A relatively small upfront investment will not only pay back quickly, it will also continue to pay
dividends in energy savings for years and years to come. The savings are so significant, it can be worthwhile
to replace fully serviceable standard efficiency motors. Also, premium efficiency motors are generally
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reduced downtime.
Eliminate waste today. Call Applied Industrial Technologies at
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www.Applied.com/motormanagement
PS1002_FPA.indd 31
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Energy / Motors
There are motor companies that continue
to invest in developing the technology.
of operation without a maintenance
shutdown. DC motors can be purchased
with brush wear sensors, which warn
that a brush is worn down to its lowest
level and requires changing. Brush wear
sensors often prevent commutator damage from a worn brush being left in too
long and resulting in costly repairs.
During past several years, DC motor manufacturers’ ongoing R&D has
concentrated on redesigning the most
maintenance-intensive section of the
DC motor, which is the commutator
and brushes.
As design engineers continue to
increase the power density for a given
frame size, the motor’s commutator
gets smaller. As the circumference of
the commutator shrinks, there’s less
brush wear with every turn of the rotor.
Reduced brush wear results in extended
intervals between brush changes. Engineers also have redesigned brush blocks,
pressure fingers, and springs to allow for
longer brushes. With longer brushes, the
interval between brush changes extends
further, providing for longer periods
Active research and development
With the DC motor being one of the
oldest technologies, you’d think R&D
has ended. Many motor companies
continue to offer their older designs
and there are some that have dropped
the product completely. But, there are
motor companies that continue to invest
in developing the technology. Using
software modeling tools, engineers can
Innovative technology in the Fixturlaser XA and GO
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Innovations like over-sized
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machine made during the
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Alignments usually can be
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intended AND unintended
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between. Now that’s fast.
Contact VibrAlign today to see how fast alignment can be.
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©2010 Vibralign, Inc.
32
get a better understanding of both the
magnetic flux and thermal flows in the
motor laminations. Companies with
active R&D programs are incorporating
developments in insulating materials
into their designs. Slight changes in
lamination geometries, metallurgy, and
insulating materials allow for increased
power density and smaller motors.
Companies with active R&D also are
helping to reduce maintenance costs by
extending brush life. This can be done by
designing smaller commutators, lengthening the brushes, adding brush wear
sensors, and making it easier to replace
brushes. Studying the brush/commutator junction is a never ending activity.
There are groups using the latest sensor
and control technology to determine
what is the best environment (temperature, humidity, pressures) that leads to
optimum junction performance. They’re
also asking what can be done to ensure
the junction environment is optimum at
the locations and ambient environments
in which the motor operates.
Everyone has heard the story that in
1899, the head of the U.S. Patent Office
sent his resignation to President McKinley because, he said, “Everything that
could be invented has been invented.”
This turned out to be untrue and so is
the tale that DC motors are no longer
being used and no one is investing in
research and development. The applications available for the DC motor are
fewer than in the past. However, the operational characteristics of higher power
density, low inertia, and higher speed
ranges continue to make the DC motor
the preferred choice for many machine
builders. Also, the magnitudes of the installed and knowledge bases cause users
to request DC motors as prime movers
even on new equipment.
Bob Simon M.Sc., P.E. is a DC motor
specialist at ABB in New Berlin, Wisc.
Contact him at bob.simon@us.abb.com
and (262) 785-8592
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_28_32_Motor.indd 32
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CATEGORY / TOPIC
Green roofing is thought to be a relatively new idea, but in
fact it has existed since ancient times. Records show that ancient Mesopotamians installed gardens on their stone-stepped
towers, called ziggurats, as early as 600 B.C. A Benedictine
abbey with rooftop gardens was built in France in the 13th century. In Europe, sod roofs have been used as protection against
the weather for centuries. Rockefeller Center in New York had
five rooftop gardens installed in 1936.
While there have been examples of green roofing throughout
history, it emerged as a viable modern roofing concept about
45 years ago in Germany. It was developed to cope with the
country’s rising energy costs and to reduce the storm water
burden on its aging sewer system. Ultimately, green roofing
spread across the continent before coming to North America.
