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CALL US 24/7 ON 01902 608259

Condition Monitoring

With a wealth of experience covering 40 years of supporting customers, we at Mercia  pride ourselves in being able to offer a single point contact for all your condition monitoring services and needs. 

What is condition based monitoring? 

Condition monitoring (CM) is the process of monitoring a parameter of conditions in machinery (vibration, temperature, etc.), in order to identify a significant change which is indicative of a developing fault.

This process is a major component of predictive maintenance. The use and method of conditional monitoring allows maintenance activities to be optimised, scheduled, or other actions to be taken to avoid equipment failure and minimise consequences.

There are two outcomes/eventualities of any plant asset or system, no matter what the application,  namely wear and tear.

Condition based monitoring allows us to give our customers a unique insight into  the real time condition of their machines so that strategic decisions can be taken in advance of failure thereby minimising unplanned downtime and reducing the risk of catastrophic failure. 
It therefore allows us to give our customers benefits such as increased life span of machineries, sufficient lead- time for maintenance planning/parts, prioritisation of maintenance tasks, thus maximising production availability by increasing  machine reliability/availability. Lower inventory investment and maintenance cost are natural by-products of this process that add value for our  customers. 

Condition monitoring techniques are normally used on rotating equipment and other machinery such as pumps, electric motors/generators,  internal combustion engines and presses.
 

  • Vibration analysis - Vibration analysis inspections help detect many serious problems at a very early stage of development; this allows us to give detailed early indication reports to enable our customers to undertake remedial work at a time that is better suited to them, to not only minimise downtime, but also to reduce risk to the asset itself. Often avoiding unplanned events by earlier intervention. 
 
  • Thermography - A thermal imaging survey allows for the identification of poor connections, overloaded circuits, failing components, bearing faults or imbalanced loads. Such developing faults, if left undetected and managed will result in premature failure and increased un-planned plant downtime and loss of production. We also analyse current/load readings and provide our clients with a fully comprehensive report to enable the correct action to be taken. 
 
  • Laser Alignment - Laser alignment minimises any angular or offset alignment problems. Using the latest equipment, our highly skilled engineers can obtain results of best condition alignment, with detailed reports showing final results. 
 
  • On-site, in-situ Balancing - Our skilled engineers inspect, analyse and provide dynamic and static balancing your rotating machinery using the latest computerised instruments. On-site balancing reduces downtime by not having to remove the generator/motor and often allows any additional issues to be highlighted and rectified. 
 
  • Oil and Lubrication analysis - Oil and Lubrication analysis is used to identify both the operating conditions of a machine and its previous experience. Analysing the lubricant condition and identifying any improvements enables us to advise or to create bespoke corrections and prevention plans. Ongoing maintenance can therefore be better tailored to provide best machine condition and add value. In addition, we carry out routine tests that analyse moisture content, breakdown voltage value and simple dielectric properties of the oil, that enables identification of degradation and/or contamination that can adversely influence wear and damage. 

How Lifting equipment can benefit from condition monitoring

Cranes, gantries, and hoists play key roles in the industrial sector by moving supplies, subassemblies, and finished products around the production floor. In other applications such as dockside cranes, the process of moving loads itself becomes the saleable service. In either case, failure impacts profitability.

Their critical nature to operations and complexity to repair, often requiring specialized labour and parts, makes crane or hoist condition monitoring a necessary component of successful predictive maintenance programs.

Multiple factors make cranes, gantries, and hoists vulnerable to failure. The first is the sheer number of AC/DC induction motors necessary to drive the equipment. For gantries, they include the trolley motor for moving the load along the trolley, the drive motor for moving the trolley up and down the tracks, and the hoist motor for moving the load once it arrives at the appropriate point. Cranes also require multiple motors, including motors to swing the boom, motors to move the load out along the length of the boom, and motors to raise and lower the load. If any one of these fails, operations will be stopped.

Cranes, gantries, and hoists tend to operate at high duty cycles and in harsh environments. Dockside cranes, for example, are constantly exposed to the saltwater environment, as well as potential weather extremes. Factory-floor gantries may be in contact with corrosive chemicals, heat, dust, and high shock loads.

crane motors are often located in remote or difficult to reach locations making route-based manual vibration monitoring challenging to conduct and difficult to maintain a sustained program. Their remote nature also adds complexity to repairs, which may require additional lifts or cranes to replace large AC motors in the case of overhead or dockside cranes.

All of these conditions make it important to perform regular crane, hoist, or gantry condition monitoring to keep equipment functional and avoid potentially catastrophic downtime. With crane, gantry, and hoist motor vibration analysis, you can identify issues before they occur and prevent system failure.
 
 

 

Our Range Of Services

Mercia service & support begins with a visit from one of our qualified engineers who will assess your individual site/equipment needs.
Solutions will be tailored to suit your operational requirements.

We offer a wide comprehensive range of services including; design, manufacturing, maintenance, inspection, refurbishment, diagnostics and testing of existing electrical installations & rotating machine assets– all to the applicable standards and safety regulations.

Why not let Mercia enhance the standard of your operation via supply of individually tailored solutions designed to protect your building services, lifting and machine assets? view all services >

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