In the past 10 or 15 years, we’ve become more aware of the
benefits and green roofing has started to gain popularity. Cities
across the country are encouraging green roof development in
the form of mandates or tax benefits.
The number of green roofs has steadily increased during
the past several years. Several large U.S. corporations installed green roofs on their buildings. Ford Motor Co., H.J.
Heinz Co., the Gap, Starbucks, and Quaker Oats are only a
few of the companies taking advantage of green roofs.
REASONS FOR HAVING A GREEN ROOF
Thermal resistance is the key feature. Green roofs can
provide increased thermal resistance all year long. They’re
particularly helpful, however, during summer months or
in warm climates, because they effectively reduce cooling
loads. It’s not unusual for a typical black roof membrane in
those conditions to reach surface temperatures of 175°F. The
vegetation on a green roofing system generally doesn’t reach
a temperature greater than 5° above ambient. This reduction
in roofing system surface temperature translates to a considerable savings in cooling costs.
Then, there’s the matter of storm water retention. Most
traditional roofing systems do little to reduce or retain storm
water during a heavy rain. A typical green roof assembly, on
the other hand, can delay the peak in storm water flow by as
much as four hours. The total run-off can be reduced by 50% to
90%, depending on system design. When the water running off
the roof is combined with storm water from paved areas, it can
present a real burden on the plant’s storm water system. The
typical green roof both reduces the amount of water run-off
and spreads it out over a longer period of time.
A green roof offers environmental benefits. Manufacturing plants located in urban or suburban areas frequently are
guilty of contributing to what has been termed the Urban Heat
Island effect because of large, black parking lots and dark roofs.
While a white roof might reduce the negative effect, a green
roof might actually mitigate the heat island. Green roofs not
only cool and humidify the ambient air, they filter out dust
and smog particles. Plants absorb aerosol contaminants in the
ambient air, leaving the air safer for all of us.
Don’t forget the increase in the roof’s expected usable life.
There’s currently little hard data upon which to predict the
expected life of a green roof over that of more traditional
roofing. However, it’s reasonable to expect the green roof to
WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM FEBRUARY 2010 33
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Sustainability / roofing
last longer. The waterproof membrane
in a green roof assembly is protected
from ultraviolet degradation and
weathering such as rapid temperature
changes, strong winds, hail, and ice.
Like other types of protected
membrane systems, the membrane
temperature in a green roof remains
nearer that of the interior space and
doesn’t fluctuate much. Additionally,
the waterproof membrane is protected
from damage that can occur from
maintenance traffic. Some preliminary
studies indicate that the life expectancy of single-ply membranes might be
increased by as much as 25 years and
the life expectancy of some other types
of roofs might be doubled.
Finally, many local, state, and federal
governmental entities provide incentives
to encourage projects that save energy
and improve the environment.
Green roof types
There are two classifications of green
rooftop: vegetative systems and green
roofs. The two classifications are known
as extensive and intensive, respectively.
The extensive, sometimes called low-
more resources at www.plantservices.com
TOPIC
PMMA roofing
Foam roofing Roof drainage
Roof coatings Lifecycle costing SEARCH
“Old material, new use”
“Spray polyurethane foam roofing”
“A lesson in roof drainage systems”
“More than just a cool roof”
“Lifecycle costing for roofing”
For more, search www.PlantServices.com using the keywords asphalt,
membrane, and roofing.
ing the various components are available. The preassembled modular roofs
are usually extensive in that they contain
limited depth and number of species.
Green roof components
The variations of green roof design
include several components. Sometimes one element carries out multiple
functions. Start with the waterproof
membrane. A number of different
membrane types have been used
successfully in green roof assemblies.
Perhaps the most popular type is a
single-ply membrane because of its
low cost and application simplicity.
Polymer-modified asphalt mem-
barrier. The waterproof membrane must
be protected, primarily during installation of the remainder of the green roof
assembly, but also from possible damage
by root penetration. Depending on the
design, the protection layer can be as
thin as a heavy plastic sheet or copper
foil to as thick as a layer of lightweight
concrete. Frequently, the protective layer
consists of a rigid insulation sheet, usually extruded polystyrene. This not only
provides the necessary protection, but it
provides additional thermal resistance.
Building codes frequently are interpreted to require added insulation, regardless of the thermal resistance of the other
green roofing components.
Most industrial plants prefer vegetative species that are light
in weight and require little or no maintenance.
profile, is designed for good thermal and
storm water retentiveness while having
minimum weight load. These generally have only a few plant types. The
thickness of the growing medium is as
shallow as 2 in. to 4 in. The approximate
load of an extensive roof when wet is 11
lb./sq.ft. to 22 lb./sq.ft.
The intensive, or high-profile, has
many more plant types, sometimes including large plants and trees. The thickness of the growing medium can be 5 in.
or greater. The intensive roof is sometimes referred to as a roof-top garden.
Traditionally, green roofs have been
built in place; each component being
assembled on-site. More recently, preassembled and planted modules contain34
brane systems also are frequently
used in green roof designs and have a
demonstrated history of good service.
Hot-fluid-applied systems also have
proved successful. These hot-fluid
systems include both polymer-modified asphalt and coal-tar. Polymethyl
methacrylate (PMMA) membranes
also demonstrate considerable promise
of providing a quality, long lasting,
waterproof membrane for green roofing. These membranes are installed
directly over a concrete or other solid
structural deck. If the building has a
fluted metal roof, cement or gypsum
board might have to be installed to
support the waterproof membrane.
Roofs need a protective layer/root
You’ll need to handle rain water
with a drainage/water retention layer.
This layer is installed between the
protected roofing membrane and
the growing media. Most green roof
designs include a corrugated plastic
drainage mat that looks like a large
egg carton. This layer also might
include a moisture-retention mat of
non-rotting fibers that are intended
to hold water within the system. The
combination of drainage mat and
water retention mat can provide irrigation by wicking water to the plants
during dry weather.
A filter layer always is located between
the growing media and the drainage
layer. It’s intended to allow water to flow
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_33_35_Roof.indd 34
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to the drainage/water retention mat but prevent the growing media from washing away.
It generally consists of a one or two plies of
a non-woven geotextile. Sometimes the mat
contains copper or another herbicide.
Obviously, the growing media used in
green roofs isn’t normal garden soil. Growing
media is distinguished from normal soil by
its mineral content. Generally, growing media is lighter than normal soil, contains more
nutrients, is more absorbent, and provides a
structural support for the vegetation’s root
system. Frequently, the growing media contains a large fraction of expanded clay, such
as perlite. It’s the expanded clay that reduces
soil density and increases absorbency.
Lastly is the vegetation. Many varieties
of vegetation species can be used in green
roofing. However, most industrial plants
prefer species that are light in weight and
require little or no maintenance. Because
most industrial green roofs are classified
as extensive, the plant species must have a
relatively shallow root system, be droughtand wind-resistant, and handle direct
sunshine. Most industrial plants choose
sedum, a succulent, low-growing ground
cover for the roof. Sedum is generally light
in weight, has a shallow root system, requires almost no maintenance and thrives
in most North American climates.
A green roof saves money on your heating and cooling bills while reducing the
load on your storm water system. A green
roof will last as much as twice as long as a
traditional roof and might qualify for a tax
break. A green roof allows you to boast that
you’re improving the air quality in your
community. These are reasons to consider
replacing your existing roofing with a
green roof system.
An extensive green roof costs between $15
and $35 per sq. ft., which is $10 to $20 more
per unit area than traditional roofing. However, maintenance costs are considerably lower
than those of traditional roofing, particularly
after the plants are established. When considering the total life-cycle cost each roof, the
green roof often is the obvious choice.
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©2009-2010 Fluke Corporation. 3622761A
3622761A_PlantSvcs.indd 1
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1/28/10 11:25 AM
in the trenches
The Case of the Missing Office Manager
Acme learns the downside of expecting people to be on the job
Thinking green was the key element of the recently-
adopted and politically-correct marketing hype that
Acme Chemical Reclamation and Refining used in
its efforts to capture greater market share. That 2007
seemed like the time to act was the motivation for
Acme’s ramping up its operations. The growth
spurt was one reason that Anne Thrackspore,
hired in 1999, was promoted to the position of office manager at one of Acme’s operating divisions.
Considering its euphoric expectations, that move might not
have been the smartest one Acme ever made because Anne was
apparently just plain unlucky. First, she used FMLA leave in
2004 to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. Then, Anne needed additional FMLA leave in 2006 for abdominal surgery. Along the
line, Anne also took leaves for a death in the family and for two
other less-severe illnesses. In a recent performance evaluation,
Kent Golding, the division manager, took note of Anne’s attendance “problem,” but added a note to the dossier indicating that
the situation was improving recently.
In late 2009, however, Acme had to face its struggle with the
economic malaise smothering the country. A rather deflated
management imposed severe budgetary cutbacks that resulted in
nearly 100 employees choosing to leave voluntarily, motivated by
either the leisure of early retirement or the lump-sum cash buyout. But another 30 people needed to be terminated involuntarily.
Acme hired a staffing consultant to identify 40 employees
least suitable for retention or promotion. In a parallel move,
Acme’s HR department made its own evaluation that was based
on employee performance reviews and an assessment of each
employee’s skills, education, and tenure with the company.
These lists were reconciled into a single, 30-person hit list.
Of the three office managers in the division, Anne received
the lowest composite score. Kent terminated Anne at the end
of the workday the list was released. On the morning of the
termination, coincidently, Anne had submitted a request for
additional FMLA leave.
A few weeks later, Anne filed a complaint with the Department of Labor that claimed the termination was in violation of
the FMLA provisions. The DOL bureaucracy needed more than
a year to agree that Acme violated the FLMA. When Acme
refused to accept that verdict, Anne filed suit in a federal court.
How could this situation have been avoided? Should a company consider indications of employee health in its promotion
and retention decisions? Is the need to rely on a consultant hit
36
man an indication of a weak HR department? Would it
be better to raise the ante on buyout amounts when not
enough people leave during the first round?
An attorney says:
An employer should never consider employee
“health” in hiring, promotion, or termination decisions. When hiring, the only relevant inquiry is the
employee’s ability to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.
In the context of a workforce reduction, an employer can
legitimately consider an employee’s attendance. However, an
employee can’t be penalized for using FMLA leave. Whether
Anne succeeds in her suit will depend on how her non-FMLA
absences and job performance compared with other employees
who weren’t part of the workforce reduction.
On the other hand, Anne isn’t going to get much mileage out
of any claim that she was selected for the workforce reduction
because she submitted a request for additional FMLA leave
the morning she was terminated. Acme had to have made its
decision to include Anne in the reduction before she submitted
her request for FMLA leave. This is like the employee who is
terminated and then tells her supervisor that she has been sexually harassed. Courts have been uniformly unimpressed with
retaliation claims in this context.
Using a consultant to help “rightsize” a company doesn’t signal a weak HR department. Often, outside expertise in the form
of consultants or lawyers can help focus an HR department on
the best ways to achieve a smaller workforce while minimizing the legal exposure. In the last analysis, however, only the
employer’s own supervisors and human resource personnel can
identify the best employees to retain in a weakened economy.
Julie Badel, partner, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.
(312) 499-1418 / jbadel@ebglaw.com
A plant engineer says:
People get hired and people get fired. To my knowledge, there’s
not a lifetime warranty on anyone’s job. A company must have
the right to let go anyone in its employ who no longer is seen
as a benefit to the company. I believe this situation could have
been avoided if Anne realized this.
It seems that the last request Anne made for leave had nothing to do with the decision to let her go. The list was already
made. Any company should use the data available, including
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
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Document1.qxd
1/5/2006
7:44 AM
Page 2
Clean, Dry Compressed Air Starts
with The Extractor/Dryer ®
Manufactured by
LA-MAN Corporation
attendance, to determine if employees should be promoted or let go.
Absent employees can’t contribute to company goals.
I believe Acme did the right thing here by having a “second opinion” on the employees that would be terminated. It could have been
left to HR only, but Acme went through the expense and trouble to
get a second opinion on such a serious matter. I don’t see this as a
weakness on HR’s part, but rather Acme going above the call of duty
to ensure it made the best decision in this matter.
I don’t believe it best to raise the ante on buyouts. This only leads
to ill will from those who took the first offer and makes them wish
they had held out for the second “higher” offer. If the company had
enough money to buy out everyone, it would indicate that business
was good and they might need everyone to service their customers.
• Point of Use Compressed Air Filter to
Improve and Extend Equipment Life
• Removes Moisture and
Contaminates to a 5-Micron Rating;
Lower Micron Ratings are Available
• Models with Flow Ranges of 15
SCFM to 2000 SCFM Rated Up To
250psi are Standard
• Differential Pressure Gauge
Built In to Indicate Required
Maintenance
• Mounting Hardware
Included for Easy Installation
• Weep Drain is Standard;
Float Drain or Electronic
Drain Valves Optional
Jeffrey L. Strasser, Bacova Guild
(540) 863-2656 / Strasser.Jeff@bacova.com
AN ACADEMICIAN SAYS:
FMLA allows employees to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave, with some
restrictions, for family or medical problems. An employee can be
THIS IS LIKE THE EMPLOYEE WHO IS TERMINATED AND THEN TELLS HER SUPERVISOR
THAT SHE HAS BEEN SEXUALLY HARASSED.
terminated while on leave, however (a big however), the termination
can’t be related to FMLA leave. Suppose while on leave it was discovered that an employee is defrauding the company. Such employees
can be terminated because they would have been terminated if the
discovery was made while the employee was on active duty.
The same rules hold for downsizing. If the employee was downsized while on leave, and would have been downsized anyway, that
doesn’t violate the FMLA rules. But, the burden of proof is on the
employer to demonstrate that the termination isn’t related to the
FMLA leave. I guess the DOL thought that a factor in Anne’s termination was her poor attendance because of FMLA leaves. Assuming
this is true, Acme needs to revise its criteria for deciding who goes.
Is relying on a consultant indicative of a weak HR department? No,
it’s probably more indicative of a lean HR department. Downsizing
involves work restructuring, new job descriptions, changes in pay, and
deciding who stays and who goes. It’s a lot of work, and extra help is
often needed, particularly from people who have done this before.
Do you increase the second round ante for buyouts if an insufficient number of people leave on the first round? Usually not, because
it would cause hard feelings among the people who took the first
one. Extend the deadline date, or maybe add something the first
round people would also get, but don’t raise the offer.
Professor Homer H. Johnson, Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago
(312) 915-6682 / hjohnso@luc.edu
“The Safety Gate Company”
www.safetygate.com/psv • 1-800-962-6111
WWW.PLANTSERVICES.COM FEBRUARY 2010 37
PS1002_36_37_Trenches.indd 37
1/28/10 11:28 AM
PRODUCT exclusive
The Devil Is in the Details
New compressor line raises the bar on reliability, efficiency, and productivity
Ingersoll Rand has been
producing compressed air
equipment for more than
a century, so when it set its
priorities for a new line of
contact-cooled rotary screw
compressors, it could have
relied solely on its internal expertise. Instead, it
started with its customers.
“We performed an extensive voice-of-the-customer
program with customers,
distributors, and technicians, asking them what they value and
what needs improvement,” says Ron Ratell, global category
manager, velocity air compressors, Ingersoll Rand. “The
results focused us on three drivers: reliability, efficiency, and
productivity.”
“We learned customers’ key value drivers and pain points,
and that’s where we focused our efforts by aligning the subsystem engineering teams,” says Vipul Mistry, P.E., marketing manager, Ingersoll Rand.
The views of those who pay for the electric power, perform
the maintenance, work in the same room and, above all, rely
on the output of their compressors, can be seen when you
look at every detail of the new line.
For example, “Customers told us they need 110 psi to get 90
psi at their production, so instead of the usual 100-psi machine,
we optimized them at 110 psi,” says Robert Horneman, portfolio manager, industrial air solutions at Ingersoll Rand. “Now, if
the customer needs 110 psi, they don’t have to buy 125-psi units,
which have less flow than the 110 psi models.”
Efficiencies are gained in many ways, starting with IE3
NEMA Premium Efficiency motors. Motors that meet this
standard will be required by law starting in January, 2011, and
Ingersoll Rand is including them as standard on the new fixedspeed machines. Hybrid permanent-magnet variable-speed
packages already meet the IE3 requirements.
The company’s V-Shield technology includes stainless
steel pipes, long-life metal-flex hoses, and elastomeric seals
for repeatable, leak-free connections. “We streamlined
airflows and cut pressure, drop for more air per horsepower.
This has provided 1% to 3% improvement on specific power
38
Ingersoll Rand’s R-Series offers
customer focused innovations in
condition monitoring, serviceability,
and air quality.
on 60-Hz models, more on 50
Hz,” says Ratell. Progressive
Adaptive Control (PAC) protection continuously monitors
key operating variables and
adapts to prevent unexpected
downtime. It scans and adjusts
operating variables in response
to changes in filtration, ensures
peak performance through
real-time electronic maintenance
indicators, and optimizes energy consumption.
“The PAC protection avoids shutdowns by adapting the compressor to operating conditions,” says Horneman. “If a separator filter doesn’t get changed when it needs it, the controller will
reduce the output pressure on fixed-speed machines and output
flow on variable-speed machines rather than shutting down.”
This ensures that the customer’s production stays operational
while they schedule the maintenance.
Air and coolant heat exchangers are separated in a sequential cooling system, which prevents having to specify an
oversized drier. “Output air temperatures as much as 15°F
above ambient are considered acceptable, but every 20°F
doubles the water content,” says Horneman. “We can go as
low as a 4°F rise, which would provide 104°F discharge air
on a 100°F day. And we rate the units at 115°F, 40% humidity so customers can legitimately size their driers.”
Independently-mounted, free-floating air and coolant
heat exchangers extend life by reducing thermal stresses,
and their smaller size makes them easier to service. “That reduces downtime,” says Horneman. “All serviceable items are
accessible from one side. Hinged doors open fully and can
be lifted off. Drain points are on the bottoms of the airend
and cooler, with easy access.
“The devil is in the details, and we left no details untouched.”
The initial release is for 90 kW and 110 kW (125 hp and 150
hp) single-stage fixed and variable-speed units, with two-stage
units coming later this year, followed by other sizes.
For more information, see www.ingersollrandproducts.com.
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_38_Exclusive.indd 38
1/28/10 11:29 AM
mro marketplace
Pressure Strain and Force Handbook
OMEGA’s New Pressure, Strain, and Force
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go to www.omega.com/literature/pressure9/.
Oil Skimming Applications
Sourcebook
Abanaki’s 28-page handbook offers application notes on 25 real-world implementations
of oil skimming, the lowest cost way to
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We publish a broad range of products featuring content in Electrical, Construction,
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Systems, Rigging and Lifting Principles,
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American Technical Publishers
Gorman-Rupp’s products include self–priming centrifugal pumps, standard centrifugals
pumps, submersible pumps, trash pumps,
priming assisted pumps and rotary gear
pumps. A complete line of packaged lift stations and booster stations that include pumps,
motors, controls, piping, accessories and
enclosures are also available. Call (419) 7551011 or visit www.GRpumps.com.
The Gorman-Rupp Company
Stainless Steel Pickling Gel
New rotary screw air compressors
Easy to use and store, Wonder Gel
safely cleans the toughest slag, weld
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Bradford Derustit Corp.
Ingersoll Rand’s NEW R-Series 90-160
kW / 125-200hp contact cooled rotary
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that ensure the highest levels of reliability, efficiency and productivity available today. Visit www.ingersollrandproducts.com.
Ingersoll Rand
Electric Heaters, Controls and Sensors
Low-cost color display shaft alignment
Tempco’s 864-page 35th Anniversary catalog
offers electric heaters, temperature sensors,
TEC Temperature controls, turnkey process
heating systems and related accessory Items.
New products include PPR-1800 video graphic
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have Tempco custom design and manufacture
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Tempco Electric Heater Corp.
Avoid costly downtime with new Low-cost
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LUDECA, INC.
www.PLANTSERVICES.com February 2010 39
PS1002_39_AdLits.indd 39
1/28/10 11:30 AM
CLASSIFIEDS
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
PERFORMANCE | RELIABILIT Y | EFFICIENCY | ASSE T MANAGEMENT
SALES OFFICES
ELIMINATE
Valve Cavitation
Custom REPRINts
• Eliminate valve cavitation by
placing one or more diffusers
downstream of the valve.
• Noise and pipe vibration will
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• Valve’s first costs and mainte
nance burden will also be reduced.
RepRints aRe ideal foR:
n New Product Announcements
n Sales Aid For Your Field Force
n PR Materials & Media Kits
n Direct Mail Enclosures
n Customer & Prospect
Communications/Presentations
n Trade Shows/Promotional Events
n Conferences & Speaking Engagements
n Recruitment & Training Packages
MIKE BRENNER, GROUP PUBLISHER
AR, AZ, Northern CA, CO, ID, IL, MN,
MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT,
WA, WI, WY
Phone: (630) 467-1300, ext. 487
Fax: (630) 467-1120
e-mail: mbrenner@putman.net
JERRY BURNS, DISTRICT MANAGER
AL, Southern CA, CT, DE, FL, GA, LA,
ME, MD, MA, MS, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA,
RI, SC, TX, VT, VA, DC, WV
Phone: (630) 467-1300, ext. 427
Fax: (630) 467-1120
e-mail: jburns@putman.net
MICHAEL CONNAUGHTON,
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
IA, IN, KS, KY, MI, MO, OH, TN, Canada,
Literature Reviews, Inside Print and
Digital Sales
For additional information, please contact Foster Printing Service,
the official reprint provider for Plant Services.
Call 866.879.9144 or
sales@fosterprinting.com
Place a Classified Ad!
725 Parkview Cir,
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Contact Polly at
(630) 467-1300, ext. 396
Phone 847-439-2303
rcronfel@comcast.net www.cuservices.net
NORM KLIEMAN,
INSIDE SALES MANAGER
Digital Sales
Phone: (630) 467-1300, ext. 344
Fax: (630) 467-1120
e-mail: nklieman@putman.net
C: 60
M: 0
Y: 100
K: 28
PMS 370 C
REPRINTS
FOSTER REPRINTS, (866) 879-9144
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COMPANY
40
POLLY DICKSON,
INSIDE SALES MANAGER
Classifieds
Phone: (630) 467-1300, ext. 396
Fax: (630) 364-4175
e-mail: pdickson@putman.net
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
(888) 644-1803 or (847) 559-7360
ADVERTISER INDEX
Applied Industrial Technologies
Atlas Copco Compressors . . . .
AutomationDirect.com . . . . . .
Azima DLI Engineering . . . . . .
Baker Instrument Company . . .
Baldor Electric Co. . . . . . . . . .
Clayton Industries . . . . . . . . .
Donaldson Company, Inc. Torit
Eventure Events . . . . . . . . . . .
EXAIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
FabEnCo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fluke Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
GE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gorman-Rupp . . . . . . . . . . . .
IFS North America . . . . . . . . .
Ingersoll Rand . . . . . . . . . . . .
Kaeser Compressors . . . . . . . .
La-Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Lubriplate Lubricants . . . . . . .
Ludeca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VibrAlign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WD-40 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Phone: (513) 543-6432
Fax: (630) 467-1120
e-mail: mconnaughton@putman.net
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13
PUTMAN MEDIA, INC.
555 W. Pierce Rd., Ste. 301,
Itasca, IL 60143
Phone: (630) 467-1300,
Fax: (630) 467-1120
PLANT SERVICES (ISSN 0199-8013) is published monthly
by Putman Media, Inc., 555 West Pierce Road, Suite 301,
Itasca, IL 60143. Phone (630) 467-1300, Fax (847) 2914816. Periodicals Postage paid at Itasca, IL and additional
mailing offices. Canada Post International Publications
Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40028661. Canadian
Mail Distributor Information: Frontier/BWI,PO Box 1051,
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CHEMICAL PROCESSING, CONTROL, CONTROL DESIGN,
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41FOR PHARMACEUTICAL PROFESSIONALS
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energy expert
peter garforth
Politics vs. Common Sense
The U.S. Army’s master planning goes beyond geographic or political constraints
Last week I spoke at a workshop organized by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. The theme of the workshop was the
challenge of introducing long-term energy master planning for
their bases to achieve breakthrough levels of energy efficiency,
energy security, and greenhouse gas reductions. The Army has
recognized that long-term energy master planning spanning
decades ahead is essential if their sites are to approach the elusive target of net-zero energy, combined with very high levels of
supply security and low operating costs.
Sites that have rigorously applied
the loading order typically use
at most half the energy.
It’s interesting to look at the Army’s challenge a little deeper,
as it’s similar to that faced by large industrial complexes and
communities in general. The most obvious question is, why on
earth is a military force concerned about energy efficiency to
this degree? The most important answers are supply security
and cost. The less energy a garrison uses, the easier it is to
develop redundant supply strategies to ensure security. Closely
associated with efficiency is the need to adopt strategies that
reduce seasonal variations and energy peaks, thereby reducing
distribution and generation investments.
The Army is familiar with energy practices around the
world. The workshop regularly reminded that prioritizing
using the Loading Order, or Trias Energetica (www.triasenergetica.com) as it is called in Europe, should drive any good
Energy Master Plan. These priorities are to first, maximize
efficiency; second, maximize heat recovery and cogeneration; third, maximize the viable use of renewables; and
fourth, optimize investments between the site and the grid.
Compared to others, large sites that have applied the
loading order rigorously over many years typically use at
most half the energy, generate proportionally even less
greenhouse gases, and are lower cost, more reliable, and
more flexible. This has been known for decades. So, why do
we see this implemented so rarely? In all too many cases, it’s
because politics trumps common sense.
The U.S. Army, hardly a bastion of wooly liberalism,
clearly recognizes the value of having energy common sense
serve as the driver. It’s challenging suppliers to develop long42
term integrated energy solutions using best practices from
around the world. It was no accident that a number of the
participants at the workshop were from various European
countries, including the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Germany. The picture they painted of seamless integration between very high-efficiency buildings and other efficiencies,
district energy, cogeneration, renewables, and peak reductions on the utility grids is one the Army is already moving
towards implementing in the United States and elsewhere.
Success means not only developing multi-decade energy
master plans; it also means having the discipline to follow them. Developing the plans is still more of an art than
a science, with a relatively small number of practitioners
worldwide. The Corps of Engineers is developing tools and
frameworks to make this a more systematic, repeatable
process; an exercise that will have a value well beyond their
own facilities. These will be the road maps that will set the
criteria for all renovations, new construction, energy supply,
and other procurements long into the future.
Also revealing at this workshop was the range of technologies being discussed as components of highly efficient
garrisons. Passive house construction techniques result in
buildings ready to be hooked into energy systems that collectively will approach a net-zero energy footprint for the
site as a whole. Efficient collection, distribution, and use of
heat in all its various forms was highlighted with advanced
district energy systems, solar thermal collectors, radiant
heating cooling techniques, cogeneration, and integration of
absorption cooling into thermal systems. Tying everything
together with sophisticated smart metering and flexible
control technology is increasingly required.
The U.S. Army is to be congratulated on embracing a
commonsense approach to energy management. Probably the biggest single point is the recognition that secure,
reliable, low-cost, clean, and flexible energy solutions make
sense for its mission and have no political color. Army engineers also are to be congratulated in recognizing that these
results can’t be achieved with individual projects, but will be
the results of systematic, well planned, integrated solutions
implemented over many years. These are lessons all energy
managers should take to heart.
Peter Garforth is principal of Garforth International LLC, Toledo,
Ohio. He can be reached at peter@garforthint.com.
February 2010 www.PLANTSERVICES.com
PS1002_42_Energy.indd 42
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